Page 66 - ArchDC_Summer 2020

Reception area.

recognized the slatted ceiling and broad staircases left
over from its retail past.
HOK’s current chairman and CEO, Bill Hellmuth,
FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, is also a design principal in
the DC office, which he knew was due for a renovation.
To oversee the project, he called on Stephen Beacham,
AIA, IIDA, principal and director of design, interiors,
who had joined HOK in its new Philadelphia branch
in 2015 and already led the redesign of that studio
space and a smaller one in Short Hills, New Jersey.
Before moving to DC, Beacham had been living in New
York for several years working on a major project at
LaGuardia Airport.
Designing a space for one’s own architectural
colleagues—with their competing ideas, tastes, and
philosophies—would be challenging under any
circumstances, but Beacham felt an even greater sense
of responsibility in this case. “My client was none
Entrance to the HOK studio.
64 INDUSTRIAL CHIC