Cris in India during his world tour.
A: When I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, I originally went to work for S.O.M. in Chicago. After about five years in four different jobs, I decided that the time was perfect to take some time off and travel the world – I was 28, not married and did not have a house. I sold my car, bought a backpack, put my belongings in storage and headed off around the world. I bought the cheapest tickets I could find (to Luxembourg on Icelandic Air). Overall, I spent about a year and a half backpacking all around the world, staying in hostels and experiencing the different cultures. A college friend and I spent three months in Italy exploring all the architecture of the country – he got homesick, proposed to his girlfriend, and went home. I continued on the tour, spending six months on the Indian subcontinent. The trip was a fantastic opportunity to learn about different cultures, how to get out of difficult situations, and how to deal with different people. The lessons learned have served me well throughout my career.
Cris in Greece in 2008
Q: What are some of your favorite projects?
A: HOK won a 5-year IDIQ contract for the State Department in the mid 1990’s. This contract brought in all sorts of interesting international work, one of the first projects of which was an apartment building renovation in Brasilia, Brazil.
Right after the breakup of the Soviet Union, I was assigned to work on an embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In those days you could not fly to Kyrgyzstan (we flew into Kazakhstan and then crossed to Bishkek by land), and you had to pay for everything in cash. The best part of this was that the largest denomination bill available was worth about 50 cents. I clearly remember paying for dinner one night with a giant bag of cash. We also did an embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Note: Cris has been to four of the seven “Stans” and was able to promptly and correctly identify them when asked – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Working in the area was fascinating. I did not expect the cities to be what they were: 1950s Soviet design, almost all Brutalist architecture, and almost all in poor repair. The streets, however, were incredibly wide and had large trees and giant squares with large statues (mostly of Lenin and Stalin).
I’ve also been fortunate to travel extensively in Africa, including rebuilding embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These projects were as a result of the embassy bombings and we were driven around in armored cars with bulletproof glass nearly two inches thick. It was surreal! Despite the security issues in the cities, we were able to do a fantastic safari on a game preserve in southern Kenya and, due to the terrorist scare, had the hotel all to ourselves!
A little closer to home, I got to work on the Wedge 1 renovation of the Pentagon (joint venture with HSMM). The entire Pentagon is being renovated and HOK was selected for the work on the first wedge. We designed the project a number of times before it was actually constructed, and one of the redesigns was for building hardening following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Two months before the project construction was complete, a Boeing 757 airplane struck the Pentagon as part of the 9/11 attacks. The plane struck the pentagon right at the seam between Wedges 1 and 2 – a very lucky strike for the Pentagon. Due to renovations, these wedges were largely unoccupied, and the hardening of Wedge 1 prevented the plane from demolishing the building. The attack hit very close to home: there were HOK people in the building that day, but fortunately none were injured.
We were then contracted to rebuild the damaged part of the building – in a ten month period, we were able to accomplish three years of work. It was a challenging project that we completed in cooperation with RTKL. I’ll never forget the first of our daily 6 am meetings: it was the first day they opened the area and you could smell the fumes from the fire and see the destruction and large American flag spotlighted by floodlights. I remember Donald Rumsfeld coming to the site frequently to give pep talks. Whether you like him or not – he was good at the pep talks!
Q: Where do you see yourself and HOK in the future?
A: At HOK you don’t get pigeonholed (as long as you are successful). I truly like the interesting projects and the good corporate culture. I enjoy my role as a project manager: I like the big picture of project management and I understand the process from beginning to end. My goals are to continue doing great projects that make clients happy, creating designs that we are proud of, and, of course, making money for the business.
Green is the future of architecture, and HOK is certainly at the forefront of the movement. We are changing the way the world thinks about architecture and design.
I’m also seeing a couple of trends in the industry in general. One is firms being purchased by large conglomerates (such as RTKL being purchased by Arcadis NV). Thus far HOK has not shown interest in being purchased. The other trend is the movement toward design/build work versus design/bid/build. This is a good thing for some project types because it can result in lower project costs; however, it can also be a bad thing. Design/build work can weaken the relationship between the architect and the owner – which can result in less creative design and lower quality.
Q: What advice would you give to young architects?
A: My son is currently studying architecture at Washington University, so I have some experience giving advice to students. Architecture is a great profession, but there are some key things to remember: develop a thick skin, go with the flow, learn the profession, get into green design, don’t be driven by money, understand why clients/supervisors do not like certain things, and definitely learn not to “take it personally.”
In terms of becoming a specialist (such as a hospital designer), or working as a generalist, there are pros and cons to both. Specialists tend to earn a bit more money, but they are more vulnerable in times of recession, if their area of expertise is affected. Generalists get a variety of experiences, and are more flexible, which can help you in a recession.
Another important thought is not to move around too much, but not to be afraid to make the big move when the timing is right.
Many thanks to Cris for spending so much time sharing his fascinating tales with me. If you missed previous “5 Questions,” check out Esther Simon, Brad Crown, Katie Dufresne, Tim O’Connell, and Samson Cheng.
