The Star Luxury Apartments receives Honor Award from AIA Memphis
HBG Design received the AIA Honor Award from the AIA Memphis Chapter for the restoration and revitalization of The Star Luxury Apartments at the Historic Texaco Building in downtown Houston, Texas. To find out more about the project and project team, you can view the award submittal at AIA Memphis.
Designers undertook a vigorous restoration and revitalization effort to convert a long-abandoned, century-old landmark headquarters as a stunning 17-story mixed-use multi-family tower, reconnecting it to the urban fabric as a focal point for downtown Houston’s live-work-play vision.
After oil giant Texaco moved out of its downtown Houston location in 1989, the historic, century-old office building stood vacant for more than twenty years waiting for its next purpose. Engaged by a local developer with plans to reshape the desolate building into a luxury apartment community, designers had a large task ahead of them. Originally designed in Renaissance Revival style with Beaux-Arts accents, The Star incorporates an initial, 13-story structure that opened in 1915, with an addition added in 1938 and a 16-story addition added in 1958. Though mostly gutted over its 30 years of non-use, sitting in dilapidated condition in the heart of central downtown, many historically-significant features were judged to be restorable. Designers worked hand-in-hand with historic regulatory agencies through extensive approval processes in the preservation and sourcing of similar materials to match the original design intent of the building. Creative design by the architects altered the building layout from an office floor plate to apartment units. To accommodate the new use, the team designed an L-shaped 66,000 square foot addition to the back side of the historic building, increasing the overall dimension of the upper floors. This solution was able to increase density and create more efficient use of the land, while maintaining historic integrity.
HBG Design named a Rising Giant by Interior Design Magazine
HBG Design's interior design team has been named a Rising Giant in the 2020 ID Rising Giants list by Interior Design Magazine. To see the full list visit Interior Design Magazine.
HBG Design Named Top Workplace for 6th Consecutive Year
HBG Design has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2020 honor by The Commercial Appeal. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage, LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 drivers of engaged cultures that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.
This year HBG Design was also recognized as THE top workplace for outstanding benefits. This is the second time HBG has been singled out for the strength of the firm's benefits with this special Top Workplace award.
"To be awarded this honor by you – our employees – for the sixth time in a row speaks volumes about the strength of our culture and our future," said Terri Struminger, COO at HBG Design, as she addressed staff at the annual State of the Firm event.
To see more visit The Commercial Appeal.
HBG Design Talks Sportsbook Design in Casino Design Magazine
See full article in Casino Design Magazine.
Sportsbooks are the new hot item in casinos, so how do you design a sportsbook that competes, but also compliments your app?
https://issuu.com/globalgamingbusiness/docs/casino_20style_20magazine_202020/34
Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Shines in Casino Style Magazine
See full article in Casino Style Magazine
https://issuu.com/globalgamingbusiness/docs/casino_20style_20magazine_202020/6
HBG Design is the Architect of first new-build Caption by Hyatt
See full article in Memphis Business Journal
Developing a new hotel right now is extremely difficult. But, it's apparently not impossible.
Carlisle LLC CEO Chance Carlisle told the MBJ Oct. 22 he is set to close financing within two weeks and start construction by the end of November on One Beale's second hotel.
He knows that sounds risky, as the global pandemic rages on, but he's bullish on Downtown Memphis and the way a second hotel will complement the rest of One Beale.
"My confidence to start construction on the [second hotel] is a combination of my faith in our partnership with Hyatt, the strength of the [Caption by Hyatt] brand, and the belief by our partners in a resurgence in Downtown," Carlisle said. "Both our lenders and Hyatt strongly believe this will be highly successful."
Caption by Hyatt is a brand new limited-service flag that's largely targeted toward millennials. A property in Los Angeles is being converted into the first one; the Memphis location will be the first new-build property.
"[It's for] someone who appreciates good food and beverage [and] wants to be in the middle of the action, not the closest hotel off of the highway," Carlisle said. "It is a hangout hotel."
Carlisle said the new hotel's guests will benefit greatly from being next door to the full-service Centric — with its rooftop bar and abundance of meeting rooms — while paying less.
With the Centric set to open in March 2021, Carlisle is hoping the Caption will be ready by March 2022 — in time to take reservations for Memphis in May. It is set to contain almost 140 rooms on 10 floors.
HBG Design Named AIA TN Emerging Professionals Friendly Firm
We are excited to announce that we have once again been named one of top firms for Emerging Professionals in the state of Tennessee by AIA TN.
The guiding principals for companies to achieve this accolade include:
Foster Value and Retention of EPs
Providing unique firm cultures and benefits to encourage recruitment of EPs
Providing equitable compensation and benefits
Provide strong professional development for EPs
Mentorship
Encouraging and celebrating licensure
Providing EPs with a broad and diverse experiences in firm practice
Committing to and investing in EPs at all phases of their professional development
Promote EP engagement and leadership in the profession and the community
Providing leadership opportunities to EPs
Encouraging EPs to inform firm culture to transform the practice of architecture for the next generation.
Promoting involvement in the AIA and industry, charitable, and community organizations
For more information visit AIA TN
HBG Design Joins Victor Rocha for The New Normal Weekly Webcast
Join Dike Bacon and Victor Rocha as they discuss Tribal Gaming and The New Normal: The Business of Tribal Gaming During a Pandemic Presented by the National Indian Gaming Association.
See our new insights on navigating Covid-19 in Indian Gaming Magazine
See article in Indian Gaming Magazine
Insights from HBG Design Principal, Dike Bacon:
NAVIGATION: HBG Design has historically been able to navigate through industry challenges in a nimble fashion – and that hasn’t changed with COVID-19. Like many professional services firms around the country, we transitioned both our Memphis and San Diego offices to a work-from-home model in response to COVID-19. We were pro-active with this decision before local government directives required it. Our primary goal was and still is to keep our staff safe and healthy. Fortunately, we had plenty of very sophisticated technological platforms and accessible infrastructure in place to move swiftly and be fully operational in a matter of days.
Regarding our tribal clients, we have been fortunate in that much of our work has continued to progress. A number of our projects have continued through planning and design phases. It seems many clients have proactively decided to continue to advance their projects and get them ready for construction when the timing is right. We also have a number of projects that were in construction pre-COVID-19 and these have continued to progress through the pandemic. A big part of this success is attributed to construction companies that implemented numerous health and safety protocols in order to keep projects on schedule.
DRAWING CUSTOMERS: We have been studying the re-design of a number of the typical resort amenities. One of the most important has been food and beverage. We think that design solutions that respond to spacing requirements and COVID-19 restrictions should be flexible and adaptable as conditions continue to change and improve. This means more modular systems and easily modified seating arrangements that can actually create a feeling of luxury and exclusivity. The temporary re-use of existing conference and meeting space has been in recent discussions. The conference business will come back but in the interim these large spaces can creatively and temporarily be used for gaming space. Wiring, security and ingress/egress have to be addressed but it can work. In the right climates, increased outdoor activities may continue to be a very successful way to serve higher numbers of guests and keep the proper distances.