Awards

The Star Named an Award of Merit Winner in the 2019 Gold Nugget Awards

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HBG Design Recognized with Firm Service Award by AIA Memphis

By Tom Bailey Published: April 07, 2019 7:36 AM CT

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Ho-Chunk Gaming's Wisconsin Expansion and Renovation Projects Receive State-Wide Recognition

Ho-Chunk Gaming's Latest Expansion and Renovation Projects Receive State Wide Recognition

How exciting to see Ho-Chunk Nation's Project Forward on the List of Top Projects in Wisconsin for 2018! These include the three projects HBG Design expanded and renovated for Ho-Chunk Gaming at their gaming properties in Wisconsin Dells, Black River Falls and Wittenberg, Wisconsin.  The Daily Reporter honors those in the industry — generals, subcontractors, architects, engineers and owners — whose projects met and exceeded expectations in 2018 with this list. Congrats team!

See winners in Wisconsin's The Daily Reporter online

by Dana Ramsey

HBG Design Ranked #3 Hospitality Firm in the Nation

From the 2019 Hotel Business Green Book

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Emily Marshall named to GGB’s ‘Emerging Leaders of Gaming Top 40 Under 40’

We’d like to send a huge congratulations to HBG Design’s Interior Design Leader, Emily Marshall, IIDA, NCIDQ, for being named to Global Gaming Business‘s Emerging Leaders of Gaming Top 40 Under 40.
This prestigious list recognizes rising stars in the gaming industry. Congrats, Emily!

Casinos and integrated resort developments are among of the most iconic architectural buildings in the world. It’s easy to recognize this looking at the Las Vegas skyline or the seminal steel structure of Marina Bay Sands.

While the exteriors sometimes create iconic attractions, what lies inside is critical to creating memorable guest experiences. Emily Marshall appreciates this notion. As leader of the Interior Design Group at HBG Design, she’s an expert on the design nuances necessary to create environments that leave a lasting impression.

“Interior design for the hospitality and gaming industry is all about creating vibrant experiences for guests,” Marshall explains. “This has always intrigued me—the drama and excitement that physical spaces can impart, the thoughtfulness that’s put into how guests use and experience a space.”

The nuances of both the business goals and guest desires in gaming and hospitality originally attracted Marshall, and keeps her pushing forward. “There’s a psychological element to it, paired with the fantasy of escapism. That’s kept me challenged and passionate about my career.”

While Marshall could be a considered a design veteran with 14 years of experience, her interest in and experience with art and design began well before her professional career. The daughter of a prominent Memphis architect, she developed an eye for design at an early age. Professionally, she points to her first mentor as having the most impact on her career trajectory.

“The challenges we face when designing very complex experiences have existed before, so it’s important to see how other designers dealt with them.”

“The influence of my dad notwithstanding, my first mentor, Jacques Coetzee, taught me how to truly be a designer,” Marshall says. “He helped me understand the importance collaboration plays in the role of an interior designer, while also teaching me how to push the boundaries of design and to be bold in my expression of interior spaces.”

For young design professionals, Marshall has advice on ways to grow both professionally and personally. “Broaden your perspective. Travel! Go see as much of the world as you can. The challenges we face when designing very complex experiences have existed before, so it’s important to see how other designers dealt with them.

“Every project has issues, some more visible than others, so seeing details in real time is important,” she adds. “I believe in complete immersion into places whose cultures and traditions affect their visual connection to the built environment.”

For someone whose livelihood revolves around creating memorable experiences for others, Marshall says the projects have had just as much of an experiential impact on her. “Seeing these gaming and resort projects come to life has given me indescribable and unforgettable experiences of my own.”

This year, she looks forward to seeing three major projects come to fruition and open. “These large-scale projects have been years in the making,” she says. Be on the lookout for Marshall’s latest imprints on the gaming and hospitality industries.

— Michael Vanaskie, The Innovation Group

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Flowers Honored for Achievements in Architecture

See full article in The Commercial Appeal

If some Mobile or New Orleans architects figure out smart new ways to design buildings against hurricanes, how best can that knowledge be spread to architects in other Gulf Coast communities? When young architects are being laid off in a recession, what is an effective way to help them endure and eventually succeed in the field? What technological or cultural changes might disrupt architecture the way Uber and Lyft  disrupted transportation, and what’s the best way to prepare?

Those are the kinds of challenges for which Memphis architect Josh Flowers designs solutions and strategies. 

His body of work — for creating and leading such programming — is so substantial that he has just been elevated as a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Being able to put “FAIA” behind one’s name is a big deal among architects. Only 3 percent of AIA’s 90,000 members have attained the designation. Flowers was among 152 AIA members this year elevated to the College of Fellows. He becomes one of only 16 living Memphis architects who are AIA fellows.

The 40-year-old is both an architect and an attorney. He works as general counsel for HBG Design, headquartered atop the Once Commerce Square tower in Downtown Memphis.

He designed buildings early in his career. “Now, I see it more as designing strategy,” Flowers said Friday. “I’m still using design-thinking but not applying it in a traditional way. It’s about design-thinking regardless of how you apply it.”

Relatively few architects engage with and contribute to the national architecture industry as much as Flowers. He’s a past president of AIA Memphis and president-elect of AIA Tennessee.

Beyond fulfilling the responsibilities of those offices, Flowers has shown a passion for promoting architecture education, mentoring young architects and creating collaboration in professional communities across the U.S.

‘A rock star in AIA’

In 2014, he was recipient of an AIA Young Architects award.

“Josh is a rock star in AIA,” Mark Weaver, a principal at HBG Design and also an AIA fellow, said in a prepared statement. “… It’s terrific to see Josh’s commitment to the AIA and his focus on advancing careers in architecture being honored so appropriately.”

Flowers started working with AIA Memphis during the Great Recession. “We  had a lot of people at the time who were young architects, laid off,” he recalled. “I was getting a lot of questions about helping them if they are starting their own firm and things like that.  “Then we were trying to see if there’s a way we can do more than helping one or two individuals in Memphis, and reaching out to more of the national organizations.”

He has also promoted continuing education in architecture “so once architects are practicing there’s a way to advance their skills and look at all the ways design is changing and taking advantage of opportunities.”

Designing smarter

He recently help lead a “practice innovation lab” in Washington. “Bringing together 60 of the most promising architects around the country … and we asked them to look at the problem of how we are practicing differently. We got several outcomes looking at the next five years,” Flowers said.

Flowers also helped develop a design symposium about how regional architecture is done differently from place to place. The symposium spread from University of Memphis to Tulane to University of Arkansas to Auburn. Much of the focus has been on resilience.

“Projects on the Gulf Coast have to be designed differently,” he said. “When we have a natural occurrence (like a hurricane), it doesn’t mean a whole city gets displace if you’re designing smarter.

“What are the lessons learned from Katrina and New Orleans? How do we spread that work to the rest of the region?”
Other architects may design an award-winning building and derive great satisfaction from that lasting achievement. Flowers feels good about designing strategies and solutions that help both architects and communities, also for the long-term.

He said, “Now that we’re out of the recession and you can see those young architects who were laid off starting their own firms and working on significant projects in their communities, it is good to see the result of that work.”

Flowers and the other 151 new class of fellows will be honored in June at an investiture ceremony at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.

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