The Chicago office of HOK was recently honored with two awards for environmental leadership.

HOK’s Chicago office recently received the 2010 “Environmotion” Award, an honor given by the Illinois Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

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The first award was for the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, which was selected as a 2010 “Top 10 Green Project” by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE).

The second award was the 2010 “Environmotion” Award, an honor given by the Illinois chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

As Saudi Arabia’s first LEED certified project and the world’s largest LEED-NC Platinum project, KAUST was a natural candidate for AIA’s Top 10 Green Projects awards program, which honors sustainable projects that integrate architecture, natural systems and technology.

This new international, graduate-level research university was established to drive innovation in science and technology and to support world-class research in areas such as energy and the environment.

HOK Chicago’s Sustainable Design Leader, Colin Rolfing, led sustainable design efforts for the 6.5 million-sq-ft campus.

Rohlfing’s international project team implemented a series of innovative strategies to create a low-energy, highly sustainable project in the context of an extremely hot, humid climate.

“The coordination effort to achieve LEED-NC Platinum criteria was extraordinary,” says Rohlfing.

“We are especially proud because this project is in an area of the world where achievements in efficient design are not commonplace given the extreme climate and current construction industry practices.”