multiple building types to recession-proof your firm.8 Organize your practice around specialized leaders—such as design, production, marketing, and management—because it's more efficient than if every leader does everything.
Notes
1 1 Walter McQuade and Paul Grotz, Architecture in the Real World: The Work of HOK. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1985.
2 2 “HOK's George Hellmuth 1987 Interview,” YouTube, December 14, 2009. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://youtu.be/uXXAf0ujFL4.
CHAPTER 2 A New Kind of Architecture Firm
Hellmuth began to dream of founding his own firm where he could devote himself to finding a steady stream of projects and his partners could devote themselves to getting the work done. Hellmuth's son, Nick, also an architect, told me, “My dad had two outstanding gifts. The first was selling. The second was identifying people with talent.” Hellmuth's gift for identifying talented people led him to two SHG colleagues. Minoru Yamasaki was the well-regarded designer he had helped recruit to SHG. Joe Leinweber, another SHG vice president, was a top production architect who had been with the firm since 1924. When Hellmuth approached them with his ideas for a new kind of architecture practice, they agreed to form their own firm.
FIGURE 2.1 Minoru Yamasaki and George Hellmuth c. 1949.
Source: Photo courtesy of HOK.
Starting HYL/LHY
In 1949, the three partners opened Leinweber, Hellmuth & Yamasaki (LHY) in Detroit. In accordance with his depression-proof strategy, Hellmuth became a full-time marketer with the responsibility to bring in new work, allowing Yamasaki to concentrate on design and Leinweber on production.
Remember, Hellmuth was convinced the new firm needed geographic diversity. He retained many contacts from his work for the City of St. Louis and believed he could win more new work there. Deep connections like this can make a big difference. If work was slow in Detroit, maybe St. Louis could keep the firm's talented people busy. Hellmuth persuaded his new partners to open a second office in St. Louis—but with his name first, a savvy move. Hellmuth, Yamasaki & Leinweber, or HYL, opened in St. Louis not long after LHY opened in Detroit. Hellmuth divided his time between Detroit and St. Louis in pursuit of new projects, while Yamasaki and Leinweber spent most of their time in the Detroit office.
The young St. Louis office began to grow, requiring more talent. Hellmuth's St. Louis contacts eventually led to the largest commission for the young firm, a new terminal for Lambert Airport. While Detroit-based Yamasaki would be the designer, the St. Louis HYL office needed to expand to handle production for such a large project. In 1951, HYL hired George Kassabaum, a member of the Washington University faculty, as Leinweber's St. Louis assistant for production.
Yamasaki soon needed an assistant too, to help with the growing design workload. His architect friend John Dinkeloo recommended Gyo Obata, a bright young designer working for rival SOM in Chicago. When Yamasaki and Obata met, they discovered a special connection. Both were nisei, born in the United States to Japanese immigrants. Yamasaki had found the perfect design assistant.
FIGURE 2.2 Minoru Yamasaki talking to Gyo Obata, c. 1952.
Source: Photo courtesy of HOK.
Gyo Obata
Gyo Obata was born in San Francisco in 1923. His father, Chiura Obata, came from a distinguished line of Japanese artists in Sendai, Japan. He emigrated to the United States in 1903, at age 17, and settled in the Bay Area. He soon became a successful artist and eventually joined the art faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. His wife, Haruko, was a noted Ikebana artist who introduced the art of Japanese flower arranging to the West Coast.
FIGURE 2.3 Gyo Obata.
Source: Photo courtesy of HOK.
Obata's father traveled often to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to paint, and Yosemite was his favorite location, so the Obata family camped in Yosemite every summer. Chiura Obata met and became good friends with famed photographer Ansel Adams, who spent a lifetime photographing Yosemite and the Sierras. The Adams family lived in Yosemite Valley and operated Best's Studio, a small gallery featuring his photographic prints. Adams invited Chiura Obata to exhibit his Yosemite paintings there, and both men taught summer classes through the gallery. Obata remembers his father and Ansel Adams often spent summer evenings together discussing art.
Obata grew up in Berkeley, and his parents were sure he would become an artist like them. However, Obata also enjoyed science and, with his mother's encouragement, decided to pursue architecture. He enrolled at UC Berkeley to study architecture in September 1941. However, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor just three months later, the U.S. government interned most Japanese-Americans in camps for the duration of World War II. It was a close call for Obata. “I left Berkeley the night before my whole family was interned,” Obata recalled later.1
Though he would have to leave his family while they were held in an internment camp, regulations permitted Obata to continue his education—just not in California, Oregon, or Washington, the three states bordering the Pacific Ocean. “Washington University in St. Louis was one of the few colleges that accepted Japanese-Americans,” Obata explained. He added that if the telegram announcing his acceptance had arrived just one day later, “I'd have been sent to the camps, too.”2 Sometimes you have to seize the moment. Obata traveled by train to St. Louis where he was befriended—he would say adopted—by the university faculty and students.
FIGURE 2.4 Gyo Obata with sister Yuri, mother Haruko, and father Chiura Obata, c. 1939. Public domain. Larger copy of photo courtesy of Kiku Obata.
Obata's wartime experience made a deep impression. He was determined to overcome the barriers placed in his way during the war. He was a naturally shy, soft-spoken student, but developed a strong, resilient, competitive nature that served him well his entire life. Obata also developed a deep affection for the people of Washington University and his adopted city of St. Louis.
After graduating from Washington University in 1945, Obata received a scholarship to study under Finnish master architect
