HOK chairman and CEO Bill Hellmuth passed away on April 6th, 2023 following a long illness. He was 69.
Hellmuth began his career designing office buildings in New York before joining HOK in 1991. He spent 18 months in the design and architecture firm’s St. Louis office before relocating to Washington, DC, where he was based for the remainder of his career. Hellmuth was elected president of HOK, Inc. in 2005 and was tapped for the role of CEO in 2016. He was also named chairman the following year.
The architect’s esteemed portfolio includes projects such as the 75-story Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Headquarters in the United Arab Emirates; the Embassy Chancery and Office Annex in Moscow; the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi; the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center and Residential Community in Riyadh; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters in North Carolina.
Projects completed in his hometown of DC are also noteworthy, like the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Hospital renovation in Maryland.
In addition to 29 awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Hellmuth was decorated with the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, the University of Virginia, and was invited to become a GSA Design Excellence Peer by the U.S. General Services Administration. He was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2017.
Hellmuth was the nephew of HOK cofounder George Hellmuth, who launched the global practice in 1955 with Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum.
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