HCM Office Visit to East Side

Last week, our office had another visit to the nearly completed East Side construction site. Since our last visit as a firm, there has been quite a lot of progress. The exterior of the main building is almost complete, the glazing is in, interior partitions are sealed, and many of the lights and finishes have been put in. Additionally, a lot of the site work is under way and the art piece on the site has been put in place. It has been great to be able to bring our office staff to the site for multiple visits so everyone can get an idea of how a project of this scale progresses over time. It is a valuable learning experience for our younger staff.

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HCM Anniversary Party

On February 7th, our office celebrated our 22nd anniversary by inviting many of our friends, consultants, and clients to our annual open house. The party was catered by the fabulous Colossal Cafe, as is tradition, and everyone enjoyed fantastic food and great company. This year’s party was extra special as we were also celebrating the transition of Liz Gutzman and Dan Lawrence to Associates. Dan has been with HCM Architects for the last twelve years, working on projects ranging from master planning through construction administration. Liz joined HCM in 2008 and has led numerous project types such as restaurants, recreational, office and laboratory facilities.

HCM Annual Crock Pot Cook Off

Our office was once again filled with great food as we battled for the title of Crock Pot Champion 2020 last week. 8 HCM-ers competed to see who’s crock pot creations could get the most votes as the tastiest slow cooked comfort food. To the victors went the spoils, but all participants received a prize for feeding the office. This years winners were:

First Place - Beef Short Ribs

Second Place - Shredded Pork Roast

Third Place - Lava “Bog”

Many thanks to all who filled our stomachs with amazing food!

Valley Library Grand (Re)Opening!

We are proud to announce the opening of the newly renovated Washington County Valley Library! The design of this project has been underway for quite sometime. Our team met with the community multiple times to learn what community members wanted from their library and worked tirelessly to make the best design possible for the space. Construction began in September and closed as the year ends. The grand opening took place this past weekend for the community to see the enlarged and redesigned space.

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Wildwood Library Update

Construction continues at the Wildwood library. The insulation and weather barriers for the exterior walls are being placed before the walls can be sealed up for good! This will keep the building warm and dry and comfortable for all book-lovers. The Sensera Systems live webcam is still up and running for those who want to watch the building’s progress as it happens. Click here to see a time lapse that shows the entire project from the demolition of the old library up to the present.

BioTechne GMP Facility

Construction has begun at the BioTechne GMP Manufacturing Facility. This facility will mainly be used for production with a small office area and some warehouse space. This building is not on the main BioTechne campus and thus is going to need more work than many of our BioTechne projects. Our construction team has already filled in existing pits in the floor to give us an even ground to begin with. Now they are digging where they will need to to lay plumbing for the building’s new needs.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

From all of us here at HCM, have a wonderful Christmas, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, and holiday season!

Natalia Comes to Visit

Here at HCM, we are always excited to hear about what our past team members are up to! On Friday we had the pleasure of seeing former HCM-er Natalia Piela for a quick visit in our office. Natalia has been traveling around Europe and just started an exciting new opportunity in Poland! We heard all about her adventures while we munched on the lovely Polish candy she brought us. We wish her the best!

A Very Fitting Send Off for Jerry

Though he is sticking around until the end of the year, we had our big send off for Jerry Hagen last night at our office in Minneapolis. Jerry, Roger, and Tim started HCM Architects 22 years ago and Jerry is the first of the trio to be making the leap to retirement. We celebrated his years of dedication to his clients and the field of architecture by gathering in his honor to have some good drinks, good food, and great conversation with many of Jerry’s friends, family members, valued clients, and trusted consultants.

The 4 remaining partners were not about to let Jerry leave empty handed! After all his years in the business, they thought they ought to get him something that was bound to make quite a SPLASH!

We could just keep it on Matt’s desk forever.

Happy Holidays From HCM

This Saturday the HCM Family got together at Colossal Café to celebrate the Holiday season. The evening of merriment began with a Social Hour at the home of our very own Roger Christensen before we all migrated to the café for our main event. Our party this year was extra special as it was the last holiday party before the retirement of Jerry Hagen, one of our founding partners. This time of the year is a time to give thanks and we are all thankful to have spent the past year working together on so many exciting projects. Here’s to the many more to come!

Wild Progress at Wildwood Library

Construction is under way over at the site for the new Wildwood Library in Washington County. This project has been a labor of love for almost 2 years. Now, the old building is completely gone, the foundation is in, and the structure of the new library is going up already! We have a live link set up through Sensera Systems so that the community can keep an eye on the progress of the construction via a time lapse. A camera takes a still image every 15 minutes and condenses all the images into a short video. Click Here to see the latest progress!

Happy Halloween from HCM!

From all of us here at HCM, have a spooky day!

October at East Side

Construction continues on the East Side site. More and more glazing is being added to the office part of the building as well as some smaller areas of windows to let light in throughout the space. The crew is also hard at work with the landscaping elements such as walkways and an art installation.

HCM Sporting Clays

Last Thursday, the HCM Architects gang went out to the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club for an adventure consisting of lunch, sport clay shooting, and an after shooting social hour. The weather was perfect for a fun, safe, afternoon of team bonding!

Nothing says “Teamwork” like a safe, teachable moment!

ART INSTALLATION AT EAST SIDE

It is an exciting time on the East Side Storage and Maintenance Facility site as construction begins on the large sculpture by Randy Walker Arts that will be on the site. So far, the steel framing has been completed and soon the scaffolding will come down and precast elements will be placed on the frame.

The installation will be on the Northeast corner of the site and will be visible from the surrounding neighborhood.

HCM at East Side

East Side expert Matt sharing some information about the project with the rest of the office.

Yesterday, our office had another tour of the East side construction site. There were some pretty big changes since the last time the office toured the space including some new walls and roofing on the main building as well as a whole new structure for the wash bay. Now it is a race against the clock to get as much done as possible before the weather starts to change!

This giant wash bay was not built at all last time most of the office visited the site.

The glass for this office area is not in yet, but we can already feel how open and light the space will be.

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September at HCM

Whether you have kids going back to school, are going back to school yourself, or simply ready for fall to begin, have a very happy September!

Spectacular Sights at Sherwin Williams

While visiting the Sherwin Williams Campus in downtown Minneapolis, the HCMers that worked on the Sherwin Williams Design House last year took a little field trip to see how the house’s exterior turned out now that the plants are all blooming. Our team designed a simple and clean landscape for the House’s patio where Sherwin Williams will soon be hosting an event. Professional photographs of both the interior and exterior will be taken soon and then you can check out more about the project on our Corporate Projects page!

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CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS ESS&MF UPDATE

The City of Minneapolis ESS&MF project keeps chugging along as August comes to an end. Some exterior work is still being done and the construction of some of the interior spaces begins.

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At this stage of construction, we can see some neat contrast between materials! Before the walls get closed up we can see the heavy concrete adjacent to a much lighter metal structure that will be covered when the building is complete.

BioTechne Office Area Update

Our team working with BioTechne keeps chugging along to get this project done. The construction crew is starting the process of sealing the walls up with sheet rock. Soon they’ll start the painting process, put in the flooring, and before we know it the residents of this office area will be moving in. But first, our team will continue to do weekly walk-throughs to make sure everything is going smoothly.

We’ve spotted a wild architect in his natural habitat. Here we see Roger Christensen checking that everything is going according to plan and answering any questions that come up.

It is always interesting watching walls going up!