Concerning the Professional

Architect as … Convention Goer

After a successful Architecture Exchange 2016 I have a lot to think about how an architecture firm should operate and how it should serve it’s staff and its clients.

I’m sitting in my hotel room in the Richmond Marriott writing this post and thinking back on the past two days of the Architecture Exchange East conference (but on by AIA Virginia and serving the Region of the Virginias).

The Empty stage and a screen showing a slide welcoming the attendees to ArchEx2016 — The stage before the General Session of ArchEx 2016 started

This has been a great conference: I was energized Thursday morning by Rosa Sheng‘s keynote address on Equity in Architecture. She addressed many topics that hit close to home for me. She talked about how the study of the missing 32% was really just a “Canary in the Coal Mine” to indicate the issues that were facing the profession of architecture. She talked a lot about her own experiences and I felt a connection when she mentioned that at one point she was thinking about us leaving the profession when she had her daughter. While I don’t yet have children the reasons she mentioned are very similar to the issues I’ve been dealing with the past year or so – a need to be able to engage at hours outside of core working hours, a need for health accommodations, a need for architects to fight for their worth and negotiate on salary and benefits. She also talked about the value of engaging and enriching work – something I feel like I’ve been lacking for a while.

A slide indicating 5 ways to affect change - 1. Make Connections 2. Embrace Technology 3. Seek, Be, Cultivate Members 4. We are the Champions 5. Build your tribe — 5 ways to affect change

All of this set the tone for the rest of the conference for me. I saw similar themes in this afternoon’s presentation by Carolyn Rickard-Brideau about the Well Standard and Salutogenic Design and how this new certification (currently only for offices) will help to make Architecture that heals us, instead of hurts us. In 2015 I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, I’ve been working with my doctor as well as a nutritionist to lose weight, be more active and overcome this disease. One of the biggest factors for me in this diseas has and continues to be work. The stress and long hours of my job have played havoc with my blood sugar. The time demands of the job and meetings have made it hard to schedule doctor’s appointments on a regular basis, and when I am able to, there’s a ton of stress that goes with it. When I changed jobs this summer it was with the express purpose of minimizing stress and increasing my ability to get physical activity. Being able to work in an environment that was designed to minimize stress and encourage activity It would be a big step forward in combating a health issue that many Americans face. Tying this point into the earlier keynote, I might not need the flexibility I do right now if my work environment was Salutogenic instead of Pathogenic.

A slide showing 5 ways to hack and affect change - A. Get Curiouser B. What's Next C. Defy Tradition D. Get Scrappy E. Fail Fast, Fail Often — How to “Hack” Architecture

The capstone on the weekend was a closing Keynote by Mickey Jacob, FAIA who talked about elevating our role in leadership. One of the points that stuck home to me was that he mentioned that he is a “digital tourist” and not a “digital native.” This made me realize that the issue at heart right now in architecture is one of “Physical Natives” versus “Digital Natives”. Architects in my generation are digital natives, we look to technology to solve our problems. We time shift our entertainment and expect to be able to do the same with our work. We expect our work to embrace the new technological opportunites that we have already accepted. But the thought and practice leaders are physical natives. They may be skilled at software based design and work practice, but they remember a time before the technological revolution. To them face to face work in the physical realm is sacrosanct. They cannot imagine that any digital solution will be as good as the physical, if not a better solution. Yes, they may have accepted CAD as the new way to draft, but BIM is still just a step too far into digital magic. And, while that is an overexaggeration (there are some young people who are luddites and will only sketch by hand and there are well seasoned professionals that are technophiles and tweet with the best of them) this typifies why we have the issues we are having. Why we are facing the lack of equity and why the demand for it is so jarring to some. We are demanding that the architecture profession catch up to the rest of the business culture. We are having our own culture clash.

So where does that leave me? Well, I’m not making any commitments, but if I do stay in architecture, it means that my 10 year plan needs to think about how best to find a firm or make my own that embraces the “startup” culture and committement to its staff as the future and an investment and not just resources to be spent on acquiring more profits.

The curious case of the LEED lawsuit

I’ve seen a lot of tweets lately about the LEED lawsuit. While I can’t speak to the veracity of the lawsuit’s claims I can and will weigh in on my own personal opinion of LEED and the USGBC.

I think LEED was incredibly important. It was a first step towards a national shift in the way developers, governments and commercial clients think about buildings and performance. Without LEED we might still be living in a world where green and white roofs would still be found mostly in Europe, where dual flush toilets and waterless urinals would be a curiosity found at Epcot but no where else in the USA, and where post-consumer recycled content percentages would still be found only on paper and not listed proudly on the resource webpage for carpets and other finishes. With all of that said, I think we have outgrown LEED.

I’ve seen a lot of tweets lately about the LEED lawsuit (Giffords Vs USGBC). While I can’t speak to the veracity of the lawsuit’s claims I can and will weigh in on my own personal opinion of LEED and the USGBC.

To fully understand the situation with LEED I think its important to see what LEED certification does and does not actually brings to a project.

LEED certification does not guarantee energy efficiency, many of the steps that are involved in LEED design are or should be standards in modern building design. What it does guarantee is a lighter foot print than if nothing environmentally sensitive was done at all. That is to say, a LEED certified building of any level is most likely going to have a better performance than anything built in the International Style; a LEED certified home will be more environmentally sensitive than Phillip Johnson’s glass house, but so would most of the McMansions built today.
Under the LEED v3.0 standard for a building to be LEED certified it must be worked on by a LEED AP; all this guarantees is that someone who has studied and passed the LEED exam has been a part of the design team. It does not guarantee that they are a trained design profession, nor does it guarantee that they led the project.
What LEED really brings to a project is marketability; people who are not in the construction trades will usually infer that a LEED platinum building is more environmentally sensitive than a non-LEED building, when this is not true. All that the LEED platinum certification proves is that specific building meets a set of standards, but NOT that other buildings don’t. This is the reason that many municipalities are opting to include environmentally friendly regulations which require buidlings to meet certain LEED criteria but not actually be LEED certified.
Lastly, the surest thing LEED brings to a project is increased costs. While these costs are minor compared to the overall cost of construction, they can be $.05 a square foot for documentation and application costs alone ¹. If you think that this is minor, consider that the new Pei and Partners building at 1000 Connecticut Avenue, NW is over 380,000 square feet and only 12 stories tall ². This is project is aiming to be LEED Platinum which means that in addition to all of the design costs, this project has had at least additional $19,000 in paperwork costs that have done nothing to improve the environmental footprint of the building.

Where does this leave us? In my opinion we should be phasing LEED out and in its place enacting Green Building Codes, much like California just did. This building codes serve multiple purposes:

It gets a private non-profit out of the regulation business. Currently, many school boards, municipalities and local governments have jumped on the LEED bandwagon and started requiring LEED certification for their buildings. This is just plain wrong. A private company should not be in charge of reguating public buildings. We do not outsource our Fire Protection, ADA enforcement and other Health, Safety and Welfare regulations to private companies to enforce, why should environmental design be any different? Especially since it has been shown that indoor environmental quality has a direct impact on the health of building occupants ³.
It levels the playing field and returns Health, Safety and Welfare issues to state licensed professionals. USGBC requires at least one LEED AP professional to work on a project for it to be considered for LEED certification. This means that many firms cannot bid on a project unless they team with a consultant with a LEED AP staff member. This means that states are requiring people to have a certification that is not provided nor regulated by the state. Furthermore, if you consider this in light of the above point, it means that non-licensed professionals are the ensuring Health, Safety and Welfare of the public. Consider that the LEED AP on the project is not required to hold any specific level of position nor are they required to have any liability if a project fails to meet its design criteria ⁴. By the state regulations, this should be something that is regulated by licensed Architects or Engineers. If LEED was phased out and a Green Building Code put in its place, licensed professionals would be liable to ensure that project designs maintain Health, Safety and Welfare statutes.
Lastly, Green Building Codes would mandate and ensure that we move into the 21st century with a level playing field for buildings. By requiring environmentally friendly design and materials in new construction this would increase demand, increase production and in turn decrease the cost of these materials. This has been seen with CFL lightbulbs and photovoltaic cells, as these become more mainstream their initial costs have decreased and their efficiency has increased so that they products stay relevant in the market, because they are forced to compete on cost instead of just being an ethically beneficial product. The overall effect of this might not solve our environmental issues (an ailing power grid, a lack of water on the West Coast, suburban sprawl) but it would go a long way to mitigating them and preventing them from increasing.

How Much Does LEED certification cost. ↩
Case Study on 1000 Connecticut Avenue ↩
The EPA’s statement on IAQ and health ↩
LEED AP’s under the 3.0 system are required to complete Continuing Education Requirements and those previously accredited were forced to complete additional testing in order to be considered as a LEED AP for the purpose of a project’s certification. ↩

Continuing Education Options

This spring I will be coming up on my first license renewal. One of the daunting things that I’ve come across this past year and a half has been learning about the continuing education system and the varying requirements per state. I’ve put together the following list of links as a resource for anyone looking to find out more about whats required of them and where to get some last minute Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

If you are looking up your required amounts of CEUs there are two options for information

AIA has a chart showing their requirements and the individual state/province requirements
NCARB has a prettier chart, but it doesn’t include the AIA requirements.

That all seems innocent enough, but it can actually be quite confusing, especially if you have multiple licenses. I’ll use my situation as an example. I am licensed in Virginia and Washington, DC. So, AIA requires a minimum of 18 credits annually, 8 of which must be in Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) certified courses. Virginia requires a minimum of 16 credits over 2 years and no specific HSW requirement. And DC requires a minimum of 24 credits over 2 years, of which all of those minimum hours have to be in HSW certified courses. The requirements to maintain a licenses in good standing over multiple jurisdictions is to satisfy the largest minimum requirement for the smallest amount of time. So my total annual amount of credits would need to be 16 (AIA is 16 per year, Virginia is 16 per 2 years or 8 per year, and DC is 24 per 2 years or 12 per year). For my HSW credits I would need 8 per year, but a total of 24 over two years (AIA is 8 per year, Virginia has no requirement and DC is 24 per 2 years or 12 per year), so to make things easier I am for 12 per year. Now this gets even more difficult if you are licensed in a state, like New York, which will not accept CEUs from certain courses. Plus, there are movements afoot to add Environmental Design credits to the mix of required CEUs.

Something that you should also be aware of is that to my knowledge, no state has an active CEU checking program. The whole CEU process is based on the honor system as far as meeting requirements are concerned. Most states reserve the right to audit your record at any time, so be aware that while you may not have to submit anything proving your CEU record, you should be keeping a log. The easiest way to do this is with the AIA’s transcript system. If you want to check to see if you’ve met your requirements, you need to log into the AIA’s CES Discovery system. From here you can look at your transcript or find classes.

For other sources of CEUS I’ve put together the following list:

AIA Lectures – Check your localchapters
NCARB’s Free Mini Monographs – They are free, but non record holders are charged a $35 fee for the exam
NCARB’s Monographs – These are being discontinued, but are still available for purchase and grading
Architectural Record’s CEU Center – Until recently this was an extensive resource for free CEUs. It remains to be seen how the switch to Architect Magazine as the official magazine of the AIA will affect this resource.
Architect Magazine’s CEU Center – Expect this to develop and be much more robust now that this magazine is being mailed to every AIA member.

If anyone knows of other good resources for CEU’s please comment and I will add them to this list.

The Problem with Architects

One of the things that has been the most disturbing to me since I graduated and joined the world of working architects is how little our craft seems to be understood in the United States, not to mention how little demand there is for architects to work on projects. There is a discussion raging over on archinect about the public conception that architects are wealthy, well paid, and always in high demand; while in reality compared to most of the other white collar professions (doctors, lawyers, et al.) it is the opposite. I for the past three weeks I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain why I think this is the case without devolving this post into a history lecture, and I think I’ve finally figured out how to do that. The root behind all of this confusion is two fold.

First, while architects work in the twenty-first century world, we still base our business on a nineteenth century business model. Unlike other doctors and lawyers who offer a mix of relatively small fee quick services (like sick visits and legal consultation) and large fee longterm services (complex procedures and trial and business law) architects perform mostly large fee longterm services for our clients. Most of our billing is for long drawn out projects, and even when we are involved in smaller home renovation services these projects still take weeks. What we need to discover is a way to sell single visit architectural consultation services which would be attractive to the public. To do this we have to determine a way to quantify the value that our services would add and why business and home owners should hire us instead of a less expensive builder driven solution. This leads into the second issue that architects face.

Architecture is a classist profession, it is only seen as necessity for business and government and as a luxury for upper and upper-middle class people. This contrasts sharply with Doctors and Lawyers who are seen as vital components to the modern way of life. Even the person of the most modest means will most likely visit a doctor in their life, whether through a medical clinic, hospital, or health care plan of some sort. In addition, since 50% of marriages end in divorce, even the poorest person has a very good chance of needing legal counsel if not for divorce, for some other reason. Whereas, most people will never work with an architect directly, and if they live in rural or suburban America, they will probably never live in a home designed by an Architect; the closest they will come will be working in buildings which are required by law to be designed by an Architect. This detachment from our industry prevents people from realizing not only the value of our services, but why we charge what we do for them. This lack of knowledge and detachment makes architecture and design a mysterious luxury, one which is far outside the world of most Americans. This will only change when we as a field discovers a way to make quick small fee services which will make us more accessible and affordable and not such a luxury.

The Incredible Lightness of Being Licensed

After 6 years of schooling, 4 years of internship, 7 exams, and 12 weeks of waiting since my last exam I finally found out unofficially last night and officially today that I am now a licensed Architect registered with the Commonwealth of Virginia. While this does not affect my unemployment, it opens worlds of possibility for me as far as freelancing and my own firm is concerned. Once I get my paperwork in the mail I will be qualified to stamp and sign drawings which makes me able to undertake a whole lot more work.

There is something to be said about the feeling you get when you achieve a long term goal. When I transferred into the architecture program at Tulane I not only promised myself that I would make it through and graduate within the standard time period, but I also made myself a promise, that I would be licensed at least before I was 30 and at best before my High School Reunion. I achieved both goals. I am currently 28 and my reunion (which I won’t be attending, another long story) is at the end of November. This accomplishment makes my unemployment seem like a blessing, because without it I would not have had the time to study and take my exams, nor would I have had the motivation to get my own firm started.

Now to start on my next professional goal. I have 7 years to accomplish it, so that should be doable. I want my work to be exhibited in a 35 under 35 magazine article or gallery show. All that I need is some clients looking to act less like their own designer and more like an art patron. Any takers?

Government Privatization Inaction

I have now been waiting for my last Architecture Registration Exam result for 11 weeks (13 if you include the penultimate exam which I have also yet to receive scores for). This delay apparently has been caused by the private company that administers and grades the exam (Prometric Services); specifically they have not graded a 5 of the 7 exam sections since the start of July. I was only informed of this delay from my state board last week, at week 10(12), which was the first time they had heard of this as well. This delay, which is not the first time Prometric has failed to perform, has affected at a minimum 3,300 people in the state of Virginia alone. The thing that is the most infuriating about this whole exam process is the lack of both transparency and communication.

The exam, which is written by and property of the National Council of Architecture Registration Boards (a non-profit association in DC), is treated with the utmost level of secrecy and security. Not only are examinees not allowed to discuss the content of the exam, they are also not allowed to know the grading scheme that is used to determine passing and failing. There is neither communication about how this exam is graded – on a bell curve, if some questions are weighted more than others or if there is a strict pass/fail point ratio – nor is there any information about how the design components factor into your test results. To further compound the secrecy, passing results for the exam just say you passed, whereas failing results give a small analysis of what subject areas need further study. In addition, if NCARB suspects “Testing Irregularities,” their code for cheating, they can and will hold results form all affected sections until the matter is resolved, which can be as much as 6 months.

By itself this would all be frustrating but workable. The real annoyance comes from the lack of available channels for communication. Before an examinee can take an exam they make have their NCARB council record transferred to their state board. NCARB does not have a collective repository of state testing requirements, so an examinee must work through their state testing application on their own. Once the application is completed, examinees then register directly with Prometric for their exams, by providing a clearance code issued to them by their state. When the day of the exam occurs and an examinee leaves the testing center, that is the last moment they may have any contact with Prometric; from that moment on they can only contact their state to determine why they have not received their results. Grading is supposed to take anywhere form 4 to 6 weeks, but usually takes more like 6 to 8. Prometric has a habit of bunching exams and sending scores to the states all at once. This has lead people to speculate that Prometric only grades at certain intervals or holds all grades form a specific time period to establish a bell curve, but because there is no discussion of grading policy this is all speculation. The thing that convolutes all of this even more is that the state boards do not contact Prometric directly. Instead they eagerly await results but must phrase all of their inquires through NCARB. So to summarize as an individual, if you are fearful that your test has been lost or delayed, you must contact your state, your state contacts NCARB, who contacts Prometric. In this game of bureaucratic telephone it is easy to understand why results can be delayed by 10 weeks or more. 10 weeks, which result in lost wages associated with passing results and being declared a licensed architect, not to mention anxiety and nervousness.

How to Choose an Accountant or “I want you to want me”

So this posting by noon thing is getting harder, especially when I have morning meetings. But, work takes priority over this blog.

This morning I had a meeting in Bethesda to interview an accountant for my design firm. This was a really interesting experience for me, because for the first time in my professional career I was not the one trying to sell their services, but instead the prospective client. It has made me understand something that has been a subconscious motivator for many of my previous life decisions; I want to feel that I am being treated as a potential investment not just a future client.

Interviewing an accountant is very similar to choosing a university, it is a decision that will affect your professional life for years to come. When I chose my university one of the major motivating factors was not a rational factor like class size or endowment or even the location of the school, instead I felt the need to go someplace where I felt welcomed and wanted. Now, I was in a unique situation, I could not afford to choose any school, I could only afford a school If i was getting a significant merit based financial aid package. In the end my decision came down to Tulane and Brandeis, both had offered me comparable scholarship and both were comparable programs, but they differed greatly in my personal interaction with the admissions staff and the department faculty. At Brandeis I had a hard time making an appointment to see anyone in the admissions office for what would have been at most a 15 minute chat even though I had already been awarded one of their top scholarships. It made me feel like my presence was putting them out and that I should be grateful for the opportunity and prestige that they would be offering me. My interaction with Tulane was completely different. I had received a number of letters from their admissions office and phone calls from an admissions counselor, one of the Tulane College academic advisors and the chair of their classics department. This personal attention not only made me feel important, but it made me believe that the scholarship they were offering me was an investment. They wanted me to come to their university so that someday my name would bring them prestige and opportunity. This simple reversal was all that was needed to make my decision.

This anecdote is not intended to brag about my education, instead it is intended to highlight the fact that when choosing an accountant I need to find someone who will look at my business as an investment and not just as a source of present revenue. Sure we may be small and just starting out now, and as such we will have to use their budget services or whatever “Starter business” package they have. But, one day we will have a much larger client base and bring their firm not only a good revenue stream but some prestige.

Unemployed and legally in the Nation’s Capital

The Washington Post ran an article recently highlighting the human side of how this recession (depression?) is affecting architects in the DC area.

One of the people they interviewed is a former co-worker of mine from a few years back. I’m saddened to hear that she is also going through what I am dealing with. Like most of us unemployed architectural professionals, she is a hard worker and team player and does not deserve to be jobless. Unfortunately she is in a worse situation than I. She’s a foreign national and when she lost her job she lost her work visa. I can’t imagine having to deal with the pressure of knowing that not only do you need a job to pay the bills, but also to keep living here.

[Image via The Washington Post.]

The Washington Post ran an article recently highlighting the human side of how this recession (depression?) is affecting architects in the DC area.

In a time such as this, when illegal immigration has become such a hot button issue, you would think there would be some outcry for the legal immigrants who came through all of the right channels. Now face a horrible decision; give up all that they have accomplished and move back because someone let them go, or overstay their visa and risk deportation. I think there should be some sort of federal stimulus based amnesty/leniency for work visa holders who have been laid off through no fault of their own. The immigrants rights groups need to address this before we start to lose all the foreign talent we have attracted.

ARE – Construction Documents and Services

I am now scheduled to take the Construction Documents and Services exam on Thursday March 26, 2009 at 5pm.

Now that I have a firm calendar date, this should put the heat on my studying.

Building (mostly) Big Easy

This week the New Orleans Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the recipients of the 2009 Design Awards. Out of 70 entries, 12 were chosen for awards, 3 of which were awards of Honor and the other 9 were awards of Merit.

The theme for this year’s awards was “Responsive, Responsible, Timeless,” which was chosen to emphasis the importance of classical architecture and design. The awards were chosen by a Jury featuring Jim Evans, AIA; Andrew Vrana, AIA; and Kimberly Hickson, AIA and were presented in a ceremony presided over by Jeffrey Smith, AIA 2009 President of the AIA New Orleans Chapter and Design Awards Chair Michael Piazza, AIA.

Of the 12 winners there are only 6 firms represented; I have to wonder why this is. Is there a lack of architects doing good work in New Orleans, or is this phenomenon the result of the 70 project pool that was judged? If the former, then there seems to be an opportunity waiting for a young rising star to make their name, if its the latter I wonder why so few offices are entering work to be judged. I would hate to think that the results of the awards show a bias on the part of the judges towards these 6 firms, considering that 3 of which – Wayne Troyer Architects, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, and Bild Design – happen to be the top four winners from last year (see this article I posted last April). Of course, not knowing the rest of the applicant pool these could simply be the best entries who fit with the theme, and no one wants a jury choosing projects to give awards to based on a desire to show variety. In addition, I have to wonder how fast and loose the jury played with the stated theme. Many of these projects, with the exception of the historic preservation awards, do not seem to emphasis classical architecture or classical design proportions. While I would not disagree that they are good examples of contemporary or modern design, I have to wonder how the jury would defend the classification of them as “timeless.”

Listed below are the winners and their respective categories:

Award of Honor – Architecture
Project Name: Bozeman Fish Technology Center
Location: Bozeman, MT
Architect(s) of Record: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple and Guidry Beazley Architects

Award of Honor – Historic Preservation Adaptive Reuse Rehabilitation
Project Name: United States Courthouse
Location: Natchez, MS
Architect(s) of Record: Waggonner & Ball Architects

Award of Merit – Architecture
Project Name: Brother Martin High School – Roland H. and Macy Patton Meyer; Science and Mathematics Building
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: Waggonner & Ball Architects

Award of Merit – Architecture
Project Name: Bienville State Office Building
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Architect(s) of Record: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple and Washer Hill Lipscomb

Award of Merit – Interiors
Project Name: Arthur Roger Gallery
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: Wayne Troyer Architects

Award of Merit – Interiors
Project Name: Kenneth’s Hair with Style
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: bildDESIGN, Byron Mouton, AIA

Award of Merit – Residential
Project Name: Private Residence
Location: Metairie, LA
Architect(s) of Record: Trapolin Architects, Peter Trapolin

Award of Merit – Residential
Project Name: URBANbuild.designBUILD, Prototype #3
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: Byron Mouton, AIA representing Tulane University’s URBANbuildprogram

Award of Merit – Divine Detail
Project Name: The Orange Couch Coffee Shop
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: AEDS, Ammar Eloueini

Award of Merit – Historic Preservation Adaptive Reuse Rehabilitation
Project Name: Swan Street Residence
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: bild DESIGN, Byron Mouton, AIA

Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church, Sanctuary Roof and Steeple Repair

Award of Merit – Historic Preservation Adaptive Reuse Rehabilitation
Project Name: Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church, Sanctuary Roof and Steeple Repair
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: Waggonner & Ball Architects

Award of Merit – Project Category
Project Name: J-House
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect(s) of Record: AEDS, Ammar Eloueini

[All images courtesy of AIA New Orleans via Erica Normand via Trumpet.]