selophane.blog » Concerning the Professional

The curious case of the LEED lawsuit

spencer — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:45:37 +0000

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.

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The curious case of the LEED lawsuit

Continuing Education Options

spencer — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:52:00 +0000

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 [...]

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Continuing Education Options

The Problem with Architects

spencer — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:34:44 +0000

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 [...]

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The Problem with Architects

The Incredible Lightness of Being Licensed

spencer — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:18:02 +0000

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, [...]

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The Incredible Lightness of Being Licensed

Government Privatization Inaction

spencer — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:20:41 +0000

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 NGO 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 [...]

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Government Privatization Inaction

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

spencer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:39:53 +0000

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 [...]

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

Unemployed and legally in the Nation’s Capital

spencer — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:56:37 +0000

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.

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Unemployed and legally in the Nation’s Capital

ARE – Construction Documents and Services

spencer — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:16:37 +0000

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. Post from: selophane.blogARE – Construction Documents and Services

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ARE – Construction Documents and Services

Building (mostly) Big Easy

spencer — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:48:00 +0000

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 [...]

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Building (mostly) Big Easy

Out of a Job?

spencer — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:36:29 +0000

Archipreneur has a great post (Archipreneur: Archipreneur’s Guide to Surviving Layoffs & the Recession) on things to do in today’s market if you are unemployed like me. I think it’s a great read, though I have to add an additional item to it. Get licensed, make your full time job studying for and taking your exams. Take any prep classes out there, the other students will be intern-architects as well and it’s a great way to meet people and network. You never know, you may get some job leads â€” like I did today. If you can get through all of your exams in one big burst, statistically you should have passed a bunch of them and you’ll only have a few to retake in 6 months. Post from: selophane.blogOut of a Job?

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Out of a Job?