Connect with Custom Residential Architects: Elevating the Art of Residential Design and Practice
Sponsored by the AIA Custom Residential Architects Network
The fourth annual three day national symposium will be held at the Omni Severin in Indianapolis on October 14-16, 2011. The event will focus on the advancement of Residential Architects in the field of Residential Architecture, awareness within AIA of the importance of Residential Architects, the sharing of best practices, and the development of long lasting relationships within the profession and the field of Residential Architecture. Access the symposium brochure with schedule and register now to save $50.
Supplemental Service Feature: Code Compliance
Contributed by Ralph Gerdes, AIA
As codes become more complex, the demand for experts in code compliance expands. Architects who combine the necessary technical knowledge with communications and leadership skills will find abundant opportunities to offer this service. View the entire article. Download the presentation from the AIA’s Supplemental Architectural Services series .
RE: Design Excellence
Contributed by Kenneth Moffett, AIA
Regarding design excellence, I stated on this forum that I recognize it when I see it, and was challenged to provide some examples. Here are a few:
- Attentiveness to definition of exterior space on the part of a building or buildings.
- Confident and informed use of color, which many architects fear and avoid.
- A middle ground for a formative approach, whether outside or in, between extremes of hyperarticulation and hypersimplification.
- Eschewing the Big Effect used demonstrably for its own sake.
- If there must be a Big Idea, give it some complementary relationships. A well-chosen parti, which is not the same thing, would be a more mature overall guide through a design process.
- An entrance that is not the most impressive element in the project.
- Tempering whatever special gestures there may be with scrupulous attention to issues of context.
- The right material for the application: tensile if the goal is evanescent shelter, rather than a glulam grid.
- A Center: a sense of focus, whether within the building or among a precinct it partakes of.
Read the complete Committee on Design Discussion Forum thread.
FREE Webinars Help Your Entire Firm Move Ahead
Contributed by the AIA Knowledge Communities
Host a AIA Knowledge Community Webinar at your office (many for free). Architects receive AIA Continuing Education and interns earn IDP Supplementary Education. A complete calendar of webinars is available online. Many previous webinars such as those from the Technology in Architectural Practice are available on the AIA’s YouTube Channel.
A Field Guide to Avoiding and Managing a Crisis
Contributed by Erika Rosenfeld, PhD
A crisis is anything that may negatively affect the well-being of your practice by damaging your reputation. It is not simply an accident or disaster: these create the climate for a crisis, but they are, with respect to reputation, relatively neutral. It is what you do and say that provokes or deflects a crisis. Similarly, your reputation does not exist in a vacuum: reputation is a function of what others think and say.
Consider, for instance, the BP oil spill, which was indisputably a major disaster. It became a crisis for BP in part because the company appeared to have no communications strategy and because, as one wit put it, "The only time [CEO Tony Hayward] opens his mouth is to change feet."
In contrast, within a year of seven deaths from cyanide-laced Tylenol, the brand reclaimed its top market position. Why? Because the manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, communicated immediately, continually, fully, and honestly, making it abundantly clear that the company put public welfare before corporate profit. As these examples illustrate, the key to crisis management is effective, prompt, and forthright communication. BP was perceived as reckless and uncaring; Johnson & Johnson never entirely lost public trust...Read the complete Practice Management Digest article.
Social Media for Architects
Contributed by Linna “Jane” Frederick, AIA
As a follow-up to the AIArchitect article “Social Media Can Help Small Firms Reap Big Benefits.” We’d like to bring your attention to the 2011 AIA Convention presentation on this topic. Recently Ms. Frederick has provided links to additional resources. If you would like to ask her a question or suggest an area of social media that could extend the resource, login and leave a comment on the library entry.