Welcome to the New AIArchitect
We hope you enjoy the new look of the Institute’s electronic news service and find it more interesting and easier to use as well. Designed to complement the AIA’s new Web site, www.aia.org, the new AIArchitect This Week will bring you fresher news, incorporate more interactive features, and offer new services, such as exclusive access to stories from the Kiplinger Letter (available the week of February 10). Simply click on the “go” button to read a story. Check it out and let us know what you think via e-mail.

Changes in Fenestration Standards Open to Public Review
Performance classification for commercial-grade windows may change soon as a consortium of U.S. and Canadian groups complete their recommendations for a new version of the North American Fenestration Specifications. The public review period for the NAFS-2 (aka, 101/I.S. 2/A440-XX) ends February 28, and the AIA is accepting comments from members.

President Bush Sees Advantages for Small Businesses in His Tax Plan
President Bush reasserted his economic proposal January 28 in his state of the union address, insisting that cutting taxes will spur investment, promote growth, boost investor confidence, and jump start the American economy. However, the state of the states may more directly affect architects.

AIA Columbus Discovers a New World of
Award-Winning Designs

Five high-profile buildings top list of selected projects
A children’s hospital, major-league sports stadium, passive-solar spec office building, historically renovated office building, and former warehouse-now-science-technology center make up the winning projects of the AIA Columbus annual design competition honoring outstanding architecture designed by Ohio architects.

PROJECT OF NOTE
Healing Garden Soothes Small Patients’ Souls
Perfecting the trend of creating a healing garden, defined as “an antidote to unavoidable stress in the health-care environment,” Mitchell Mackey Associates infused delights to all the senses into their design of the Olson Family Garden at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in their hometown. The 7,500-square-foot space provides a respite from hospital-white sterility through warm color and a wide variety of texture and form. The architects connected outdoors and interior via a curved screen wall that offers insiders “moon windows” within which to sit and contemplate the garden and the city beyond. (Photo © Dixie Carillo.)

An Honor Carved in Stone
Committing the honor to posterity, Kevin Conley from Architectural Stone Services, Baltimore, carves the 2003 Firm Award recipient, Miller | Hull, into the Firm-Award wall at the AIA national component headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Presentation of the award will be one of the highlights of the Accent on Architecture Gala March 8, cosponsored by the American Architectural Foundation and the AIA at the National Building Museum. The gala is the capstone event at the Grassroots Leadership and Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., March 5–8. (Photo by Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA.)

Need to catch up on recent editions of AIArchitect This Week?
January 6 | January 13 | January 20 | January 27

See the complete table of contents for AIArchitect.

Reminder : You Can Renew Your AIA Membership Online
If you haven’t yet paid your AIA dues, you can do it the easy way—online. You can review your invoice, update your membership profile, and submit credit-card payment for 2003 renewal dues. Visit www.aia.org and click the “Pay Member Dues” in the menu. You need to type in your eight-digit AIA membership number and password (your last name in lowercase letters). It’s that easy—more than 2,400 AIA members already have done it. Questions? Send an e-mail to AIA Information Central or call 800-242-3837. (If you want to pay your dues by mail, you can login and download your renewal form.)

BEST PRACTICES
Learning From Termites
Zimbabwean architect Mick Pearce designed the Eastgate office and shopping complex for his high-altitude tropical downtown of Harare, which has cold nights and hot days. The inspiration for his energy-conserving design came from a television show highlighting natural temperature-control techniques refined over millions of year by insects architects normally hate.

New for You: www.aia.org
The AIA national component officially unveils its revamped World Wide Web February 3. Besides a new look, new navigation, constantly updated AIA news, and a rotating gallery of images of award-winning designs and their creators, the site offers practical, day-to-day tools. Here’s a list of 10 features, many exclusive to AIA members, that can make your workday easier.

This service is brought to you as an AIA-member benefit. The email list used to deliver AIArchitect This Week is maintained exclusively for that purpose by the AIA national component.

To keep up with the universe of information the AIA gathers exclusively for members, visit the AIA's Web page.

AIArchitect This Week is published by the AIA, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects

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