AIA eClassroom has just added eight new practice-oriented distance learning programs to its repertoire of continuing education classes for architects. Drawn from the highest rated presentations at this year's AIA national convention, these programs offer two credit hours each.

SA03, The Top Ten Reasons Architects Don't Get Rehired
You'll examine how architects can develop and maintain good client relationships while protecting their own interests. You'll learn how architects can limit their exposure by maintaining a good rapport with clients, becoming indispensable project team members, and being proactive in preventing problems in the design and construction phases.
You'll learn:
• Strategies to maximize the architect's chances for a good client relationship
• How to avoid getting into trouble with clients
• How to anticipate issues clients may raise
• How to minimize problematic situations.

Mark Kelley, Esq., partner with the law firm of Miller Brown & Dannis in San Francisco; William Savidge, AIA, director of facilities modernization for a high school district in California's Silicon Valley; and Brian Torone, AIA, founder and principal of Torone Consulting in Oakland, serve as instructors for this course.

SA23, Using Design/Build to Improve Your Bottom Line
Architects were the first master builders, but over the last century the lead role in construction delivery has shifted from designers to owners, developers, and contractors. Fully integrated design/build allows architects to take back control and dramatically increase the firm's bottom-line profits. You'll learn the basic design/build business-planning practices, including:
• Using design/build to increase firm profit centers
• How architects manage risk in design/build
• Techniques architects can implement to manage construction
• How A/E firms can earn a bonding line of credit
• How to eliminate litigation from project delivery.

The course instructor, Martin Sell, AIA, is a consultant to the AEC industry to firms and various educational institutions.

FR26, Death of a Project: The Pathology of Failed Projects
To look ahead effectively to the fast pace of design and construction in the 21st century, we must first look back. We must know a problem in order to solve it. The course instructors provide insights into the entire design and project management process through the investigation of past projects that failed. You'll:
• Review project case studies where construction corporations went bankrupt and the project resulted in abject failure
• Learn how to look for the warning signs of a failing project
• Learn how to respond when a contractor goes broke in the middle of a project.

This course, developed in cooperation with the AIA's Risk Management Committee, offers two health, safety, welfare credits. Forensic specialist James Anstis, FAIA, with Architecture 4 in West Palm Beach, and John J. Curtin Jr., president of Curtin International Insurance, Lexington, Mass, co-teach this course.

TH25, Emerging Standards for Construction Information
You'll learn about the latest developments in the creation of the Overall Construction Classification System (OCCS), a series of classification tables coordinated with international efforts to classify all construction materials, spaces, assemblies, and attributes as well as the new expanded MasterFormat industry standard for classification of construction products and activities and other standards for information exchange. You'll learn the latest developments in the proposed:
• Overall Construction Classification System
• MasterFormat
• International Coordination of Classification Tables
• Integration of classification tables with drawings, specifications, costing, and information filing.

This course offers two health, safety, welfare credits. The course instructors are Gary L. Beimers, senior director, Content Management, Sweet's for the McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group (CIG), and Dennis J. Hall, AIA, managing principal of Hall Architects, Inc., Charlotte.

FR22, Construction Insurance and Bonds: A Primer
Providing insurance advice is an area of opportunity but a service of great risk. This course will help you increase your understanding of the insurance and bonding requirements placed on contractors by A201-1997 (General Conditions of the Contract for Construction) and on owners by AIA G612-2001 (Owner's Instructions Regarding the Construction Contract, Insurance and Bonds, and Bidding Procedures). You'll learn to:
• Recognize types of insurance coverage and their implications
• Understand the relevance of insurance coverage changes for contractors and property owners and their impact on the architect's risk
• Develop strategies for educating clients on construction insurance so that architects are protected against claims from owners for negligence in providing insurance information
• Formulate a strategy to use increased knowledge of insurance for contractors to enhance services and minimize risks.

This course, which offers HSW credit, features instructors Joseph H. Jones, Jr., Esq., AIA, and Frank D. Musica, Esq., Assoc. AIA, Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Inc., and Terry R. Tennant, CNA.

FR49, Understanding the UL Directory, Fire Rated Assemblies, and Other Hot Topics
This course, which offers HSW credit, will show you how to master the Underwriters Laboratories Fire Resistance Directory—that bright orange book on your shelf that contains lots of great and easy-to-use fire-resistant information. You will:
• Understand the UL Fire Resistance Directory
• Learn about the three types of fire-resistant gypsum wallboard
• Analyze gypsum wallboard fire-rated designs
• Learn to determine the most effective gypsum UL Design for your project.

Missy Merfeld, product manager for the National Gypsum Company, and Richard Piccolo, president of B&F Technical Code Services, Inc. (a consulting agency specializing in building and fire protection) teach this course.

SA04, Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Creating Winning Presentations That Get You Work!
This course will help you develop and deliver winning presentations—separating your firm from the competition, organizing the presentation team, and partnering with other consultants. You'll learn:
• How to develop and deliver winning presentations
• How to separate your firm from the competition by finding unique solutions
• How and when to use animation and other high-tech visual aids
• What to do when partnering with other consultants.

This course's instructors are Jerome A. Guerra, vice president, ZweigWhite, Natick, Mass., and Kathryn Sprankle, senior vice president, ZweigWhite, San Francisco.

SA31, Architecture, Light, and the Eye
Using the resiliency of the human eye as a focal point, this course takes a fresh look at architecture and light. You will consider design issues—including daylighting, energy efficiency, sun control, seasonal and diurnal variation, color temperature, and interior lighting strategies—and discuss night lighting issues, including visibility and light pollution.
You'll learn about:
• The relationship between daylighting, lighting design, and stress
• Lighting design terms
• Appropriate questions for team specialists about fixture selection, sun, and lighting controls.

David Nelson, AIA, principal, Clanton and Associates, Inc., and Mark Rylander, AIA, associate partner with William McDonough + Partners, lead this course.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.