AIA eClassroom is pleased to offer the first distance-ed programs fresh from the AIA national convention last month in Chicago: “Steel Prices: Helping Your Clients Cope” and “How to Run and Manage a Residential Design Practice.” Both offer 1.5 learning units and are available to AIA members for a special introductory price of $49.95 ($99.95 for nonmembers) during July.

“Steel Prices: Helping Your Clients Cope” (FR70) is a video and slide presentation and requires high-speed Internet connection.

Skyrocketing prices of construction materials in the first quarter of the year prompted the AIA to convene this panel to explain how the situation developed, where it is going, and how architects, contractors, and steel suppliers can work together to help the client cope. At the end of this course, attendees will understand:

• Supply and demand influences on the world market of construction supplies
• Current anomalies in the world-market supply chain that are causing construction-materials shortages and price surges
• The workings of the supply/demand dynamic of the construction-materials market that affect the client’s budget, as well as the contractor’s and architect’s ability to meet those budget requisites.

Serving on the panel for this seminar were:

• Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA, chief economist of the AIA and project director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University
• John Cross, PE, vice president of marketing for the American Institute of Steel Construction
• Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA, moderator for the panel, who serves as director of AIA editorial development and executive editor of AIArchitect
• Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America.

Visit AIA eClassroom to learn more about this program.

“How to Run and Manage a Residential Design Practice” (TH20) is an audio program with slides taught by renowned residential architect and author Sarah Susanka, AIA, principal of Susanka Studios, and author of the popular “Not So Big House” book series. Susanka dispells the myth of many architects who believe they can't make a living through residential design because there is so little money in it and so many client expectations. In the seminar, you will learn:

• How to grow your residential design practice and take it to the next level
• The ground rules for developing a residential clientele
• How to serve and delight such clients
• To identify professional services the market demands and deliver them effectively.

Visit AIA eClassroom to learn more about this program.

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