Los Angeles Business Council Honors Best Architecture
Plenty of award-winning buildings to see while you’re attending the convention
The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) honored the “best of the breed” of the region’s recent architecture projects on May 17 at its 36th annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards. Nineteen project teams were honored—architects, contractors, and clients who have given the city some of the most innovative projects in the region.

Candidates Respond to Questions from the National Associates Committee
The National Associates Committee posed four questions this year to the candidates for AIA office. Candidates were free to address issues raised by the questionnaire in whatever form they found most appropriate, without necessarily answering each question separately. Read the questions and the candidates’ responses, as they submitted them via e-mail to the AIA by May 27.
Candidates Respond to AIACC Questions
Each year, the American Institute of Architects, California Council (AIACC) asks the candidates for national office to respond to several questions of interest to the AIACC and the membership. Read their responses.

Spotlight
Heating or Cooling Your Building Naturally
Virginia Macdonald, FAIA, writes book as legacy on passive solar design
Hawaiian architect Virginia Macdonald, FAIA, who is 88 years young, has written Heating or Cooling Your Building Naturally, Solar Architectural Solutions to serve as her legacy and ode to the principles of working with nature to design comfortable, life-affirming buildings. Through an initial explanation of her principles and 10 case studies, the author relates how vertical ventilation and controlled daylighting—to the exclusion of air-conditioning and daytime electric lighting—can be applied to “the buildings where we spend our lives and that, in turn, affect our climate and the very air we breathe.”

COTE Helps Green Up the AIA Convention
The AIA is working toward sustainability on many fronts at this year’s AIA National Convention and Design Expo, June 8-10 in Los Angeles, including significantly reducing the amount of paper and print products this year, requiring vendors to reduce waste, providing and encouraging mass transit, and making full use of the LA Convention Center’s advanced recycling program. Additionally, the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) will play an active part in the convention’s emphasis on sustainability. Here are three of the many green architecture related events you might want to consider attending. (Pictured is Westcave Preserve: Warren Skaaren Environmental Learning Center, Dripping Springs, Tex., by Jackson & McElhaney, one of the 2006 AIA Top Ten Green Buildings award recipients.)

It’s All Happenin’ at the Zoo
Animals Always, the world’s largest zoo sculpture, was revealed to the public May 25 at the St. Louis Zoo. Designed by renowned sculptor Albert Paley, the 36-foot-tall, 100-ton COR-TEN® steel sculpture depicts 60 animals and their preferred vegetation. Paley worked first with paper sketches to create cardboard models, which were in turn converted to computer images using vector conversion software. The images, in 1,300 parts, were then cut from steel plate. The steel plates were shipped from the artist’s studio in Upstate New York to St. Louis via 14 flatbed trucks. In zoo talk, Animals Always is as tall as two giraffes, as wide as three hippos (shoulder-to-shoulder), as long as 15 lions, and weighs as much as 20 elephants (or 100,000 guinea pigs, take your pick). (Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Zoo.)

project watch
Flying Luxury Aircraft to Soar Through the Skies
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a . . . flying cruise ship? Not exactly. Imagine a first-class ocean liner—without the ocean. Aeroscraft is a new type of air vehicle. California-based Worldwide Aeros Corp, a manufacturer of FAA-certified lighter-than-air ships, has paired with Hawaii-based architects Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG), who specialize in interior hospitality design for luxury destinations, to design the luxury aircraft. Although it may look something like a blimp, it is instead a specially designed craft that operated more akin to a low-flying, slow-moving jet. Both firms hope to have a prototype floating in the skies by 2010.

Your Kiplinger Connection (members only, AIA.org login required)
The Web: “Webvertising” is a new way to reach target markets affordably.
Language lessons: Teaching Americans foreign languages hones the competitive edge.
Tech: Some new developments from academia, including featherweight PV film.
AIArchitect offers AIA members exclusive access to three stories a week to help them manage their practices and plan for the coming year. Nonmembers may subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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Understand the Standard: The Architect's Guide to the U.S. National CAD Standard by Dennis J. Hall, FAIA, and Charles R. Green, AIA (John Wiley and Son, 2006) is endorsed by the AIA and offers clear and succinct explanations of concepts and options in the NCS, a step-by-step approach to implementation, and strategies to take best advantage of the NCS requirements. The book lists for $70; AIA members may purchase it for $63. Order online or phone 800-242-3837, option #4..

Scope It Out: AIA eClassroom’s “AIA Contract Documents Scope of Services” distance learning course, taught by Suzanne Harness, Esq., AIA, and James Jankowski, FAIA, shows architects how to use the new scope of services documents when offering services ranging from historic preservation and site evaluation to value analysis, LEED® certification, and commissioning. This course, which offers 1.5 CES credits, is available through June 9 at a 10-percent-off discounted price, $89.05 AIA members/$121.95 nonmembers (regular price: $98.95 AIA members/$134.95 nonmembers).

How Do I Modify AIA Contract Documents? Have questions about modifying your AIA Contract Documents? Go to the online Knowledge Base and select Content of AIA Contract Documents/Using Documents /Modifying Documents for answers to Frequently Asked Questions that are always available to you and everyone else in your firm. Or type key words into the search window to go directly to FAQs on your subject.

Free Summer Job Postings: Are you looking for extra help in your office this summer? The AIA Career Center again allows firms to post limited-time summer job offers for free on its popular job board. Click “Post Jobs” on the Employers page; log in if you are a regular user, or register if you are new to the service; then enter all relevant information. When you get to “Type” option, be sure to check “Summer Job.” You will not be charged for the listing. Offer runs through July 31. The AIA is working with the American Institute of Architecture Students to get the word out to candidates.

It’s Not Too Late: Register now for the AIA National Convention and Design Expo in LA, June 8–10. Catch up on the latest in design and technology, see the newest products, and meet old friends and make new ones as we explore “Innovation . . . Engagement . . . Inspiration” in the City of Angels.

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Free Continuing Education: After reading the standards and other information on environmental issues and products, references, and more in each MASTERSPEC topic, licensed users can access online tests to earn AIA/CES learning-unit hours.

Integrated Practice: Technological change is one catalyst accelerating radical improvement through the entire construction industry, from owner to architect to contractor to facility manager, through the full length of the project and building lifecycle. Learn more about how this change will transform architectural practice into Integrated Practice at www.aia.org/ip.

Press Tap News Service: Reporters from The Wall Street Journal to Michigan Construction News have signed on to get full access to AIA’s news service. Post your news today.

Free Condo Risk Management Tools: The AIA Trust commissioned attorney-architect Bill Quatman, FAIA, to develop “Risk Management Ideas for Condominium Projects,” a white paper now available on the AIA Trust Web site along with contract clauses, risk management tools, sample letters, statutes and an overview of the high risk condo market. The AIA Trust is also cosponsoring a seminar on “Aggressive Condominium Risk Management” at the upcoming AIA Convention in Los Angeles on June 10, 8:15–9:45 AM. Visit the AIA Trust site for more information.