Summary: This week, readers wrote in requesting that we bring back PDFs for Best Practices stories, praising the article about what motivates people to stay with a firm, criticizing the concept of a green auto dealership, complaining about Kiplinger, correcting the notions of parallax correction, and discussing the ethics of including a green design agenda during disaster assistance.

Thank you all for taking time to write and for keeping dialogue open on these issues.

First, in response to our query, we received 20 e-mails requesting that we bring back PDFs of the Best Practices articles, particularly the monthly series by Jim Atkins and Grant Simpson. We promise to do just that, beginning with their next article.

Re: The War for Talent: Is It Really All About the Money?

Nice article; I hope most employers read it. Thank you,

—Brian Parker, Assoc. AIA, Project Manager,
MacDavid Aubort, Irvine, Calif.

Re: Gensler Achieves First LEED-Silver Auto Dealership

A "green" auto dealership is almost as oxymoronic as a hybrid SUV. Will the AIA ever be as savvy as the APA? Makes me want to change affiliations.

—Guy Ayers, AIA, Architect
Los Altos, Calif.

Re: Your Kiplinger Connection

A quote in the Kiplinger Connection: "Democrats will seize on the low deficit to justify more spending. President Bush will fight it, though. Veto showdowns are certain as the two sides battle over priorities. Democrats want $23 billion more for children’s health care, education, job training, and medical research."

This is trash!! The only one spending more money is Bush on his illegitimate war. I would strongly suggest that the AIArchitect save money by stop purchasing this Bush propaganda and drop the Kiplinger Connection now!!

—Jack E. Andersen, AIA

Re: Copyright in the Digital Photo Era

As a semi-professional photographer in my brief free time from my architectural duties, I would like to point out some misconceptions with the article relating to perspective correcting lenses; large, medium, and 35 mm cameras; and digital cameras.

The camera is simply a tool. With the advent of digital photography there has been a perception that a digital camera is not a "camera." Professional cameras today do correct for parallax in the "RAW" conversion software. Tools like Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom can correct for parallax and have been able to for several years. All digital images have embedded meta data that tells a user of the image what camera, what settings, and what manipulation has been done to a photo. All printing of images these days is digital regardless of whether the image was created on film or not.

I think the article should have really discussed more about using the right tool for the job. Doing quality photography is much like an architectural design exercise. In the programming stage you determine what tools you will need to complete the task. What is the expectation of the client? What is the ultimate size and quality required of the image? During the actual photography, the photographer must understand composition, lighting, the limitations and abilities of their tools, and have knowledge of what the final image will look like on the capture media.

Having stated that, there is not a digital camera on the market that will replace the quality of expression of a well exposed and composed 4x5 or larger transparency. Hasselblad comes close with their 39 mega pixel system, but at $40,000 you would have to do a lot of photography to cover that cost. When considering what to use in my photography I look at the job I am doing and what tools will best communicate the subject matter. That could be a 4x5 camera, a medium format system, a digital SLR, or a classic camera from the ‘30s or earlier.

This article would be equivalent to stating that the quality of work we produce as architects is limited by the quality of the equipment we use to do our jobs. The photographic world is so caught up in gear that it is often forgotten that what ultimately counts is a quality image. A great image is a great image regardless of the object used to capture that image.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I know the architectural world has much more important things to deal with than what kind of cameras photographers should be using, but this particular discussion is not unique to the architectural community and it would be refreshing to see a more informed discussion about this subject.

—Jonathan L. Peiffer, AIA
Principal, Roberts|Jones Associates Inc., Phoenix

Mr. Gersich’s article was interesting if not wholly accurate. Both Canon and Nikon SLR digital cameras can use the existing Canon and Nikon perspective control (PC) lenses that have been used in film for many years. Thus parallax should not be a problem for any well-equipped professional photographer using digital media to record images. In addition, the latest versions of Photoshop CS3 also provide for perspective correction in the digital negatives during production.

However, the main point is well taken: professional architectural photographers should be treated with the same level of respect for their instruments of service as we desire from our clients.

—John W. Sorce AIA, Vice President - Office of Risk Management & Technical Standards
DMJM H&N, Phoenix

Re: Greensburg, Kan., Now More than Just a Name

I am encouraged about how the AIA is taking action to help the people of Greensburg, Kan., recover from this tremendous disaster of their town. However upon reading this article, I became very concerned about the AIA's apparent "green and sustainable" agenda being pushed on the townspeople of Greensburg.

The people of Greensburg lost everything, their homes, work, schools, places of worship, and, in many cases, their family and friends. In a time of great need, we as design professionals should be focused on helping those to meet their basic need of shelter. While I do believe that "green and sustainable design" is good, pushing this agenda on the town into trying to make Greensburg an "example" should not be priority for the AIA. The statements made in the article "What we’re really trying to prevent and to be there in time to do is to keep a lot of cheap, non-green, energy-inefficient housing and businesses from happening in a scattered way..." and "Residents and businesses are already bringing in temporary metal buildings and doublewide trailers..." caused me to personally be ashamed of being a part of the AIA. Who in the hell are we to tell the people of Greensburg during a time of desperate need that what they should build should not be "cheap, metal buildings or doublewides," but should be "green and sustainable"?!!!? If I had lost everything, a simple tent might be the very thing I need to provide shelter for my family, and may be all I could afford.

Where is our compassion in this profession or the AIA? If we are simply going to push our "design agendas" on the general public, then we need to totally rethink what our profession and the AIA is all about.

—Mark A. Masters, AIA, President
Masters Gentry Architects PA, Asheville, N.C.