Tell Us What You Think of BIM
As AIA convention goers learned in May, building information modeling is the latest technological innovation in demand by clients as a means of streamlining design and construction, reducing errors, and improving the quality of buildings. Please take a minute to answer these questions about BIM in your business.

Gensler’s New Chicago Community Center Breaks Ground
The Center on Halsted, the Midwest's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social service agency, broke ground June 14 on a three-story, 175,000-square-foot facility designed by Gensler that combines community and retail functions. The new $24 million facility will house the center, a Whole Foods grocery store, and an underground parking garage. The center will offer office and meeting space to more than 40 Chicago-area community organizations, counseling and drop-in space for youth and older adults, gallery space, cultural programming, and recreation space. Basketball and volleyball courts are planned, along with a performance space and rooftop garden dedicated to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. The new center is slated for an Autumn 2007 opening.

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE
Sustainability: Inciting a Green Revolution
AIA President Douglas L Steidl, FAIA, recalls that Charles Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities, his novel about the French Revolution, with the words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The words come to mind, he says, as he follows the steady drumbeat of depressing news about rising oil prices, global warming, and the seeming inability of our policy makers to do much about either. So what’s the good news? Read on!

AIA to Offer NIST Comments on World Trade Center Recommendations
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a series of 30 recommendations arising from their investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The recommendations cover specific improvements to building standards, codes, and practices; changes to evacuation and emergency response procedures; and research and other appropriate actions needed to help prevent future building failures. The AIA is preparing comments for NIST about their draft reports and recommendations and welcomes comments from members. AIA members may send comments to agoldberg@aia.org, by July 11. Visit the NIST Web site to read the draft reports and recommendations.

Spotlight:
A Man on a Mission, Restoring the First Wright Prairie Home
The vice president managing the preeminent acoustics-design firm Kirkegaard Associates, decades-long AIA leader, and Desert Storm chief of staff, Gaines Hall, FAIA, takes on the restoration of the 1900 Bradley House on the banks of the Kankakee River in Kankakee, Ill., with a hearty bow to the contractor who is making it possible.

Editors’ Choice: Four Books for Summer Reading
The editors each have chosen a book for a mini-review. From the American home to architectural openings to building with straw bale to the story of Fallingwater, we hope you find something you would like to read this summer.

Happy Fourth!
The AIArchitect staff wishes our readers a glorious celebration of Independence Day. Pictured is the 15-star/15-stripe flag in front of the Octagon House, the oldest architecture museum in the country, home of the American Architectural Foundation, and front-door neighbor to the American Institute of Architects national headquarters in the nation’s capital. This flag went into effect in 1795 to celebrate the entry of Vermont and Kentucky into the union and was official until 1818. The Octagon, designed by Dr. William Thornton for Colonel John Tayloe III, was constructed between 1799 and 1801 and served as President James Madison’s temporary home after the White House was burned in 1814. (Photo © Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA).

project watch
Glam Historic Tennessee Theatre Returns to Knoxville
Team takes advantage of tax credit program to complete vision
Taking their cues from the Grand Dame of Knoxville’s eclectic mix of styles, the design team of historic architectural consultants Westlake Reed Leskosky and prime architect McCarty Holsaple McCarty Inc., restored, expanded, and modernized the glamorous Tennessee Theatre to fulfill its destiny as a multi-use performance venue. To execute their plans for the former movie palace and official state theater of Tennessee, the architects worked with the site’s urban context, preserved traffic flow as they extended the three-story stage house up to and over the property line, and kept respect for a neighboring historic cemetery.

Your Kiplinger Connection (members only, AIA.org login required)
The economy: South and West continue growth and Midwest lags; concrete prices up. Energy: Alternative energy bill coming soon; Army developing photovoltaic fabric. Housing: Reverse mortgages are all the rage.
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.

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

BEST PRACTICES IN RISK MANAGEMENT
Project Manager or Risk Manager?
Just because I’m paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not after me!
When the topic of risk management comes up in discussions among project managers and senior project leaders, comments such as “Is this really necessary?” and “I don’t have time for this!” are common, report AIA Risk Management Committee members Grant A. Simpson, FAIA, and James B. Atkins, FAIA. Let them show you how understanding and incorporating effective risk management ideas and techniques into daily activities can be seamless and feel so normal that it may alleviate the paranoia.

Enter the AIA-Sunset Western Home Awards
Applications due August 1; Entries due September 1
This year marks the 25th biennial of the Western Home Awards program, cosponsored by the AIA and Sunset magazine since 1957. The program spotlights outstanding residential design in the 13 Western states and western Canada. Categories for entry include custom-designed Northwest, northern California, southern California, Southwest, and Mountain houses (corresponding to Sunset's five major regions); remodels; restorations; cabins; mass-produced and speculative houses; and new planned communities. Award recipients will be published in Sunset and in other media. For more information and a downloadable entry form in PDF format, visit Sunset’s Web site.

Join the Committee on Design in Prague this Fall
September 17-23 conference to explore a city in transition
Prague is enjoying a cultural, economic, and political renaissance after emerging from a century of tumult and turmoil. The AIA Committee on Design conference will explore its buildings, sites, and the city itself in relationship to the political, social, cultural, and economic transitions and the permanence of the historical, climatic, and geographic environment. The conference will focus on the architecture and society of the last century’s interwar period, known as the “Golden Age of Modernism.” Conference highlights include a stay at the Jazz-Age Hotel Alcron, just off Wenceslas Square; tours of the Old Town Square, Hradcany Castle, and the Charles Bridge; and an all-day tour to Brno. In conjunction with the conference, the COD is conducting a competition for ideas to design a Center for Czech Architecture in Prague. Registration is due August 1. For more information, visit the AIA Committee on Design Web site.
(Pictured is Mies’ 1930 Villa Tugendhat in Brno. Photo © Peter Lizon, FAIA.).

AIA CAREER CENTER
Here Are This Week’s Featured Opportunities

Global Warning: Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change: A 21st Century Survival Guide by Sue Roaf, Fergus Nichol, and David Cricton (Architectural Press, 2004). The authors illustrate that the only way we can hope to survive the following century intact is to reduce building carbon-dioxide emissions radically and design buildings that can survive in the changed climates of the future. Adapting Buildings is available now to AIA members for the special price of $31.96 ($39.95 retail). To learn more or purchase, visit the AIA Store or call 800-242-3837, opt. #4.

What’s New in D.C.?
Hickok Warner Cole Architects share details on several multifamily housing projects in the nation’s capital via the AIA’s new online news service.

See Calatrava from the Convention: You now can see the keynote address by 2005 AIA Gold Medal recipient Santiago Calatrava that won him three standing ovations, and can earn 1 CES credit to boot. AIA members may take the “Santiago Calatrava Works his Magic,” course for $29.95 ($59.95 nonmembers).

AIA Members Save with United Parcel Service (UPS): Save up to 20 percent on U.S. and international overnight air shipping with UPS, the world’s largest package-distribution company.
Call 800-325-7000, ext. 7600. Reference No. C-000-070-0037

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.

Save Time! AIA.org now features a trouble-shooting Knowledge Base to address your AIA Contract Documents software questions quickly and efficiently.

Members-Only Life Insurance: The AIA Term Life Insurance Program for Firms offers AIA member firms specially negotiated rates and benefits. For instance, if you employ 10 or more people, you are eligible for guaranteed enrollment, with a benefit of up to $50,000 per person. Click here for specific information about this program. For more information about all AIA Trust programs, visit their Web site.