Summary: This week, two members take issue with Are CEOs Violating the Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct? article by Bill Smith, FAIA. One reader didn’t like the 2030 Challenge idea of wearing blue on Earth Day to support a moratorium on new coal plants, one comments on excess in Dubai, and still another offers a warning about specialized practice. Finally, we have a nice letter commenting on the use of sustainable design methods in the early days of the U.S.

Keep those cards and e-letters to the editor coming. We love hearing what you have to say.

Re: Are CEOs Violating the Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct?

What did this article tell me? Is this a pervasive problem in the industry? I seriously doubt it. Who exactly are we supposed to credit—consultants, individual staff members? When are we supposed to credit them, award entries, publications? Where exactly are we CEOs falling down, where is this ethics violation happening? There is no information imparted by this article. Do you just print anything submitted? Do I get continuing education credits for this follow up? I’m terribly afraid I’m not living up to standards I don’t understand—my staff may be in peril. God save us all.

—Montgomery Anderson, AIA
Principal, Cody, Anderson, Wasney
Palo Alto, Calif.

If this is intended to set a standard for the profession, I think it is a way over the top. I have been in the profession for over 30 years and worked for some well-known firms—IM Pei, SOM, Richard Meier, and Polshek. I have never seen anything like this. If the standard is what other similar situated professionals do, this is certainly overkill and dangerous. I would not appreciate being confronted with it in a court of law.

—James L. Sawyer AIA
Associate Principal, Perkins Eastman
New York City

The author responds: The National Ethics Council’s activities include informing AIA members about ethical requirements for giving professional credit and other aspects of the Institute’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. This education effort includes presentations at local, regional, and national AIA meetings along with articles in AIArchitect. The NEC has also published Guidelines for the Attribution of Credit that provide further information on this topic. These ethics requirements are enforced by the Institute through the NEC’s ethics complaint process and are not legal standards enforced by a “court of law.”

Re: Architecture 2030: Wear Blue to Show You’re Green on Earth Day

HOW CHILDISH!!!!! and immature…

—John Vivier, AIA
Las Vegas

Re: Beyond Zero: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture’s Desert Experiment

With all due respect to the design and the designers I have two comments ... SIX lanes in each direction to and from a dinky resort island—give me a break! Just another example of Arab country arrogance. Second, they can enjoy this and other GROSS extravagances thanks to U.S. taxpayers paying $3 plus gasoline, VERY CHEAP imported labor, and not doing any thing to improve the living standards of their country underclass that exists for the benefit of the extended ROYAL family.

—Daniel V. Bienko, AIA
Canfield, Ohio

Re: Specialization and the Future of Architecture Practice

Whenever a firm that has a "specialized practice" with insufficient diversity, when that market sector dries up, so do commissions. It pays to be able to do more than one thing.

—Keith F. Silas, AIA, LEED-AP
Vice President/Senior Architect, Robert Reid Wedding Architects & Planners Inc. AIA
Tampa

I enjoyed your article on “Architecture Without Architects”. My mother gave me the book when I was a student back in the early ‘70s, and I've kept it handy ever since.

I wonder if you've ever encountered Jefferson or Latrobe's writings on orientation, natural ventilation, and skylights vs. clerestory windows? If not, I recommend it. In one letter to a new town in Pennsylvania, Latrobe advises that streets should be laid out so that every building has a southern aspect. I guess not many places listened.

In preparing for a speech 25 years ago about solar design in the U.S., I discovered that Williamsburg, Va., is laid out on the compass grid with all its main buildings having a southern exposure. Given that, the Capitol building and the Wren building at William and Mary use large, high windows for daylighting. This seems planned, even though I couldn't find it in writing.

I'm a Virginia architect who was first exposed to passive solar design in grad school in 1974 at Washington U. in St Louis. Our firm has been designing passive solar, daylighted buildings since the late ‘70s; in fact, that's why I joined the firm in 1980. We started with houses, but have been doing offices and public libraries for the last 25 years. I've been telling the Jefferson/Latrobe stories for years because so many of our clients have traditional tastes, and I want to understand that those early buildings were in fact quite green and intentionally so.

—Edward G. Lazaron, AIA, LEED-AP
Principal, The Design Collaborative
Virginia Beach, Va