A growing collection of “how-to” guides, by a variety of authors (including me). Click on a title to download a PDF.
AIA Continuing Education Credit
AIA members can receive continuing education credit for “Self-Designed Activities.” For such activities, you receive credit for the time spent in direct learning, which can include “time you spent researching new product information, preparing for lectures, presentations, study-travel, computer programs, self-study, etc. ” The activity must take a minimum of one hour, with additional credit given in quarter hour increments. HSW (Health, Safety, and Welfare) credit is not available. If you find any of the material available here to be of educational value–either by itself or in combination with other resources–please consider reporting the time you spend for AIA Continuing Education System (AIA/CES) credit. A Self Report Form is available at
http://www.aia.org/education/index.htm; you must sign in with your AIA member number in the left-hand column.
The handout from a presentation I gave at the 2006 AIA Convention in Los Angeles. “Why promote the value of design? Because it’s what we profess, it’s what we love. Because of the emotions we feel when we’re in a remarkable space, and because we want others to enjoy those emotions. But also because it’s our business, it’s how we make a living. And because it’s better for everyone if we are paid to do our best. So we promote the value of design to align business with goodness.”
Amazing arcCA Design Awards Guide
From arcCA 07.3, “Comparing Awards,” an extensive guide to national and international architecture design awards programs. Proven effective.
Confessions of a Design Reviewer: Ten Guidelines for Coming Out As an Architect
Drawing on her experience as a member of Denver’s Lower Downtown Design and Demolition Review Board, Wendy Kohn offers sage advice on how to behave–and how not to behave–at a Design Review hearing. From arcCA 07.2, “Design Review.”
Some people are comfortable telling others their accomplishments and abilities, and others aren’t. Here are some suggestions for tooting your horn without feeling like a big wind-bag.
If you’ve ever been asked to take over a project that had been begun by another architect, you know that this process (known as “supplanting”) can be fraught with problems. Kurt Cooknick, Assoc. AIA, Director of Regulation & Practice for the AIA California Council, offers advice.
Thank You For Submitting: Advice for the Award-Lorn
David Meckel, FAIA, provides insightful counsel to those who are flummoxed by the process of submitting for design awards. From arcCA 07.3, “Comparing Awards.”
For architects who may be frustrated by the general public’s lack of understanding of architecture, here are some tips for drawing others into the fold, graciously. This version was selected for the AIA’s Best Practices series and is available online here.
My review of Integrated Project Delivery: Case Studies, researched and reported by Jonathan Cohen, FAIA, which is available, at no charge, at http://www.aia.org/ipdcasestudies.
Work Plans from the Client’s Perspective
Michael Strogoff, FAIA, explains how to communicate effectively that your work plan is based on client benefit.
A concise guide to the process by Sasha Culvahouse, age 6.
For possible AIA/CES/HSW credit, by Theo Culvahouse, age 6.
Sidewalk Plazas
Public Architecture’s Open Space Strategy proposes to reconfigure San Francisco’s Folsom and Howard as two-way streets, while still accommodating intensive traffic. At the heart of the plan is a proposal to make Folsom more pedestrian-oriented, with generous sidewalks creating new spaces for a variety of outdoor activities and urban amenities. These generous sidewalks, or Sidewalk Plazas, would be installed incrementally, programmed with diverse public amenities, keyed to the particular conditions of SoMa’s varying uses.
Since 2000, I have edited arcCA (Architecture California), the quarterly journal of the AIA California Council. Other consulting projects for the AIACC have included the consolidation and editing of the Council’s Long Range Plan and the editing of A Century of California Architecture, a centennial history of the Division of the State Architect.
Other clients include:
Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
The Office of Charles F. Bloszies, AIA
John Peterson, AIA, founder, Public Architecture
Kati Rubinyi & Associates, Research & Consulting
Starkweather Bondy Architecture, LLP
Pamela Touschner, FAIA, DLR Group
Other clients include :
The Office of Charles F. Bloszies, AIA
Starkweather Bondy Architecture, LLP
Places: Forum for the Design of the Public Realm
These entries are samples from among approximately two hundred observations on the spatial character of New Orleans, which I’m preparing for publication in book form. A series of articles based on this material, published on Places:Design Observer, begins with “Stoop, Balcony, Pilot House: Making It Right in the Lower Ninth Ward.”
Kelly Macy / Kelly Macy Creative
Kelly Macy Creative is based in San Francisco, California. The practice is broad based, providing full spectrum design services for public, non-profit and private institutions.
Jeremy Mende / MendeDesign
Jeremy Mende is the principal and creative director of MendeDesign, a visual communications firm that specializes in producing memorable, poetic, and uniquely focused messages and images for design-centric clients. Areas of expertise include brand definition, identity, marketing collateral, image design, monograph design, and online experience/website design. MendeDesign, when questioned, will deny being Modernists but will enthusiastically admit to a belief in beauty and its enduring social value.