My Friends, Independent Consultants

I re-posted this on June 21, 2011 with a few updates, visit here.

I may know as many unemployed architects as those that still have a job working for a firm. About a year ago I was nervously considering how the economy dips every ten years or so and as the gray hairs would tell me “We’ve been through this before, just hold on,” I tried to relax and feel fortunate for my job. Since then, I really feel fortunate InterDesign is still producing work and don’t believe any of the gray hairs who are still saying, “This is no different than last time, we’ll all get through it.”

How can we help our friends who are now “Independent Consultants,” but not by choice or preference? Many articles are devoted to helping your unemployed friends by being a shoulder to cry on, don’t berate them for being upset, and don’t lend money if you can’t afford to just gift it. But architects are different. Not that the aforementioned doesn’t apply, but architects need to practice. As the "independent consultants" are holding on till a job pops, here are a few suggestions I have came across to practice:

Autodesk Assistance Program

Visit Autodesk for the opportunity to obtain a free student version of 17 of their leading design software products. While you can’t use this software to do projects from home, though I have a friend who is trying, you can learn the newest tools to be in a better position to market yourself. Along with the license, you’ll get access to free online training and discounts on software certification.

Stay Involved (or Get Involved) in your Professional Groups

Are you a current member or have you recently not paid dues for AIA or CSI? I am aware of assistance programs being offered by both groups to help continue your membership through this time of unemployment. Along with maintaining the membership, be sure you’re attending all the meetings (CSI Indy events, AIA Indy events, Building Excellence Industry Calendar). When an office does get busy, who do you think they’ll call first to come in for an interview? The silent resume/portfolio sitting on the desk, or the eager architect they saw last week who took an interest in the firm and has shown leadership in a professional organization? Be sure you’re not just staying at home, get out there and network!

Update Your Web Presence

Now is the time to take the assets you’ve gathered to update your portfolio (images and text) and build you’re web presence. Create a professional Facebook account. Update your LinkedIn profile. Start a blog and write about past experience and bits of advice. Join Twitter to promote your blog and provide “micro-blogging” in 140 character posts. Link everything together so once someone stumbles upon one of your digital identities, they can easily find all of the other instances.

In conclusion, be sure you’ve done everything you can to “have your house in order” so when a prospective employer Google’s your name; they have good things to read and see about you. Good luck!

InterDesign on the MOVE to end Alzheimer’s!

The following post was created for my office's corporate blog, but I've posted it here so I can get feedback from my loyal subscribers. The formatting is a little different on the company web and you can view the original blog post here. I hope the final paragraphs don't sound too much like a sales pitch. Please pass along your feedback, I'm certainly still a novice at blogging and appreciate any advice you can provide.

InterDesign has participated as a team for the second year in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® in Indianapolis. A team of employees and family members raised money for research to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s and provide programs to improve the lives of Americans affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

This year’s 5K walk started at IUPUI campus and went around the canal. It was a beautiful autumn day and everyone enjoyed the exercise and time together. The walk route had signs illustrating the 10 warning signs for the disease:

1. Memory changes that disrupt daily life.
2. Challenges in planning or solving problems.
3. Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure.
4. Confusion with time or place.
5. Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.
6. New problems with words in speaking or writing.
7. Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps.
8. Decreased or poor judgment.
9. Withdrawal from work or social activities.
10. Changes in mood and personality.

For more information, go to www.alz.org/10signs

The InterDesign Team has the goal of raising $1,000 again this year, and we should be able to get there with a few post-walk donations. Click here to visit our Team Page.

While InterDesign is not active in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, we are dedicated to providing the best physical spaces for the care of people suffering from this disease and the staff who care for them. Our history of involvement in Alzheimer’s and memory care spaces goes back to 1990, with the addition of early and intermediate stage Alzheimer’s units to Franklin United Methodist Community in Franklin, Indiana. We have since completed designs for many dementia care facilities and continue dialog with caregivers and industry experts through our participation with the Alzheimer’s Association and other senior living organizations. Our very own Dan Ware has been a featured presenter at numerous conferences, helping to create a better understanding of the nuances of designing appropriate care environments for persons with dementia. He has championed the use of memory gardens, enhanced wayfinding, homelike design, and other design concepts to provide a better living and care environment. For example, research indicates that the affects of sundowning, a state of confusion at the end of the day, can be improved by providing adequate lighting, reduced shadows, and spaces programmed for a wide range of activities. Our continued involvement with the Alzheimer’s Association and other industry professionals provides us an open dialog that leads to a better design for our clients.

If you need any additional resources and assistance with Alzheimer’s and memory care facilities, just give us a call.

Missions Statements, does anyone care?

Do you know the mission statement of the company you work for? Do you know the mission statements of the various groups you may be a member of? Did you know that your college probably has a mission statement? Do you care?

I was in a strategic planning session yesterday and a recurring theme that rose to the top from the over six hours of dialog was a need for programs. Good programs with value that will bring out the current members and inspire others to join. But when I said we should be sure to target programs that fortify our mission (which we had reviewed five hours prior) I was given the “are you kidding me” look. No, I’m not kidding you, our organization is here to further our mission. Why wouldn’t we go back to that very mission for everything we do? Perhaps I’m too idealist, but what’s the point in having a mission if we don’t use it as at least a starting point for directing the message we send to our members and the many more non-members?

At InterDesign, our mission statement is long, but I truly believe it does a good job capturing the goal of our corporate owners. It includes our high quality standards, integrity, respect, and a few other concepts that we try to embody.

In preparation for my year as president of the CSI Indianapolis Chapter I’ve begun dialogs with the members I hope to empower to do great things to achieve my goals and ultimately strengthen the chapter in furthering the current mission of CSI: “Advance the process of creating and sustaining the built environment.” And the new mission of CSI, but you’ll have to wait for that one to be adopted before I’ll share it here on my blog.

I charge you to find the mission statement for the groups you are associated with. Make a conscious decision to either ignore it because it is irrelevant or to embrace it. If you want to ignore the mission, you should consider whether or not you want to be associated. Good luck!

Differences between AIA and CSI

I've had the great of fortune of having the opportunities to get involved in many organizations. I've also had the awkward position of defending my professional groups from each other. For this article I will focus on my perceptions and involvement with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI).

This post is organized as my history in CSI, history in AIA, then why I am a member of both. Feel free to jump ahead with the shortcuts if you don't want/have time to read the whole thing.

I First Joined CSI
After a little involvement with AIAS and no involvement in CSI in college, I graduated and started my career. After two years of living life after college and enjoying marriage without children, I realized that I hadn’t really gone anywhere professionally. No one in my office appeared to be involved in anything, so I went with advice given to me before I graduated, “join CSI for networking and education.” Feeling a need to meet architects outside my office, I joined and then went to my first CSI Indy meeting. I don't recall the topic, but do remember everyone being friendly and my now friend David Dixon introducing me to everyone as a new member (we met at that meeting).

I was the typical wallflower, but really enjoyed the educational programs and was within a year asked by Andy McIntyre to join the Membership Committee. From here I met many past presidents and found many similarities to my college fraternity committee work.

Within two years I ran for the Board (unsuccessfully) and assisted on several recruitment projects for the chapter. I also passed my registration exams, had our first son, and acquired my architect license.

My AIA Journey Begins
Now that I am an architect, I joined AIA. The CSI Indy chapter meets every month, but in my first year the AIA Indy chapter had three programs (not counting events with additional fees). The final program was the Transitions Round Table organized by the Young Architects Forum. This program absolutely inspired me with Jim Schellinger of CSO striking a chord with my dreams of owning a firm some day, a program unlike anything I had seen through CSI. I decided to give AIA a second year and emailed the incoming president to volunteer for a committee that may be in need and try to get something out of my membership. This was responded with a co-chair appointment to the Young Architects Forum.

In my two years as co-chair of the YAF, we tried to increase the relevancy of the young architects by hosting an event each month, discussing the current industry trends with leading architects of Indy, and telling our story to anyone who would listen. I've now moved to the office of State Delegate for the opportunity to be on both the Indianapolis and Indiana AIA Boards, and step away from planning and pulling off monthly events.

While CSI was great for me starting my career gaining contacts at several A/E firms and covering nearly every MasterFormat division, AIA provided a different group of contacts and different type of learning. Through the AIA, I’ve learned about the business side of the architect profession while CSI continued to enhance my technical proficiency.

Why I'm a Member of Both
I continue to see great value in both CSI and AIA; I also don’t think both organizations are for everyone; and finally, I don’t think the two groups need to compete against one another. The mission of CSI is to “Advance the process of creating and sustaining the built environment.” The mission of AIA is “the voice of the architectural profession and the resource for its members in service to society.”

CSI fulfills its mission by the creation and support of industry standards such as MasterFormat and GreenFormat, through its certification programs, and by educating its members through local chapter meetings, region conferences and the national convention.

The AIA is focused on the architectural profession, not the AEC industry in general. To fulfill its mission the AIA monitors legislation and advocates changes affecting architects, provide learning opportunities covering topics specific to architects such as liability insurance, firm leadership, and advocates good design. Similarly, the AIA has regions state chapters, and local chapters.

As I stated at the beginning, these two organizations aren’t for everyone. If you aren’t an architect, the AIA doesn’t necessarily provide for your needs. If you aren’t involved with organizing the information for the design, construction or continued maintenance of physical structures CSI won’t offer you as much value. At this point in my career, I’m trying to bridge between my day job as Project Architect designing and coordinating the design team through document production and my future hopes to move into Project Management and firm administration / ownership.

I think the problem with these two organizations is a misunderstanding of their missions. I have encountered many CSI members who have negative things to say about the AIA and specifically because of their lack of focus on the things CSI promotes. Similarly, many members of the AIA look down their noses at CSI members as being some type of less prestigious group. If the two groups could understand their respective roles in the industry, perhaps we could all get along. If AIA didn’t exist, who would lookout for the need for professional registration and architect training so the general public knows when they have a qualified professional designing their built environments? If CSI didn’t exist, who would be working collaboratively to bring all of the construction team members (design, construction, owner, and product representatives) together to find the most efficient and consistent process for documenting design intent and an owner’s requirements? We need both groups and others. Once size won't fit all.

If you found this post helpful, or you disagree with my perceptions please post a comment below. Perception is reality and perception can be changed, though it is hard once that first impression has been made. Thanks for taking the time to read!