Earth Day Marks the Opening Of Registration For East Coast Green

Tickets and Sponsorship Available For East Coast’s Largest GREEN Conference

The Committee on the Environment AIA-NJ, has announced that registration for its East Coast Green Conference to be held at Bally’s Atlantic City, N.J., in the fall, will open on Earth Day, April 22.

“What better time to open up registration for a conference who’s main focus is on sustainability in architecture and construction than on Earth Day,” said Jason Kliwinski, AIA, LEED AP, president of AIA-NJ, conference co-chair and director of sustainable design with the Spiezle Group in Trenton, N.J. “The goals of both are to raise public awareness about the environment and the path to carbon neutrality.”

East Coast Green will be held on Sept. 16 and 17, 2010, in conjunction with AIA-NJ’s annual Design Day event on Sept. 16 at which award-winning design projects will be selected in various categories.

The conference will be preceded on Sept. 15, 2010, by a full day of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) workshops sponsored by the New Jersey chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. A Green Building Expo featuring green building products and materials will also be held in conjunction with the conference.

The theme will be “Meeting the Architecture 2030 Goals.” Architecture 2030 is a U.S. based, non-traditional environmental advocacy group focused on protecting the global environment by using innovation and common sense to develop, and quickly implement, bold solutions to global warming.

To register, visit the East Coast Green Web site at www.aia-nj.org/ECG and click the “Register to Attend Here” tab. Registration rates can be found on the Web site as well. Pricing varies depending on the package — two-day pass, one-day pass or a la carte items. “Early Bird” rates are available through July 31 as well as discounts for AIA members, government officials, educators and students.

Sponsorship and exhibit opportunities are also available for the event. Sponsors will have the opportunity to increase their company’s visibility in the “greening” consumer markets, as well as to network with leaders and to present their products and applications to an audience of early adopters and industry leaders.

For information on exhibiting or sponsorship, visit the ECG Web site or e-mail Jack Purvis, AIA, LEED AP, at ECGsponsors@aia-nj.org.

“The line-up of keynote speakers at East Coast Green comprises a virtual who’s who of the green marketplace,” said Kliwinski. “That, coupled with the cross-disciplinary collaboration, makes this a one-of-a-kind green building conference.”

Keynote speakers include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Edward Mazria and Bill Reed.

Kennedy, the closing speaker, is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental action group; chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, New York’s leading clean water advocate; and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, a global environmental organization focused on citizen advocacy regarding waterway issues.

He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at White Plains, N.Y.-based Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire, a weekly radio program on Air America Radio that focuses on “corporate fat cats, polluters and media spinmeisters.” Earlier in his career, he served as assistant district attorney in New York City.

Kennedy was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success in helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group’s achievements have helped spawn more than 180 “keeper” programs across the country and around the globe.

Mazria, who founded “The Architecture 2030 Challenge,” is the central keynote speaker. He has been responsible for reshaping the debate surrounding climate change and global greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on the role of buildings. Buildings are responsible for almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions annually, with the percentage being even greater globally. The goal of the challenge is for buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Reed, an internationally recognized proponent and practitioner of sustainability, is president of Integrative Design Collaborative, a consulting organization working to evolve green building design practices into an approach that is fully integrated with living systems.

Reed is also principal of the regenerative planning firm, Regenesis, and the strategic environmental planning firm, Integrative Design. Ultimately, his objective is to improve the overall quality of the physical, social and spiritual life of our living places.

Newark and Suburban Section of AIA-NJ Wins Award For “Live the Box” Design Competition

The Newark and Suburban Architects section of AIA-NJ was recently recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) with a “Grassroots” excellence award for its 2008 “Live the Box” international design competition.

The design competition challenged innovative designers to “re-invent the box” by using shipping containers as both building blocks and primary design elements in a conceptual urban, multi-family, mixed-use project for Newark, N.J. The containers could be used in any configuration or quantity and in whole or in part.

The section won the award in the “Component Outreach Communications: Outstanding Overall Program” category.

The award was presented at the recent AIA Grassroots Annual Leadership and Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., and accepted before an audience of more than 500 attendees by Judy Donnelly, AIA, 2010 president of Newark and Suburban Architects and Kim de Freitas, AIA, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) School of Architecture instructor and co-coordinator of the competition.

“This was a proud and exciting moment for Newark and Suburban,” Donnelly said. “Live the Box was our first international design competition, and we were surprised and pleased by the interest it generated — and the innovative and hopeful designs it produced — from applicants from throughout the United States and the world.”

One hundred and fifty participants from 13 countries, including those as far away as Turkey, South Korea and Romania, and from 26 states responded to the Web-only competition.

The proposed site was located at the tip of Newark’s Central Ward, once known as the Central Business District, near Broad Street Station. The site, which is within walking distance of the downtown and major cultural centers, was originally home to a Westinghouse Electric Corp. facility, which has been demolished.

The first prize of $10,000 went to Felix Heidgen and Thomas Nagy for their design of “NewPark Station.” Both are associates at RMJM Architects in Princeton, N.J., although they worked independently on this project. Noting the many neighborhoods that make up Newark, Haidgen said their goal was to create a project celebrating the “community within the community.” Second place of $7,000 went to Modulaire of Miami, Fla., and third place of $3,000 to Tang & Yang Architects of Savannah, Ga.

Moving beyond the boundaries of familiar urban architecture, the competitors stacked the multi-hued containers in imaginative designs that took advantage of the modular nature of the building material by creating repetitive themes.

Many of the designs aimed to reflect the cultural diversity of the city. The desire of urban residents for green space and places to exercise was expressed in the incorporation recreational elements and rooftop gardens. Sustainable elements included solar panels, wind turbines, rainwater harvesting and compost chambers.

The competition was the brainchild of Christopher Stone, AIA, then vice president of Newark and Suburban Architects. He was inspired by the view from his office window of the discarded shipping containers near Newark Liberty International Airport, seemingly waiting to be put to a new purpose.

“As design standards change and evolve and building resources become more limited, Newark and Suburban Architects has demonstrated through the Live the Box competition that architects remain at the forefront of solving design needs,” said Justin Mihalik, AIA, the section president at the time the competition took place.

The “Live the Box” competition was followed in 2009 by a conceptual design competition for a Newark Visitors Center, also sponsored by Newark and Suburban Architects. That competition drew nearly 200 entries submitted by architects from 31 countries.

Michael Graves FAIA Inducted into NJ Hall of Fame

STARS TO COME OUT FOR NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME
Come help us celebrate Michael Graves’ induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Tickets are now on sale for the third annual ceremony.

This historic event will be a star-studded red-carpet celebration the Class of 2010 is celebrated and inducted:

NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME – CLASS OF 2010

Michael Graves, FAIA Princeton (1934) considered to be one of the great American architects of the second half of the 20th Century; recipient of many awards including National Medal of Arts and AIA Gold Medal.

2nd Annual Green Buildings Summit 2010, June 2

The 2nd Annual Green Buildings Summit, being hosted by the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal, set to take place June 2, 2010 at the Trenton Marriott at Lafayette Yard, Trenton, NJ. Through this partnership, we have secured a discounted rate for our members to both attend and exhibit. Simply enter your member code.

This year’s keynote speaker is, President Lee Solomon. President Solomon was named by Governor Christie as President to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

This event will be the premier platform to unite and meet face-to-face with leading Commercial Developers, Builders, Property Owners, Investors, Redevelopment Experts, Architects, Engineers, Attorneys, Local and State Government Officials and Economic Development Agencies.

USGBC-NJ will present: a custom workshop & Exam Prep course. Featuring LEED® Overview and how to prep for LEED® Green Associate Credential. Which offers 4 AIA LU Credits!!

Supporting Organizations also include; USGBC-NJ, AIA-NJ, BuilidingGreen, NESEA NJ, BOMA NJ, NJAA, ULI, TriState, IREM and IFMA to date.

We encourage you to get involved! Join us at this powerful event.

Sponsorship / Speaking opportunities are limited but still available. Please contact Linda Christman at lchristman@marejournal.com or 1-800-584-1062. Or visit the MAREJOURNAL.COM for details.

Register Today !

AIA Announces New Contract Documents

Our Documents-on-Demand service is back with six new documents including 3 sub-contractor forms. Get yours today! 

Six new documents, including three sub-contractor forms, have just been added to the popular AIA Documents-on-Demand™, bringing the total documents available through this service to 22. Save time and money with this web-based solution, which allows both PC and MAC users to easily access and fill out electronically AIA Contract Document’s most popular contracts anytime, anywhere. Minimize legal tie-ups with the building industry’s most widely accepted contract documents. 

Great for practitioners that only use a few contracts a year. AIA Documents-on-Demand allows users to purchase and download AIA Contract Documents’ most popular contracts to fit your specific needs. Purchase today www.aia.org/contractdocs

AIA-NJ Celebrates Architecture Week With Display at NJ State House

“Design Matters” is the theme of National Architecture Week, which runs from April 12th to 16th. One of the ways AIA-NJ is celebrating is with an architectural display at the NJ State House.

The display of architectural projects prepared by a number of AIA-NJ architecture firms will be featured in the State House outside of Café NJ in Gold Finch Square. The display is open to the public for view from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday during Architecture Week.

If you will be visiting the area, stop by. The State House also offers guided tours, coordinate your visit to do both, so you can do both. Tours are normally each day from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, every hour. However we recommend visitors contact the State House‘s Office of Public Information to verify tour times in advance.

President’s Corner

Dear Members,

We have had a busy first quarter here at AIA-NJ. In these last 3 months we visited Washington DC and met with your representatives to press an agenda important to the health and financial well being of our members, developed a focused educational series for our members, worked with USGBC-NJ to deliver sustainability training at no cost through a Department of Labor Grant, and continue with the planning of East Coast Green whose registration is scheduled to open later this month. In addition, we have actively followed local legislation and policy issues that deeply affect us all, including the budget cuts proposed by the Governor as well as testifying on pertinent legislation such as S239 related to creating a green building standard for school construction.

Architects’ financial health continues to be the canary of the economy. AIA-NJ remains committed to strengthening the bottom line of our members this year. The educational & networking opportunities provided by your local section as well as the State can give you the ability to expand your knowledge and services to attract new and more clients. Our efforts remain focused around the 4 ‘mega issues’ (Sustainability, Architect as the Lead professional, Value of the Architect, and Zoning Ridiculousness) with much activity on several of those fronts continues.

With the recent budget buts, I have turned my attention to analyizing how this will affect our profession now and long term. Our intention is to collect feedback through our Section leaders and make our collective voice heard in Trenton. The early view from 30,000 feet is this as it relates to our profession:

1. Eliminating all compensation for all members of Boards and commissions (i.e. State Board of Architects). While this is certainly an admirable way to save money it will shrink the pool of qualified candidates from serving on Boards, Commissions, etc to only those that can afford the expense associated with serving on such Boards. Eliminating any benefits accrued from such service would be acceptable but there could be an unforeseen consequence to limiting expense and reimbursements for out of pocket costs.

2. $7.6 million for Highlands and Pinelands direct aid will be eliminated. Could have an effect on smart growth and smart design and sustainability

3. Freezing of ½ of the money collected from the UEZ tax that now goes to fund EDA projects in UEZ zones. This will have a “halt” response for further EDA projects in municipalities designated as urban enterprise zones.

4. A 15% reduction of the debt Service. School Districts that have received financing for their projects through EDA will be assessed an amount equal to 15% of their proportionate share of FY 2011 interest and principle payments on outstanding bonds issued. Again, this will drain the pool of available cash for development projects and all but stop school construction in the State as many are already planning major layoffs to offset reduced aid.

We will continue to review the budget cuts and work with the State to get through the tough decisions that need to be made while at the same time pressing to ensure the design and construction fields are not further depressed in an already fragile market. If you have specific concerns, thoughts, or real time stories affecting your practice please make them known to us. The more information and testimonials from our members the stronger our voice.

Sincerely,

Jason Kliwinski, AIA, LEED AP
AIA-NJ President

Important Changes You Should Know About the IDP and the ARE

by Joyce M. Scatuccio, Associate AIA
IDP Coordinator AIA NJ

The Intern Development Program (IDP) was introduced to the Architecture community in 1976. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) implemented the newly formed IDP to provide a uniformed system for documentation and specified training requirements for all interns. Through the next 34 years NCARB and the Architecture community continuously review and change the IDP and the Architect Registration Exam (ARE) regulations to maintain an accurate view of the industry. In the past five years NCARB has made several important changes to the IDP and the ARE programs to keep pace with the profession and bring them into the future. Within the next few paragraphs we will review the most pertinent changes and introduce to you AIA NJ’s IDP Committee.

These changes are not only important to the intern, but also supervisors, mentors and students involved in the Architectural field. The first of the newly established regulations is the “Six Month Rule”. It will be officially implemented on July 1, 2010. The transition period for the “Six Month Rule” started on July 1, 2009 and continues through July 1, 2010. This year period gives anyone who has not started their NCARB council record to do so. Starting the council record within this transition period will allow you to go back eight months from the council record start date for you to list your employment training units. If you created your NCARB council record prior to July 1, 2009 then there are no limitations for listing prior employment training units. However, this is on NCARB’s assumption that you have already implemented any prior training units. Going forward from July 1, 2010 ALL interns within the IDP must comply with the “Six Month Rule”. The “Six Month Rule” states that interns will be required to submit training units earned in intervals of no more than six months. After each six month interval you will have the subsequent two month period following the six month interval to report the time earned. Once the consecutive two month reporting period has lapsed you will loose the time earned. For example, you work from January 1st through June 30th, you have from July 1st through August 31st to report the time earned. For every day that passes beyond the reporting period you will lose a day from the beginning of the period earned until all pervious six months are no longer accepted. Some extensions for the reporting are allowed for certain reasons such as a birth or adoption of a child, military service, serious medical conditions or exceptional circumstances. NCARB implemented the “Six Month Rule” to help interns and their supervisors to catch lacking training areas before it gets out of hand. It also helps interns to keep a more efficient track of their time when moving form job to job. While the “Six Month Rule” affects the way all interns report their training units, IDP 2.0 redefines IDP based of the 2007 Practice Analysis of Architecture.

ZONING RIDICULOUSNESS & APAC (Perfect Together)

By Jerome Leslie Eben, AIA, PP
AIA-NJ Mega Issue Champion

In 2010, AIANJ will be making a concerted effort on our four Mega Issues. One of the four is what we are calling Zoning Ridiculousness, which our President, Jason Kliwinski, has charged me to champion. In doing so, I am looking for a few good men and/or women of AIANJ to help us in making our point heard that the zoning process in New Jersey is terribly broken, and that we intend to fix it! I already have representatives from AIA Architects League of Northern New Jersey and AIA Newark and Suburban Architects. I am certain that the remaining sections will jump on board soon.

At one time or another as architects, we have all been faced with what we are calling Zoning Ridiculousness. Our members are on the front lines of dealing with New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Regulations and individual zoning ordinances from nearly 600 communities around the State. If one looks at the definitions alone from one community to the next, the differences are enough to drive you crazy.

Our Herculean task will be in getting our points across to the allied professions of Planners and Engineers. We can then move on to the Real Estate professionals, Builders and Attorneys who specialize in managing applicant’s projects before the nearly 1,000 local regulatory boards in the State.

Message From AIA-NJ Regional Director

David DelVecchio, AIA, LEEDap
AIA-NJ Regional Director

Joint AIA-USGBC Task Force Issues a Letter to their respective Boards

I have been asked to share with you the good news on the work of the Joint AIA-USGBC Task Force. The co-chairs of the AIA-USGBC task force, (Gail Vittori, Immediate Past Board Chair, USGBC and Clark Manus, FAIA, 2011 AIA President) and the chief executives of the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council (Christine McEntee, EVP/CEO, The American Institute of Architects, and S. Richard Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chairman, USGBC) have provided a report on the priorities that define the scope and nature of our common agenda and the progress made in 2010.

The Task Force reports that, “We are uniquely aware of how our organizations depend on each other’s success for the achievement of our respective missions. We are very excited about the potential of our strengthened relationship for engagement and collaboration….”

It continues, “… We believe that our inter-dependence is both essential and desirable. It has served as the catalyst for the first of what we anticipate will be annual working sessions to assess our collaborative accomplishments and develop a common agenda for the year ahead.”

Rick and Chris, along with senior staff of both organizations have developed a strong plan for action guided by the strategic framework developed by the AIA-USGBC Joint Task Force. This letter will explain the next steps for the Joint Task Force, and the “Action Plan” they have developed provides a roadmap for collaboration within this framework.

First Annual Senior Executive Meeting; Overarching Goals:
On January 13, the CEOs met to begin implementing the Joint Board Task Force’s recommendations initiated in 2009 for new and continuing collaboration. This “nuts-and-bolts” working session engaged the most senior members of our education and public policy advocacy staffs. Joining the CEOs were AIA Managing Director for Professional Development and Resources, Carolyn Snowbarger; AIA Vice President for Government and Community Relations, Paul Mendelsohn; USGBC Senior Vice President for Global Policy and Law, Roger Platt; USGBC Senior Vice President for Education, Rebecca Flora; and USGBC Director of Continuing Education Systems, Thom Lowther.