Klaus Philipsen, FAIA, went to the AIA Convention in Denver last week, and this distinguished member of the AIA did not have many good things to report on the effectiveness of the event.  Here is his online article about the convention:

Will the AIA Convention go the way of the Dinosaurs?

In response, ArCH member Rand Soellner, Architect, ArCH, NCARB, posted a message on the LinkedIn website where Klaus’ assessment was registered.  Soellner’s message was: You do Not need to be a member of the AIA nor attend expensive conventions that leave huge carbon footprints to receive CEUs, which appears to be one of the main incentives to attend a convention like this.  Better to join ArCH.  ArCH has a library of over a thousand FREE CEU courses you can take online at your convenience.  Click here to see ArCH’s library of Free CEU courses:

https://www.archomes.org/membership/ceus-for-licensed-architects

Check out ArCH’s new page:

What You Get From ArCH Membership

which details more than 10 reasons to be a member, ranging from savings that results in your spending less money than what you pay in dues, Virtual Firm support from other ArCH members and much more.  Be part of the vanguard in residential architecture today.

Several ArCH members are or have acquired Revit LT 2013 Suite, which include Revit LT 2013 and AutoCad 2013 LT and a 1-year AutoDesk Subscription, which means they will also receive the 2014 Suite when it is released.  This software was for sale on Amazon for $1,111 which appeared to the least expensive on the planet for a legitimate, registered version of the software.

Revit Architecture MSRP is more like $5,400+/-  and the AutoDesk Building Design Suite is MSRP $6,800+/- (but can be had for several hundred $ less).

Several ArCH members opted for the the LT version, to enjoy what AutoDesk calls: “80% of the functionality for 20% of the full version price.”  Rand Soellner, ArCH and Craig Isaac recently purchased the Revit LT Suite, likely to be followed by Don Duffy soon.  Lori Schneider has owned the full Revit version for several years and is renewing her consideration of that.  Lilija Gelazis is a long-time user of ArchiCad, the Apple version of BIM and enjoys it daily on her projects.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) appears to be the path of the future for architecture and ArCH members are among the vanguard in learning and using this 3D modeling software.  It is daunting at first and there is a lot to learn.  And computers often need to be upgraded to properly handle the larger file sizes to operate correctly.  But in ArCH, you have your fellow Architect brothers and sisters accompanying you on your way.

More on this interesting topic later.  Check out the ArCH Revit Resources page for more information: https://www.archomes.org/revit-resources

Now is your chance!  Check out the ArCH Focus Groups, whose task is to develop the various ArCH programs suggested by ArCH members.  You can make a difference!  Look here for the list of ArCH Focus Groups:

 ArCH Focus Groups

Learn about each of them and see what appeals to your special interests.  You are part of the change ArCH is making for the better for our profession of residential architecture.

E-mail here to become part of a particular Focus Group: Rand@HomeArchitects.com

Hello ArCH members and others.  There is some recent trouble regarding the difference between a Septic Permit and a Septic Construction Permit.  See this article on my website to understand the difference:

http://www.homearchitects.com/septic-system-construction-permitting

For those of you practicing in urban areas like Chicago, this probably means nothing, but for any of our clients in more rural areas, this can be a very big deal.

ArCH co-founding member, Rand Soellner, just bid a fond goodbye to the CRAN-AIA people. Both entities asserted their positions that our organizations can coordinate efforts on programs that both feel would benefit from our cooperation.  ArCH indicated that new members are not presented with an either-or scenario.  Any licensed architect is welcome to be a member of the CRAN-AIA and ArCH, if they so choose.  David Andreozzi of CRAN, stated: “The more representation for architects we have, the better the profession is.”  Rand Soellner could not agree more with him.

For more information about the AIA:
AIA

Hi ArCH Folks,

Please look at your ArCH website menu on the far side of the horizontal menu bar under the Big Picture Slide Show of our website: Blog.  If you hover your mouse there, you will see a couple of drop-down menu items there that will give you instructions on how to do things in WordPress; the software in which our website consultants have created our website.

Those may help you deal with situations you encounter, while you are trying to edit your Firm Page, Insert Media, text, and install URL links and the like.  For instance: you cannot just copy a page from another website and paste that (images and all) into a WordPress website.  You have to install each image, one at a time, using the procedures indicated under the Blog menu choice.

Same thing with URL links.  You don’t just copy and paste them onto a WordPress page.  They will be dead text.  You need to name the text something, like: Interesting Houses, then highlight that text, then click on the Link symbol in the WordPress edit mode, THEN paste the URL.  See the sub menu instructions for this and other techniques under the Blog menu heading.  Thank you!

12-19-2012

Re: ArCH Motto

Don Duffy has suggested this as the ArCH Motto:

It’s not just a house; it’s your Home.

I happen to like that one a lot.

And it may be that this works just fine for us.  It might be nice to have a motto that included something about using an Architect, however.  So if you clever architects can think of a catch-phrase motto for us that rivals Don’s please share that with us.

I am also posting this on our blog, in hopes that we can migrate from these group e-mails to our Blog.  Thanks.

12-19-2012

Re: Click on PUBLISH, then UPDATE

 Hello ArCH Folks,

 I suppose I could have made this an ArCH Blog post, but frankly, I wonder how many of you are looking at those.  Are you?

 At any rate, some of our members have lost some text, when updating their Firm Page or creating a new topic Post.

Here’s what you need to do to not lose your work:

 If you haven’t yet published a Post, then you need to click on the right side Blue Button: PUBLISH.  This will put your post onto the ArCH Blog. 

Then, every time you want to save new text or images, you will notice that the Publish button has changed, it now reads: UPDATE.  So click the Update button, each time to want to save your work, which in my opinion, should be frequently.

 The process is similar for your Firm Page in the Find An Architect section on the ArCH website, only I have already Published these for you, so you will need to click the Update button, which will be your only option to save your work onto your Firm Page.

 P.S.: you can also save your work as a draft, if you are not sure that you want to publish it yet.  Look above the Update/Publish button for the Save as a Draft button.

This post refers to part of ArCH’s Public Awareness Program, in which various problems are featured on residential projects not involving an architect.

See: ArCH Public Awareness Program for more information.  The more of us that talk about this, the ideas we have for possible videos.