Issues & AdvocacyIssues & Advocacy

Local Architect Goes to Washington

Next month, nearly 1,000 architects come to Washington D.C. for the American Institute of Architects’ annual grassroots conference. I will be among them, bringing the viewpoint of my profession to members of my Congressional delegation, who have an abiding interest in the things that matter to architects most. Like most professionals who participate in the construction sector, architects have seen tough times since the real estate bubble burst at the end of the last decade. But that doesn’t make the profession any less relevant, either to the economy, to policy makers or to society in general.

On Capitol Hill and in state capitols across the country, architects play an increasingly important role in determining the fate and health of small businesses, ways that homeowners and businesses can save energy and a host of other issues that directly affect the quality of life for most Americans.

On the federal front, for example, the AIA recently won a major concession for the nation’s small businesses – the biggest jobs creators in the American economy – by helping convince the Small Business Administration on February 10 to back away from a drastic increase in the size standard (based on annual revenue) under which companies can qualify for contracts. This regulation is crucial for firms which do federal work, as $190 billion of the $700 billion in contracts goes to firms that qualify as small businesses, and also those that seek financing to get started or expand.

Architects have influence over a wide variety of other issues, from your child’s educational environment to a region’s ability to recover from disasters.

In Florida last month, architects defeated an attack on a concept called Qualification Based Selection (QBS), which requires that selection of architects for state building projects be based on the qualifications of the particular architect. Throughout the country, pressure on state budgets have resulted in attempts by states to cut costs by selecting “cookie-cutter” approaches to construction, which in the long-run results in poorly designed buildings that ultimately cost owners and taxpayers more to maintain and upgrade.

In Alabama last year, some 200 architects visited the Birmingham, Alabama, communities hard hit by devastating tornadoes, and helped citizens determine which buildings were fit to rehabilitate and occupy and which were not – on a pro bono basis. The effort helped convince Alabama legislators to pass Good Samaritan legislation that protects architects and other first-responders from liability for such charitable activity.

Architects have a real life impact. They are frequently the lever – the impartial third party – that regulators and legislators turn to for informed information to make decisions about the future of a state’s economy, or the future of the U.S. economy. When I go to Washington next month, I will have your interests in mind, because they intersect in so many ways with mine.

[Joe Smith is President of AIA Component Chapter]