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AIA headlines this week include:

• Fighting for the Fifth in Houston

• AIA Washington’s Contract Fairness Bill Signed into Law

• Following in the Footsteps of Jefferson

• After Decade of Delay, 2014 CBECS is Underway

This week, the Center for Communities by Design launched a Regional and Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) project in Houston, Texas led by Steve Cecil, AIA, ASLA. The project will focus on the Lyons Avenue corridor, a 22-block area north of downtown. The neighborhood is in the Houston’s Fifth Ward, an area littered with abandoned and vacant housing, following decades of disinvestment and suburban flight. The area was dissected by highway development decades ago, isolating it from the rest of the city. As one local stakeholder put it, “once the freeway was built, it was easy to forget the Fifth Ward.” All of these dynamics combined to tear at the community fabric, giving the area a negative reputation and leaving residents without hope.

The historic area that was once home to legendary prizefighter George Foreman and Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford is now fighting to revitalize its community. Kathy Payton, President of the Fifth Ward Redevelopment Corporation, observed that, “after 23 years, and the construction of over 350 homes and hundreds of multi-family housing units, it is hard to see the evidence of change.” Scattered site development has dissolved the impact of housing investments in the community. The City of Houston has no zoning, so the key tool to control development patterns is not available to city officials. In addition, property acquisition is a complex process, as it is often difficult to ascertain property ownership for existing lots, and delinquent properties must sit idle for 2 decades before action can be taken.

The Fifth Ward faces acute issues regarding basic needs. The area is a food desert, a problem that is symptomatic of Houston’s larger challenges. The city has the least number of grocery stores in the nation for a jurisdiction its size and is ranked 50^th in grocery stores per capita. Local leaders, however, believe that the performance of few amenities that do exist in the Fifth Ward demonstrate the area’s the potential market. The local Walgreens is the best performing store in the state for that corporation and with new investments in several public facilities planned, the neighborhood is hoping to build a robust strategy that will lead to comprehensive revitalization. The R/UDAT process will help craft the approach and priorities moving forward. As one local official declared, “This is not another study. We need a real action plan and strategy.”

In October, the Starbucks Corporation will bring 10,000 volunteers to the city as part of its annual leadership conference, reviving civic engagement with a needed dose of caffeine. Over 5,500 Starbucks volunteers have been designated for projects in the Fifth Ward. The R/UDAT process will take place in the summer, to help direct the strategy for the Starbucks service event and to build a long-term approach that can leverage the civic energy for long-term community investment.

On March 28, 2012 Washington Governor Chris Gregoire (D) signed AIA Washington Council’s contract fairness bill into law. EHB 1559 forbids Washington public agencies from including clauses in contracts that require a design professional to indemnify or hold harmless the agency for damages that are beyond the responsibility or control of the architect. The effect of these clauses was that the architect or other design professional was contractually responsible for damage resulting from a third party’s actions. Errors & Omissions insurance will not cover these overreaching indemnity clauses, so the design professional is exposed to personal liability through litigation. EHB 1559 corrects this problem so that a design professional can only indemnify the agency for damages arising from his or her own actions. The bill will go into effect June 7, 2012. Iowa also passed SF 396, a similar bill, in the 2011 legislative session.

National Architecture Week is not only a time to celebrate architecture, but a chance to honor America’s best known citizen architect, Thomas Jefferson, whose 269th birthday is this Friday. Two AIA members from Utah now hope to follow in Jefferson’s footsteps – partially, at least - by running for Congress.

Stephen Sandstrom, AIA, and Soren Simonsen, AIA, are similar in many respects. Both are members of AIA Utah, both hold elected office, and both are running for Congress. Politically, though, the similarities end there.

Sandstrom is running in Utah’s 4th Congressional District, which is made up of the southern suburbs of Salt Lake City and stretches south for 100 miles. The district is a new one, redrawn in the latest round of redistricting. U.S. Congressman Jim Matheson (D-UT), who currently represents the 2nd district, has chosen to run for the new seat. Sandstrom recently resigned from the Utah State House where he served since 2006; prior to serving in the legislature he served on the Orem City Council. Early polling in the race for the 4th district suggests that Sandstrom’s candidacy would make the general election close, and political pundits have rated the race as a toss-up. Should Sandstrom be his party’s nominee, he has a real shot at being the first AIA member to serve in Congress since 1994 when the second term of former Rep. Richard Swett, FAIA (D-NH) ended.

Simonsen is running in the 3rd Congressional District, against incumbent Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). Simonsen is a member of the Salt Lake City Council and has been actively involved in the AIA, serving as chair of the Regional and Urban Design Committee in 2008 and the Young Architects Forum in 2005. Simonsen is running a grassroots campaign focused on seeking solutions to problems through “diplomacy, thrift, and stewardship.”

Both men will need to work to secure their party’s nominations later this month at conventions in order to move to the general election. In Utah, political parties choose their nominees through a convention system; if no candidate receives the support of 60 percent of delegates, the top two vote-getters compete in a primary. Simonsen is facing one other Democrat for the 3rd district nomination, while Sandstrom is part of a crowded field in the 4th district.

Sandstrom and Sorenson join a growing list of citizen architects running for elective office across the country. Look out for more on these and other AIA member candidates on the AIA Issues & Advocacy page.

For more information about the two campaigns please visit their respective websites:

Steven Sandstrom, AIA – http://www.stevensandstrom.com

Soren Simonsen, AIA – http://www.sorensimonsen.com

Following efforts by the AIA and others to ensure timely collection of building energy data, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA)will soon begin data collection for the next Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). Data collection will begin in 2012 for survey publication in 2014, more than a decade after the last survey was published.

CBECS is a national survey of commercial buildings and their energy suppliers. The most recent survey, completed in 2007, was not published due to sampling errors. The 2003 CBECS is the most current data available.

Survey administrators met with AIA members and staff s to discuss survey questions and expected outcomes of the survey.

The final survey will be completed in this summer, and the data collection will take place in summer 2013. Keep up with the progress of CBECS on the EIA’s site.

For more information on the AIA’s involvement with the CBECS survey, contact Stephanie Spear, Manager of Codes Advocacy, at stephaniespear@aia.org or 202-626-7449.