Issues & AdvocacyIssues & Advocacy

Contact | Federal Relations | State Relations | Local Relations |Codes Advocacy | Communities by Design | Advocacy365

AIA headlines this week include:

• A Citizen Architect on the Move in Texas

• Architects Connect Design to Policy

• Emerging Professionals – Take Charge of Your Future by Changing the Codes and Standards that Regulate Practice

Bill T. Wilson, II, FAIA is currently running for political office in Texas, seeking to be the next representative of State House District 43. Listen to this recent podcast interview with Bill to hear about his civic engagement and what encouraged him to become more involved and run for office.

Bill is a founding principal and Vice President with the 30-person firm of WKMC Architects, Inc. with offices in Corpus Christi, Dallas, and Austin. His practice specialty is the design of public educational facilities and Bill leads the firm’s Educational Facility Design Studio. During the last decade he has led the planning, design or management of nearly $300 million dollars of public educational facilities.

Bill is on the AIA National Board of Directors as a Regional Director from Texas, he is the past president of the Texas Society of Architects, and is also the past Chairman of the TSA Government Affairs Committee. He is also the former State Chairman of the TSA’s Political Action Committee, the Texas Architects Committee. Bill has been deeply involved for over a decade in shaping state legislation and policy for public construction in Texas and would like to continue this legacy as the next state legislator from Texas’ 43^rd District.

A time of staggering budget deficits at all levels of government and increased cynicism among the public might seem like an inopportune moment to celebrate the importance of architecture in the policy arena. But AIA architects are showing that when it comes to the major issues facing our nation and world, design really does matter.

As thousands of design professionals prepare to descend on the nation’s capital for the AIA 2012 National Convention and Design Exposition, the AIA Issues & Advocacy page is devoting the next month to exploring how architects are advocating for good design policy before elected officials and how you can help made the case that architecture matters more than ever.

This month alone the AIA will feature several programs and initiatives to highlight the relationship between good design and good public policy:

The Moynihan Symposium on Public Design: Fifty years after the publication of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s seminal Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, join fellow design professionals and government leaders prior to the AIA National Convention to discuss the challenges and opportunities for great public architecture. Read more here.

More: AIA National Convention Sessions to Help Architects Connect to Government.

State Department Launches Design Excellence Program. Read more.

AIA Health and Design Initiative – The AIA is working collaboratively with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) on a long-term Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment, Decade of Design: The AIA Urban and Regional Solutions Challenge, with the first area of research focused on design and health. Read more here. A streaming webinar is being produced for CGI that will feature Dr. Richard Jackson and a distinguished panel of experts discussing the important role of architects in designing the built environment to positively influence the state of America’s health.

AIA Defends Qualifications-Based Selection in States.  Across the country, AIA architects are helping protect good design in state capitals by blocking efforts to repeal qualifications-based selection laws. Read how AIA-Florida defended QBS in Tallahassee.
Learn more about the importance of QBS to good design.

AIA Design Assistance Team Program Connects Communities to Design. For over 45 years, the DAT program has brought together multidisciplinary teams of professionals from across the country to work with communities to develop a vision and framework for a sustainable future.  Collectively, the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) and the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) programs have provided millions of dollars in professional pro bono services to more than 200 communities across the country.

Architects and architects-in-the-making are often called upon to do code analyses, take drawings into building departments to apply for permits, and do code checks of drawings before they go out of the office. These activities are often not seen as important, or at most secondary to the design of buildings; but that could not be further from the truth, especially with the advent of stretch energy codes, and now, the International Green Construction Code. The AIA is eager to hear from architects that work with code provisions on a day to day basis, as they are the individuals who are best suited to commenting on and ultimately improving the model codes over time. The IgCC 2015 will now be included in “part C” of the 2015 Code Cycle, with a public comment period and final action hearing in 2014.

The most recent opportunity lies in the comment period for the latest version of the National Green Building Standard. The Second Draft Standard is now open for public comment. Public comments must be submitted by June 11, 2012 via a web-based form. Instructions for submitting public comments are provided with the form. Please consider participating in the comment period, and check out www.aia.org/codesadvocacy for other opportunities to participate in comment periods on codes and standards.