2007 AIA TAP/PM Conference: "The Future of Professional Practice: Integrated Delivery, Emerging Technology, and Practice Management"

Date: December 2 - 4, 2007
Location: Capital Hilton, 1001 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC

(Note: Links within the schedule below provide PowerPoint presentations from the sessions as PDFs.)

CONFERENCE RESOURCES

Best Practices
- Project Management Techniques
- Contractor Uses BIM to Maximize Profits
- The Future of Professional Practice - Maximize Technology Capability and Collaborate
- Understanding Work Preferences of Emerging Professionals

Podcasts
- Automated Code Checking in the United States
-The Transitional Small Practice – Alternative Management Strategies (available on iTunes, under the “AIA Architecture Knowledge Review” Session # 59)

General Resources
Session schedule at-a-glance (PDF)
Workshop white paper: "The Future of Architectural Education"
Speaker biographies
GSA’s BIM Guide
NIST General Buildings Information Handover Guide: "Principles, Methodology and Case Studies”
AECbytes Newsletter #31 (December 11, 2007) by Lachmi Khemlani PhD.
"Reflections on the AIA's Future of Professional Practice Conference," Off the Record (official blog of Architectural Record)

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2

Preconference Tour: Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery
10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Renowned architect and Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, Sir Norman Foster, Hon. FAIA, was selected to design the courtyard enclosure of the Patent Office Building at 8th and F Streets NW. This building was the third federal building erected in Washington D.C., after the Capitol and the White House. Today the building houses both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. Foster and Partners was selected for the quality of its proposed concept, which displayed innovation while allowing for the multiuse program requirements. To meet the advanced engineering requirements for the extraordinary glass enclosure design, Foster established partnerships with consultants and technical specialists in the United States. This will be the firm’s first cultural project in the Washington metropolitan area. The construction of a glass enclosure over the landmark Greek Revival building's 28,000-square-foot courtyard provides a dynamic year-round ceremonial setting that will be a central focus for the museums. The new atrium space, the signature element of the renovation, will become a major gathering point within one of the city’s liveliest and fastest-growing neighborhoods. It will be one of the largest event spaces in Washington.

Evolution, not Revolution
Click here for flash presentation.
1 to 3 p.m.
—James H. Timberlake, FAIA, KieranTimberlake Associates

Timberlake is a partner at KieranTimberlake Associates, recipient of the 2008 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The annual award is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.

In addition to his project activities at the firm, Timberlake and the other firm partner, Stephen Kieran, FAIA, are adjunct faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where they lead a graduate research studio that explores the emerging interface between architecture as high art and the integration of developing technologies in materials science and product engineering. Timberlake received the Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, 1982–83. He has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad and has served as visiting professor at the University of Michigan, as Eero Saarinen Distinguished Professor of Design at Yale University, and has taught at Princeton University and the University of Texas at Austin. In 2001, he and Kieran were inaugural recipients of the prestigious Benjamin Latrobe Fellowship for architectural design research from the AIA College of Fellows. Timberlake received his bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit, with honors, and his master's degree in architecture, with honors, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Concurrent Conference Sessions
3:15–4:45 p.m.

Track A: Leading the Business
Track B: Developing the People
Track C: Delivering the Work
Track D: The Range of Technologies for Your Firm (basic)
Track E: Leveraging BIM and Integrated Practice (advanced)

A1: The Transitional Small Practice—Alternative Management Strategies (PDF, 846KB)
Small firms of one or two that are looking to grow into small firms of 6 or 10 must use alternative strategies to get through today’s most tenacious management issues: sustaining client happiness, having more work to do than people to do it, transitioning to BIM, and positioning themselves competitively in the marketplace because they lack the resources that larger firms do to buy their way through them.
—Daniel Garber, AIA, Fergus Garber Group

B1: Training Your Staff to Be Effective with BIM
Realizing the benefits of BIM depends on staff who are not only trained with software but who also thoroughly understand BIM-based workflow. This presentation introduces the components of an in-house educational program to develop this understanding in order to maximize your staff’s productivity with these powerful tools
—David R. Scheer, AIA, Scheer & Scheer

C1: Beyond Collaboration—The Benefits of Integrated Delivery (PDF, 6MB)
Additional resources for this presentation:
Beyond Collaboration—The Benefits of Integrated Project Delivery
Beyond Collaboration—Contracts for Integrated Project Delivery
This presentation reviewed case studies, contract language, process tools, lean principles, and BIM as a collaboration tool. Each segment gave attendees take-away tools to use as they work toward a more integrated future for design and construction.
—Doug Parris, AIA, DBIA, NBBJ
—Tom Owens, NBBJ
—Todd Buchanan, Assoc. AIA, NBBJ

D1: BIM: Best Practices, Best Results
BIM use in design offers time and tools for building performance optimization. In construction, it minimizes material waste, creating safer construction sites. This year, guidelines from major research efforts were published, and the AIA released its first model digital-practice documents. This information helps to achieve best BIM results for your projects.
—Kristine K. Fallon, FAIA, Kristine Fallon Associates
—Stephen R. Hagan, FAIA, GSA Public Buildings Service Project Knowledge Center
—Anthony Rinella, Assoc. AIA, Anshen & Allen Architects
—Suzanne H. Harness, Esq., AIA, American Institute of Architects

E1: GSA National BIM Program—Successes, Challenges, and the Future
Public and private owners, domestic and international, are standardizing building information modeling strategies and requirements. The U.S. General Services Administration’s Office of the Chief Architect is leading other owner organizations in the adoption and implementation of BIM. Panelists will share first-hand business motivation, development progress, and explore the impacts of BIM-enabled integrated practice on the architecture profession.
—Calvin Kam, PhD, Assoc. AIA, GSA Office of the Architect
—Charles Matta, FAIA, GSA Office of the Architect

Welcome Reception
AIA Headquarters, 5:15–7 p.m.
—Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA, AIA first vice president and president-elect, Devrouax + Purnell Architects and Planners

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3

Breakfast Plenary Session
8:30–10 a.m.
American Architects in a Global Economy: International Practice at the Beginning of the 21st Century (PDF, 6MB)
Additional resources for this session:
Globalization and the Practice of Architecture
Getting Started in the International Market
Good Reasons to Pursue International Work
—L. Bradford Perkins, FAIA, MRAIC, AICP, Perkins Eastman Architects

Concurrent Conference Sessions
10:15–11:45 a.m.

Track A: Leading the Business
Track B: Developing the People
Track C: Delivering the Work
Track D: The Range of Technologies for Your Firm (basic)
Track E: Leveraging BIM and Integrated Practice (advanced)

A2: Why Firms Are Consolidating and What This Means to Your Practice
Additional resources for this session:
Internal Succession Plans
Preparing to Sell an Architecture Firm
Will the future of architecture practice rest in the hands of fewer firms? Are mid-size firms becoming extinct? Learn what is driving the mergers and consolidation within the architecture industry, how to ensure the continuity of your firm, and how to position your firm to thrive for decades.
—Michael B. Strogoff, AIA, Strogoff Consulting

B2: A Workforce of Tethered Millennials: Hiring the Next Generation
Managing the newest workforce of 20-somethings will present challenges beyond the traditional human resource experience of most design firms. This program outlined how to plan and prepare for hiring, training, retention, and promotion of Millennials.
—Cliff Moser, AIA, LEED AP, MSQA, CADFORCE
—Meg Brown, Perkins+Will

C2: Exploring Legal and Insurance Issues in Collaborative Design (PDF, 207KB)
Collaborative design is radically refabricating the future of professional practice as firms explore new ways to give the client a better project. The many creative forms of integrated practice challenge well-founded legal principles and insurance coverage products, which, by necessity, follow rather than lead business and professional transformations.
—Lorna M. Parsons, Hon. AIA, Victor O. Schinnerer & Company
—Frank Musica, Esq., Assoc. AIA, Victor O. Schinnerer & Company
—Charles Heuer, FAIA, The Heuer Law Group
—Gregg Bundschuh, Esq., Ames and Gough

D2: Leveling the Playing Field: Project and CA Management
With construction costs on the rise, architecture, engineering, and construction firms are seeking ways to improve business processes and increase productivity. While at Good Fulton & Farrell, John Moebes, now with Crate & Barrel, acquired firsthand experience on how to manage and share project reviews quickly and efficiently, reduce inefficient and time-consuming paper-sensitive processes, and improve security and document integrity. In addition, learn how Cannon Design uses a Web-based document control system to manage tens of thousands of RFIs, submittals, change orders, and field visit reports in more than 200 projects across North America, allowing the firm to stay ahead of contractors and contractor managers and to meet its clients’ demanding schedules.
—John Moebes, AIA, NCARB, Crate & Barrel
—Gustavo A. Lima, AIA, Cannon Design

E2: Transportation Architecture for the 21st Century
Transportation is a $500-billion design and construction industry, annually. This presentation focused on one branch of transportation—transit facilities and related urban infrastructure. It profiled the principles of transit architecture and dissecting essential design methodologies that are both relevant and different from the design of conventional buildings.
—Tian Feng, AIA, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
—Alan Hart, AIA, VIA Architecture

Lunch Plenary Session
Noon–1:30 p.m.
The Reign of the Chief: How We Got Here and Where Are We Going
—Grant A. Simpson, FAIA, RTKL Associates
—James B. Atkins, FAIA, HKS Architects

Concurrent Conference Sessions
1:45– 3:15 p.m.

Track A: Leading the Business
Track B: Developing the People
Track C: Delivering the Work
Track D: The Range of Technologies for Your Firm (basic)
Track E: Leveraging BIM and Integrated Practice (advanced)

A5: Leadership Continuity and the Future of Your Firm (PDF, 116KB)
Additional resources for this session:
Leadership Continuity and the Future of Your Firm
Effective leadership is the single most crucial asset an architecture firm must have for its future success. Firms that need money can borrow, firms without enough business can market, but firms that lack leadership—today and especially in their future—are in for big trouble. This session will identify the characteristics of effective leadership and discuss concrete methods for achieving leadership continuity in architecture firms.
—Raymond F. Kogan, AIA, Kogan & Company

B3: Future Leaders Focus: Understanding Your Younger Generation (PDF, 5MB)
Click here for Flash Presentation.
What attracts young architects to a company? What keeps them loyal? How do they view their careers differently from older generations? Learn the answers about the future leaders of our profession from results of a proprietary 2007 survey of hundreds of young workers from more than 50 design firms across the country.
—Cara Bobchek, HRAdvisors Group
—Barbara H. Irwin, HRAdvisors Group

C5: Corporate Financial Budgeting: How the Big Picture Can Support Your Strategic Plan (PDF, 355KB)
Click here for Flash Presentation.
Yearly financial budgeting is one of the keys to a successful implementation of your strategic business and marketing plans for the year. Having the financial numbers to know whether you can reach profit goals, support growth, service debt requirements, and payout retired stockholders is crucial to the planning process.
—Deborah A. Gill, CPA, SDA/C Profit by Design

D3: A New Firm’s Technology: Real World Experience (PDF, 5MB)
Unencumbered by legacy data and systems, new firms have the rare opportunity to consider and implement the latest technology strategies for marketing, design, and presentation. This case-study session discussed the criteria used, solutions chosen, and lessons learned by a sole practitioner with a two-year-old residential architecture practice.
—Kevin M. Shertz, AIA, Kevin M. Shertz Architecture + Design

E3: Development and Implementation of Automated Code Checking in the U.S. (PDF, 4MB)
Click here for presentation.
Establishing a process of automating code checking is being undertaken in the United States. By putting the ICC Codes and federal, state, and local regulations based on those codes into a “smart” format—SMARTcodes—model checking software can apply the code requirements as limiting factors or instructional guides to a building design as represented by a building information model (BIM) and automatically identify whether the proposed design is code-compliant—and, if not, why not. This will make it much easier for designers to address code-compliance issues during all phases of design, in advance of submitting designs for building regulatory review and approval, and to more efficiently and accurately assess design options with respect to code compliance driven by other factors such as cost or client requirements. It will also make it easier for building regulatory authorities to review and approve projects initially as well as during construction if changes are made to the design. The program provided details on this process and on conducting automated code checking.
—David R. Conover, International Code Council

Concurrent Conference Sessions
3:30–5 p.m.

Track A: Leading the Business
Track B: Developing the People
Track C: Delivering the Work
Track D: The Range of Technologies for Your Firm (basic)
Track E: Leveraging BIM and Integrated Practice (advanced)

A4: Visions of Zero Energy Design
Sustainable design has forced the architecture practice to develop a broader perspective on practice management. This lecture described successful techniques for the management of highly sustainable projects, including zero-energy buildings, on a global scale.
—Robert Forest, AIA, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

B4: Tapping Future Talent—Connecting with Schools
This interactive session outlined strategies for architects and firms to tap graduates from the more than 100 architecture programs in the country as future talent of the profession and to meet the "talent shortage" within the architecture profession. Further, it helped attendees learn how to connect with the architecture schools to build relationships and recruit students and graduates.
—Lee W. Waldrep, PhD, University of Maryland

C4: Integrated Project Management—Tools and Training
Click here for flash presentation.
See how architecture firms can develop better tools and training for project leaders that enhance client relationships, grow bottom-line profitability, maintain high-quality design results, provide project leaders with critical team-building and goal-setting tools for project success, and create a strong project management focus on project delivery excellence that supports all of the above goals.
—Christopher P. Martersteck, AIA, LEED AP, DBIA, PSMS Resources

D4: Digital Project Workflow—Are We There Yet? (PDF, 6MB)
The panelists focused on new solutions to the day-to-day challenges experienced by project architects and project administrators when software falls short of project workflow needs. They shared their broad range of experiences with new technologies and described how they have applied them to the goal of an increasingly effective and electronic practice in areas including design review, contract administration, and project archiving. In addition, they discussed the factors that hinder or enable adoption of these technologies by the architects and administrators who need them.
—Doris Pulsifer, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
—Kristine Fallon, FAIA, Kristine Fallon Associates
—Aaron Kivett, BNIM Architects
—Thomas Peterson, AIA, Mackey Mitchell Associates

E4: BIM Enabling Stellar Architecture
Building information modeling (BIM) can enable superbly planned, designed, and executed projects of the highest architectural quality. In case studies from three years of the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice BIM Awards program, this concept of stellar architecture achieved using BIM will be presented and discussed.
—Stephen R Hagan, FAIA, CCM, GSA Public Buildings Service Project Knowledge Center
—Derek Cunz, Mortenson
—Tony Rinella, Assoc. AIA, Anshen+Allen Architects

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4

Breakfast Plenary Session
8–9:30 a.m.
Preparing the Next Generation of Architects: Transitioning to BIM and Integrated Practice In and Out of the Classroom
—Leonard J. Charney, Assoc. AIA, Boston Architectural College
—Jill Rothenburg, Assoc. AIA, ADD, Inc.

Concurrent Conference Sessions
9:45–11:15 a.m.

Track A: Leading the Business
Track B: Developing the People
Track C: Delivering the Work
Track D: The Range of Technologies for Your Firm (basic)
Track E: Leveraging BIM and Integrated Practice (advanced)

A3: Resolving the Dilemmas of Cooperation
(accompanying Mindmap Illustration)
Design firms are competing through innovative business practices—integrating partner firms, moving toward open business models, and enabling technologies. Session participants heard from leading practitioners and academics on the dynamics and risks of open technology-enhanced business models and explored a case study to consider how obstacles or dilemmas that block cooperation can be overcome.
—Phillip G. Bernstein, FAIA, Autodesk
—Chris France, Assoc. AIA, Little Diversified
—Chuck Eastman, Georgia Institute of Technology

B5: Teaching Integrated Building Systems and Sustainable Design (PDF, 533KB)
This case study presented the development of advanced graphic media to teach building systems integration and the relationship of integrated systems to sustainability. This project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, seeks to facilitate a visualization of integrated building systems during the design process while simultaneously tracking initial costs, embodied energy, and life-cycle costs.
—Kenneth S. MacKay, AIA, University at Buffalo and Kenneth MacKay Architecture

C3: Integrated Project Delivery—AIA Contract Documents and AIA California Council
Whether you are working in 2D, 3D, 4D, or more, whether you are fully integrating BIM or just testing the waters, this program reviewed two new AIA contract documents for managing digital data and presented an update on the AIA’s progress toward developing an agreement for integrated project delivery. In addition, the AIA California Council led a discussion regarding the definition, business models, and technological methods to achieve an integrated project delivery.
—Zigmund Rubel, AIA, Anshen+Allen Architects
—J. Stuart Eckblad, AIA, University of California San Francisco Medical Center
—James R. Bedrick, AIA, Webcor Builders
—Suzanne H. Harness, Esq., AIA, American Institute of Architects
—Robert E. Middlebrooks, AIA, Clark Nexsen

D5: The Distributed Workforce: Ensuring Quality in the Virtual Office
Architecture relies on a distributed workforce, including hired and contingent staff within the traditional office, on-site construction administrator, telecommuter, and traveling managers/executives. Methods for maintaining deliverable and service quality will be the focus of this program, featuring best practices for managing distance communication, and human resources tools for distributed staff hiring and retention.
—Cliff Moser, MSQA, AIA, LEED AP, CADFORCE, Inc.
—Rich Nitzsche, AIA, LEED AP, Perkins + Will

E5: Quantifying BIM—Benefits for the Architects, CM, and Owner (PDF, 25MB)
Sooner or later most architects say, “Someday, I’m only doing the projects I want to do!” This program will give a real life case study of one architect who set that goal, is rapidly achieving it, and wants to show others how to achieve the same life of design and personal independence. In addition, Gilbane Building Company will discuss some of the latest trends in architecture/building—integrated project delivery (IDP) and building information modeling (BIM)—and their impact on a project from inception through operations. Architects, construction managers, and owners will learn how to benefit from using an IDP approach and BIM to improve collaboration, maximize value, expedite scheduling, meet sustainability goals, and facilitate operations and maintenance.
—Michael LeFevre, AIA, Holder Construction Company
—Michael Kenig, AIA, Holder Construction Company

Closing Session: Town Hall Meeting
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

The Future of Professional Practice Concurrent Workshops
1:30–4:30 p.m.

Track A: Leading the Business
Track B: Developing the People
Track C: Delivering the Work
Track D: The Range of Technologies for Your Firm (basic)
Track E: Leveraging BIM and Integrated Practice (advanced)

A: Building and Living a Business Development Culture into the Future
Additional Resources from this session:
The Art of Powerful Questions
Client Debriefs Can Yield Useful Information
Join Industry Associations for Better Client Insight
Does your firm have a strong business development (BD) culture that’s driven from the top down? Given the constant challenge to differentiate your firm, your BD culture (or the lack thereof) can be the most strategic competitive advantage (or disadvantage). Not only can it mean the difference between winning and losing but it can also significantly affect your project delivery process and the ability to hire and retain key talent. This interactive workshop addressed why having a strong BD culture is important now more than ever, the elements of an effective BD culture, and specific strategies and tools for crafting and implementing this culture.
—Rich Friedman, Friedman & Partners

B: Rethinking Architectural Curricula
This workshop addressed the future of architecture education by exploring solutions at two levels of detail:

Starting tabula rasa, conceive of the ideal education of the building professions, starting from the undergraduate level and proceeding through the graduate level. This focus might lay out the structure of a college or school of the “built environment” and identify the various paths to be followed in the education of future architects and other designers as well as different members of the construction and fabrication engineering fields. Such a curriculum would address the education of architects (in all their variety), architectural engineers, and building construction (construction managers).
Outlining exemplary critical courses that might provide pivotal experiences within such a curriculum.

The goal of this workshop will be to outline one or more curricular structures that address the necessary, possibly revolutionary, changes needed in built-environment education. The resulting education should address the perspectives of architectural, architectural engineering, and building construction education.

—Chuck Eastman, Georgia Institute of Technology
—Stephen R. Hagan, FAIA, GSA Public Buildings Service Project Knowledge Center
—Frances Bronet, University of Oregon
—Renee Cheng, AIA, University of Minnesota
—Tim Hemsath, AIA, Leo A Daly and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Architecture
—Sabir Khan, Georgia Institute of Technology
—Tom Regan, dean of Architecture, Texas A&M
—David R. Scheer, AIA, Scheer & Scheer

C: Focus on Construction Documents: Designing the Way We Work
Click here for flash presentation.
Many firms today are having difficulty consistently delivering good construction documents. Reasons abound. The practice of architecture has changed greatly over the last 20 years. There is an increased emphasis on design while project delivery demands have increased within a shortened timeframe. Technology, while offering an increase in productivity, continues to change rapidly and advances in communication have only served to increase expectations for quicker project delivery. Come take an in-depth look at the forces affecting how architects work today and rethink the management of the construction document development process.
—Michael F. Czap, AIA, RTKL Associates
—Grant A. Simpson, FAIA, RTKL Associates

D: Tips and Tricks for BIM Implementers
This session will provide the attendee with an appreciation for what is possible using new tools and processes to unlock the creative opportunities that are opening up to our profession. The session will show how to embrace change and not fear it. Three issues will be addressed: sorting out fact from fiction about BIM, expanding practice by looking at a lifecycle view of the facility and not view it only as a design product, and introducing attendees to various groundbreaking industry initiatives like buildingSMART Alliance and the National BIM Standard. Presenters with real experience implementing the technology will share their challenges and successes.
—R. Mark Butler, HDR Architecture
—Dianne Davis, AIA, OGC AE/O Consulting

E: BIM: The Value Proposition
This distinguished panel explored the benefits and return on investment (ROI) of building information modeling (BIM) from multiple perspectives: the architect’s, the technologist’s, the contractor’s, and the owner’s. This session was not a series of individual presentations but rather a conversation centering around some key questions:

What is the essence of BIM? What makes it different from the CAD systems we've been using for 20 years?
Who are the players who create and/or use BIM?
What does each group gain from BIM technology?
How is BIM being used today? What benefits or ROI is BIM providing?
What business-structural changes and incentives are needed to encourage an approach to BIM that will benefit the broadest range of interests?

—Kristine K. Fallon, FAIA, Kristine Fallon Associates
—Kimon Onuma, AIA, Onuma, PDF presentation
—Michael Kenig, AIA, Holder Construction Company, PDF presentation
—Deke Smith, DKS Information Consulting
—Charles Hardy, GSA, PDF presentation
—Peter Moriarty, Burt Hill, PDF presentation
—James R. Bedrick, AIA, Webcor Builders, PDF presentation
*Click here for speaker bios of this session.