Letter from the Chair

The Technology in Practice Knowledge Community is wrapping up 2007 energetically. On December 2–4 in Washington, D.C., we and the Practice Management Knowledge Community are cosponsoring the Future of Professional Practice conference. This program offers opportunities to explore every management topic facing your firm, including staffing, financial management, building information modeling, and integrated project delivery.
Read more about this and other upcoming events.

Featured Articles

Do You Know Where Your Bits Are? Long- (and Short-) Term Access to Born-Digital Design Documentation
by David Read and Jeanne Kramer-Smyth

How does a design firm maintain access to all of its assets created by proprietary software packages for the short term (five to ten years) for legal purposes, let alone any time past that (for firm asset and firm history purposes)? And as importantly, how do we as a conscious profession ensure that the students and scholars of tomorrow are able to access the full historic record when the software tools that created the files in which the design data resides are no longer exist?
Read the full article.

What Is Next After Green?
by Pete Evans

The 2007 AIA Convention this spring in San Antonio, themed "Growing Beyond Green," was described in an ad as encompassing the “Science, Practice, and the Challenge of Sustainability.” My first reaction, however, was "What is next after green?"
Read the full article.
(Originally published by AIArchitect, June 8, 2007.)

BIM and Sustainable Design: How the Two Are Coming Together (or Not) in Practice
by Heather Livingston

As building information modeling (BIM) matures into the promise of its potential of easing interoperability, saving time, and reducing mistakes, so too does sustainable design grow in popularity, sophistication, and importance. To get a feel for how the two are coming together in practice, I asked Renee Cheng, AIA, head of the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota, to elaborate on the issue.
Read more on this topic.
(Originally published by Cadalyst, June 21, 2007.)

The Future of Professional Practice Conference: A Preview

by Michael Bordenaro

The ability to base near-term decisions on recent successes will afford attendees confidence when facing the inevitable business process changes enabled by advanced technology. From university curriculum to large firm management to small-firm case studies, the eclectic interests of the building industry will be addressed by architects…and architects representing owners, engineers, contractors, and manufacturers.
Read quotes and interviews with conference speakers.

Building Information Model Awards

The Third Annual BIM Awards in the Media

In March the AIA’s Technology In Architectural Practice (TAP) Knowledge Community (KC) selected nine projects as citation winners in the third annual Building Information Model (BIM) Awards, five of which received citations for architectural and technical excellence.
Read the full article.

Fourth Annual BIM Awards Open

The BIM Awards submission guidelines and entry forms are available now on the TAP KC's Web site. The timeline:

• February 1, 2008: Submissions due to the AIA
• April 2008: Recipients notified
• May 14, 2008: BIM Awards presentation, prior to the 2008 AIA Convention in Boston
  

Interoperability

As more and more architecture, engineering, and construction firms adopt building information modeling (BIM) software to increase their efficiency and competitiveness, these technologies’ ability to interoperate smoothly becomes more critical. Does your firm or organization have a plan to address interoperability? Are you aware of industry efforts to enhance interoperability? Respond to an anonymous survey, and the results will be posted here in two weeks. Check it out at TAP's blog.