Green Design: Build a Smarter Architectural Practice with Efficient Content Management

Minimize your environmental impact and Maximize your legacy.

With construction costs on the rise and consumers looking to go “green” in every aspect of their daily lives, architectural firms are searching for ways to improve everyday business processes and increase productivity. Project participants need access to documents (emails, meeting minutes, accounting records, blueprints, CAD drawings, and photographs) for years to come regardless of their original format. A single project can end up filling several file cabinets. Those firms that have done their best to store information on the network still have trouble finding documents at a later date, or not being able to access them off-site.

Technology is an essential part of improving a project’s timeline and helping the environment at the same time. Toshiba will teach you how to keep every member of your project team on the same page, use electronic stamps that show who knows what and who’s working with which particular document version. We will help your firm avoid errors, save time & money, dramatically reduce paper usage, keep to your budget, and go “green”.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - Noon - 1:30pm. This event is complimentary and open to all. Lunch will be provided, so RSVPs are a must.

1.5 CES/LU

For more information contact: AIA East Bay 510/464-3600.

Dacor Stove for Sale

DACOR 30-inch stove: Perfect condition - crisp design with cooking excellence. Arctic white with black ceramic cooktop and conventional and/or convection self-cleaning oven. Freestanding or slide-in. Warranty thru 12/2010. Cost over $2300; remodel forces sale. $850 or best offer.

For more information: Call 510-421-1188.

YAF: Best & Worst Project Experiences of 2008

Best & Worst Project Experiences of 2008

Join the Young Architects Forum July 15th at 6pm to talk about your best and worst (or maybe just not great) experiences this year. It could be about a project you are currently working on, or a project you were pursuing or even one that had an untimely end.

It's a way for us to learn from one another and maybe even get a pulse on the way the market is moving this year. Maybe you had the plan review from hell or the design review that went your way. A client who was totally supportive of your ideas or one who wanted everything gold-plated but with tin foil AE fees. Maybe you spent a week putting together a proposal for a whale of a project only to see it walk out the door because some firm in Thailand could do it for a third of the fee. It happens.

It's a little past the middle of the year and we are in the home stretch, so come on down, grab a drink and let's remember the best and worse for the year-to-date.

Join the Young Architects Forum (it's okay if you're just young at heart):
Tuesday, July 15th
6pm
AIA East Bay
1405 Clay Street, Oakland, CA
12th Street/City Center BART Stop
All are welcome, no cost to attend.
We provide 1 CES/Lu and the drinks!

For more information: AIA East Bay 510/464-3600

Group Health Coverage for Individuals & Small Firms in Architecture and Design-Related Professions

Looking for a health plan for yourself or your small firm? The OWA (Organization of Women Architects & Design Professionals) has provided this major benefit to their members (women and men) for the past 30 years. Two flexible, easy to join plans with Health Net provide all the benefits of a large group plan to an individual or small business.

The lower deductible HMO has strong benefits and allows individuals to join regardless of pre-existing conditions. The more affordable higher deductible PPO Health Savings Account plan has a 6-month pre-existing condition wait period.
If you join as a member of a firm and move on, you can keep your health plan membership as an individual at the same premium.
Firms have flexible options including signing up some staff in one plan and some in another and some not all.
You can join the health plan at any time, effective the first of the month following enrollment in OWA. OWA membership costs $50 per person per year.

For more information about OWA, check out www.owa-usa.org

For more information: contact Anne Jakiemiec, OWA’s insurance broker ajakiemiec@northgatebenefits.com or Janet Crane, OWA’s Health Plan Coordinator at 415 398 4094.

Maybeck's First Church Needs Flat Files.

Metal Flat Files needed to give Maybeck drawings a safe home. It
would be a tax deductible donation to "Friends of First Church,
Berkeley."

(They have been stored for over a year in my "spare" bedroom, but now
that the roof is finished it's safe to move them back to the church.
They were not stored properly before, but this time we want to do the
right thing and protect them.)
Thank you for your help.

For more information: Call Fred at 925-376-3908.

NCVWUG Meeting Reminder

This is a reminder that NCVWUG is meeting next week.

You can view the latest Webex presentation from Nemetschek on "The Callout Tool" by going to:

http://download2.nemetschek.net/nnapub/user_group/UserGroup_June_2008.html

Also, if anyone is interested in carpooling to the meetings, please let me know (including where you're located, and the best way to get in touch with you). I will try to put you in touch with others who are interested.

The next meeting of the Northern California VectorWorks User Group (NCVWUG) will be on:

Tuesday July 8th at 7:00 pm
AIA East Bay Office
The State of California Building (North West of City Hall & North East of the Federal Towers)
1405 Clay St. Oakland, CA
Corner of 14th & Clay, Northerly Corner
Look for East Bay AIA sign

At this meeting, two professionals from the San Francisco Opera will demonstrate how effectively it can be used for scenic design and stage lighting. Chad Owens will present a typical bid set for an upcoming production of "The Bonesetter's Daughter," an original opera based on Amy Tan's novel, and demonstrate quick and simple techniques for incorporating models and image files from Sketchup into Vectorworks. David Hartenstein will demonstrate why Vectorworks is the standard of choice among lighting designers around the world, focusing on spotlight, and how the program is used in stage lighting.

Also, there will be plenty of time for questions and answers. Mark you calendar and plan to attend. As always, you're guaranteed to walk away with a new idea, or two.

NCVWUG meets at AIA East Bay on the second tuesday of every other month.

Accredited Green Roof Professional Courses – San Francisco

Green Roof Waterproofing and Drainage 301 is coming to the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City, Thursday July 17, 2008, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.

This is GRHC’s third course in the Green Roof Accreditation Program. This course will provide participants with an overview of waterproofing and drainage construction and maintenance for green roof assemblies. It lays out technical vocabulary and materials and presents detailed design solutions and implementation best management practices for waterproofing and drainage in green roofs.

Each course is worth 7.5 AIA education credits.

AIA members receive a $25 discount off the course tuition. Before registration, please e-mail Elysia at training@greenroofs.org to obtain a discount code.

Tuition for this course is $399 ($349 for AIA members).

For more information: Please visit www.greenroofs.org for online registration.