Tuesday, November 25, 2008

AIA SF Design For Aging Committee, DECEMBER MEETING

Dear Committee Members-
This is an early reminder that our next meeting is-

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008 at NOON to 1 pm
AIA San Francisco
130 Sutter Street, Suite 600 San Francisco


We will be covering the following topics for the Agenda-
Recent CDDIC (Care Delivery and Design Improvement Committee) in Sacramento (with OSHPD and other state officials.)
Review of the Eskaton Model Home in Roseville.
Overview of the recent tour of two AgeSong buildings (one a renovation of an older structure)
Overview and update of the recent Post Occupancy Evaluation of Mission Creek Community
Review and discussion of the national Green House design competition.
Hope to see you then, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all

Tom Brutting/Committee Chair

Structural Engineering: The Architects' Role in Reducing Business Interruption

In this ninety minute program, leading structural engineer Kurt R. Lindorfer will share his knowledge of seismic vulnerability and building performance during earthquakes for commercial structures. With particular emphasis on "mission critical" business such as data centers, hospitals, laboratories, and manufacturing operations that must remain in operation following a significant seismic event, Mr. Lindorfer will touch on new technology options in retrofitting or new construction and best practices in structural engineering and structural obstacles and provide brief case studies. He'll also highlight ways that architects can effectively promote retrofitting projects and seismic enhancement for new buildings to owners and end users.

Participants in this program will gain a more thorough understanding of how buildings perform during earthquakes and be able to evaluate new technologies in structural enhancement and retrofitting. You will learn how to be more effective in promoting retrofitting projects, resulting in bottom line savings to clients. In addition, you will gain a more thorough understanding of how the new building code addresses performance of buildings versus previous prescriptive design.

Mr. Lindorfer is the founding principal of PARADIGM Structural Engineers, Inc., a leading structural engineering firm in San Francisco. In more than 26 years of providing engineering solutions for architects and owners of diverse commercial facilities in earthquake country, Mr. Lindorfer has developed a particular expertise in the evaluation of building vulnerability and improvement of building performance during and in the aftermath of seismic events. Mr. Lindorfer has designed and advised on numerous projects for companies in San Francisco and along the Hayward Fault in the East Bay. He specializes in "mission critical" commercial facilities such as data centers, hospitals, laboratories and other 24-hour operations, as well as historic properties in the East Bay. His clients include Bayer, Kaiser Permanente, Equinix, and Bank of America.

12/10/08
Lunchtime Learning: Business Interrupted? Structural Improvements That Cut Disaster Losses
Kurt R. Lindorfer, SE, of PARADIGM Structural Engineers, Inc., will discuss building performance during large earthquakes and building vulnerability. He will demonstrate how seismic structural enhancements for new construction and seismic retrofitting saves lives, property and money.
Time: Noon - 1:30pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland
Contact: 510/464-3600
Cost: None; This program is open to all. Lunch provided. Please
RSVP.
1.5 CES/LUs


For more information: 510/464-3600

Tour: Jewish Home for the Aged

The Design for Aging committee has a confirmed invitation to tour the Jewish Home for the Aged on Friday, January 16, 2009 at 3:00 pm. It is located at 302 Silver Avenue and Mission Street in San Francisco.

Email
sstoller@sgpa.com if you would like to be on the attendee list.

For more information: sstoller@sgpa.com

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Green Financing Options: The Value of Green Building

Please join the Green Affordable Housing Coalition on December 9th for a lender forum with representatives from Wells Fargo and CITI to explore both the underwriting and appraisal processes for high performance, multifamily buildings. Find out from the experts themselves what critical factors are considered for underwriting and get and insider view of the appraisal and valuation process of high performance elements. Let the professionals teach you the art of working the appraisal!

We will briefly talk about the role of intermediaries in leading the way in green underwriting, including local green loan funds from organizations like the Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC) and the Enterprise Foundation.

Guest Speakers include; Merle Malakoff (CITI) , James Finlay (VP, Appraisal Manager, Wells Fargo RETECHS - LA), and Peggy Jen (LISC/NEF).

12/9/08
Green Affordable Housing Coalition Presents -
Green Financing Options: The Value of Being Green
Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland
Contact: 510/464-3600
Cost: $15 for Build It Green Members, $25 for Non-Members. Lunch will be provided.

AIA East Bay Members Click Here For Registration, and select "Build It Green" to recieve the member rate.
1.5 CES/LU

For more information: 510/464-3600

An Introduction to Construction with Light-Gauge, Cold-Formed Structural Steel

Codding Steel Frame Solution Malcolm Davies invite you to a Lunchtime Learning CES program at AIA East Bay on December 2nd to discuss the benefits of designing and building with cold-form steel.

Malcolm Davies - PhD in Architecture & Building Science, VP of Business Development for Codding Steel Frame Solutions, will explain performance characteristics of light-gauge, cold-formed structural steel panels; identify situations when the use of light-gauge, cold-formed, structural steel offer advantages over other forms of construction. Finally, Mr. Davies will discuss the sustainable aspects of light-gauge, cold- formed structural steel.

12/2/08
Lunchtime Learning: An Introduction to Construction with Light-Gauge, Cold-Formed, Structural Steel
Time: Noon - 1:00pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland
Contact: 510/464-3600
Cost: None; this program is open to all. Please
RSVP by 5pm 12/01/08 to have a sandwich ordered for you.
1 CES/LU



For more information: 510/464-3600

Cost Estimating Part III - Best Practices

Join us on November 20th for the third part of the Professional Practice Forum - Cost Estimating Best Practices!

This forum will teach participants how to build relationships with their cost estimator, ultimately aiding in the ROI. You will learn the necessary steps to breakdown various components of an estimate, and how to analyze these components clearly. After this forum, you will better understand how to maximize the knowledge and value that a cost estimate can provide.

11/20/08
Professional Practice Forum: Cost Estimating (Part 3) Best Practices
Time: Noon-1:00 pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland.
Contact: 510/464-3600 or Tim Craig, AIA Cost: None; this program open to all. Brown Bag Lunch, drinks provided. Please RSVP
1 CES/LU


For more information: 510/464-3600

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Business Development: A Strategic Marketing Plan

Join us on November 19, 2008 at the AIA East Bay Chapter Offices from noon - 1:30pm as Beth Steinberg's explores how design firms can develop "workable" strategies to expand and maintain their client base. Beth will emphasize balancing the client's needs with the firms strengths as well as building networking techniques, developing a more structured marketing approach and improving communication with internal and external contacts.

This program will teach participants how to limit their client pursuits by recognizing their own areas of excellence as well as understanding the traits to look for in a client. It will also teach participants how to use strategic and opportunistic approaches to win clients through proactive methods. Participants will learn the pros and cons of cold calling, and how to make cold calls work for them. After taking this program participants will also understand the skills necessary to build client relationships that last and increase their firm’s potential for repeat clients.

With over 15 years experience in architecture, engineering and the construction industry, Beth Steinberg is widely recognized for her passion for sustainable design, her strong work ethic, networking practices, creative marketing strategies and effective training skills. Her firm, Market by Design, is not your ordinary marketing consulting company. Beth recognizes the many challenges that face the design and construction industry, including: increased competition, fewer opportunities, as well as a shrinking pool of technical talent. Beth is committed to providing her clients with a cost effective alternative and resource for thoughtful strategy, solid business development tools, cutting edge marketing practices and excellent training.

11/18/08
Business Development: A Strategic Marketing Plan
Time: noon - 1:30pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland
Cost: None, this is a brown bag lunch. Please RSVP .
1.5 CES Lus

For more information: 510/464-3600

Monday, November 17, 2008

Wood Design Awards Call for Nominations

WoodWorks California is accepting nominations for six wood design awards, which will be presented on January 20, 2009 at the Wood Solutions Fair in Long Beach. There is no cost to submit a nomination, but entries must apply to designers, firms and/or projects based in California and must be received by January 7, 2009.


Rules and nomination forms
Event
Winners
Click here to view the 2008 Wood Design Awards winners.

Enter in one or more of the following categories:

Engineering
This award recognizes engineers or engineering firms that regularly specify, design or build commercial, industrial and institutional projects using wood. It acknowledges those individuals or firms that contribute to the selection of wood in a project, lead the way for future projects in wood and contribute to the creation of innovative wood structures that push the boundaries of conventional wood building practice.


Institutional Wood Design
The healing and learning properties associated with a wood environment have been well documented. This award recognizes the aesthetic benefits of wood in institutional applications such as schools, churches, hospitals, long-term care facilities, libraries, and municipal buildings, including recreational facilities (such as arenas, pools and park facilities), which have demonstrated wood’s strength, beauty, versatility, cost-effectiveness and/or other qualities.

Commercial Wood Design
This category recognizes the creators of commercial projects that push the limits of wood design in industrial buildings, offices, stores, malls, lodges, clubhouses and other public spaces. Nominations will be judged on the basis of showcasing qualities of wood such as strength, beauty, versatility, and cost-effectiveness.

Green Building
Wood contributes to building high performance by reducing energy use, pollution and overall environmental impact, and making efficient use of resources. Entries in the green building category should demonstrate how some or all of these principles have been applied in the building’s design and construction.

Interior Beauty of Wood
This category recognizes the extensive use of wood inside a non-residential structure. Consideration is given to the interior of buildings where wood products are used extensively in any variety of applications. This could include, but is not exclusive to, ceilings, soffits, wall paneling, flooring, door and window trims, shelving, storage or entertainment centers, and bookcases.


Multi-Unit Wood Design
Wood Design Awards honor the creators of new projects that push the limits of wood design in structures that demonstrate excellence in the use of wood. Winning projects will showcase the special qualities of wood such as strength, durability, beauty, versatility, and cost-effectiveness. The multi-unit category includes commercial applications, offi ces, stores, malls, condominiums, multi-unit residential, resorts and other public spaces.


For more information: www.woodworks.org or Bryan Schuyler, Allied Member, Regional Director of WoodWorks California, at bryan@woodworks.org.

Revit User Group: Seek Your Revit Content

Join us on November 18, 2008 at the AIA East Bay Chapter Offices from 11:30am - 1:30pm. Lunch will be provided by Ideate, Inc.

Does your Revit Library live on the network? How much content do you use "out of the box" versus created in-house? Have you developed a naming convention for your families, types, and/or parameters? How are those conventions monitored? Join us in November as the East Bay Revit User Group discusses the many issues surrounding content management for our Revit-based applications. Nancy McClure, Ideate Application Specialist, will moderate this discussion. Come prepared to share your best practices or frustrations with your colleagues.

In addition to our moderated discussion, the November meeting will include a short presentation by Jun Shim. Jun is the Autodesk Product Manager for Autodesk Seek which an online source for building prodcut information that delivers rich, high quality 3D models, 2D drawings, visual images, and product specification data to the desktops of engineers, architects and designers. Try using Seek before the meeting...type "workstation" ito the Content Search Online toolbar in the upper right hand part of your Revit 2009 application and then filter on RFA files types.

11/18/08
Revit User Group/ Seek Your Revit Content
Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland
Cost: None, this program is open to all. Please
RSVP .
1 CES Lus
For more information: 510/464-3600

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Green & Sustainable Materials

From Jamie Brown, Assoc. AIA:

"This Thursday, November 13th at 6:00pm the Women In Architecture forum & Committee on the Environment will be hosting a presentation on Green & Sustainable Materials. The presenter, Taja di Leonardi, is the creator of the concept of Ecohome Improvement in Berkeley, offering ecological and healthy home improvement products. She currently works day to day as the head of marketing, sales training, product selection and customer experience. She holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio School of Management.

I look forward to seeing you there!"

11/13/08
WIA Forum: Green & Sustainable Materials
Please join us for a presentation of new materials by Taja di Leonardi, Founder of Ecohome Improvement. Co-presented by the Committee on the Environment.
Time: 6:00pm
Cost: None; This program is open to all.
1 CES/LU


For more information: 510/464-3600


Small Firm Forum Annual Lunch

Annual Festive Lunch: “Horror Stories of 2008”
(at the chapter office)

Help us wrap up an unusual year with camaraderie, architectural reality plots, and a bevy of levity!


Want to hear good horror stories by your esteemed colleagues or recount one of your own? This is your chance! Back by popular acclaim, there will be a winner. And the prize, a $25 gift certificate at Builders Booksource, will go to the winner.

Leave your bagged lunch at home. Food is covered by the price of admission. Take your pick of meat or vegetarian lunchtime fare as follows:

Herbivorean Fare

Greek Pasta
Roasted peppers, eggplants, clamata olives, sundried and Roma tomatoes, olive oil and spices, topped with delicious feta cheese.


Carnivorean Fare
Roasted Chicken
Seasoned and roasted golden brown served with roasted vegetables and potatoes.


Both include salad, bread, cookie parts and AA drinks.

Now, The Price:

$15 in advance. $22 at the door.

So, if your portfolio is going gangbusters right now, you might want to keep your options open and pay at the door.

If not, you might want to:

RSVP, on or before December 2, with your meal choice, your name etc., to:
events@aiaeb.org

Oh, you reserve, you pay. Might as well show up. Unless you've already had too much fun this year....

For more information: Donald Wardlaw AIA
donald@more-than-construction.com

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Barn Again

Author seeking suggestions for book on barn conversions/restorations.
Published author of upcoming book on barn conversions and restorations wishes to locate appropriate architects .
Published works will receive a wide audience as the coffee table book will be
internationally distributed and published by Schiffer Books in early 2010.
Architects/builders/designers are given credit and listed in the book's
resource guide.


For more information:
Please address interest or questions to Ashley Rooney at
earooney@rcn.com."
E. Ashley Rooney
20 Hancock Street
Lexington, MA 02420
781-861-9511

Join us to help plan the future of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front NHP!

The general public is cordially invited to attend a visioning workshop for the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park on Tuesday, November 18, 2008, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the Harbor Master Building, 1340 Marina Way South, Richmond, California, 94804.

The workshop, which seeks to involve a wide diversity of opinions and perspectives, will have an open-house format with brainstorming and interactive activities to encourage full participation by everyone. It is part of a multi-year process to identify themes, describe visitor experiences, and recommend a wide variety of visitor services and education and outreach activities.

Feedback from workshop participants will focus on these questions:

Why is this park special or important to you?
What should everyone know about this park?
How can the visitor experience be improved
?

The final product, a Long Range Interpretive Plan, will be a plan for an effective visitor education program that achieves the goals and mission of the National Park Service, and provides dynamic visitor opportunities and experiences.

Created by an act of Congress in 2000, the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park preserves the stories and sites of the World War II Home Front.

For more information: visit our website at
www.nps.gov/rori.
Contact: Naomi Torres, Chief of Interpretation
Phone: (925) 228-8860; (925) 683-9958

Friday, November 07, 2008

Strategies in the Pursuit of Net Zero Energy, Sustainability and Carbon Neutrality

Join AIA East Bay's Young Architects Forum and Committee on the Environment for a presentation by Steve Brennan of the Davis Energy Group on Tuesday, November 18th at 6pm.

The presentation will review a few case studies on Zero Energy Homes. The design process for each home will be discussed, as well as performance results, cost-benefit of energy efficiency measures, and the research, incentive and voluntary programs that the homes participated in. Though the focus of the presentation is Zero Energy Homes, which indicates zeroing out operating energy, there will be some discussion of reducing embodied energy and sustainability.

Participants will learn how to define zero energy homes and operational energy use. What the Building America program is, and what the methods and goals of that program are with respect to Zero Energy Homes. Techniques and systems that have been employed to attempt to reach net zero energy, and teh results of their performance. How the USGBC LEED for Homes program goes beyond energy efficiency (operational energy) to approach sustainability.

11/18/08 CES

Young Architects Forum: Strategies in the Pursuit of Net Zero Energy, Sustainability and Carbon Neutrality

Steve Brennan, of Davis Energy Group presents case studies on Zero Energy Homes. Though the focus of the presentation is Zero Energy Homes, which indicates zeroing out operating energy, there will be some discussion of reducing embodied energy and sustainability. Co-hosted by the Committee on the Environment.

Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland

Cost: None, This forum is open to all. Please RSVP .

1.5 HSW/CES Lus

For more information: 510/464-3600

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

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

Tuesday Nov. 11th 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, we will do an in depth review of the tools, their features, and options, in the basic tool palette. We will also explore the new features in VectorWorks 2009. There will be a movie and handouts. 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.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

VACANCY ON THE EL CERRITO DESIGN REVIEW BOARD

The El Cerrito City Council announces a vacancy on the city’s Design Review Board (DRB). The DRB reviews all development (public and private), including all buildings, site layouts, and signing in all districts, except single-family, for the purpose of encouraging quality design. The DRB also hears appeals of administrative decisions. Serving on a board or commission can be a rewarding experience for community service-minded residents. It is an excellent way to participate in the functioning of local government and to make a personal contribution to the improvement of the El Cerrito community. All residents interested in serving on this important quasi-adjudicatory body are invited to submit an application for consideration no later than December 5, 2008. An application may be downloaded from www.el-cerrito.org.

For more information: please contact Cheryl Morse, City Clerk at 215-4305.