The Case for Affordable Housing & A National Energy Standard
They must go hand-in-hand. ( October 2009 )

Certain items are needed for all people to live a decent (modern) life: decent housing, decent (safe) food, clear (safe) water & air; fair wage/job; access to health care.  All other things are possible (for a people) from there.

Making a (high end designer) commodity of any of the aforementioned, makes those items inaccessible by lower income people and the poor, and now we see, inaccessible to even the middle class in America.

Behind affordable health care, Affordable Housing is the largest problem facing our nation.  When jobs are harder to get, it makes it that much harder to maintain one’s health, and to maintain a decent place to live.  Basic, decent housing, healthcare and  food are a human right.

Continue reading the article at ShantyWorld

I also believe you need to prepare for the worst.  Now for a lot of us, stashing money in a savings account is not an option.  But there are other things that can be done.  My local AIA chapter (AIA Columbus) recently held a seminar for the recently unemployed on various issues to consider if you decide to work for yourself.  Believe it or not, a lot of architectural firms get their start during a recession (article).  Attend AIA meetings and other events and start networking with colleagues.  Let them know who you are and what you are up to.  Even though they may not have work to take you on at that time, keeping an open line of communication with others will put you in the loop when new jobs are available and that personal connection may help you get your foot in the door.  Because it truly is not always what you know, but who you know.

So you may be asking yourself at this point what does this post have to do with the title “INTERN”.  Well I find myself to be in a diffulcult sittuation as I came to realize after my recent interview.  The position that I interviewed for was an intern architect position.  However I am a mere four exams away from becoming a registered architect and have been out of school for a little over 7 years.  So in a lot of cases that makes me overqualified for the postition that they want to fill, which also translate they will not want to pay me for that experience.

Now I know what you are thinking what took so long?  I am not going to go into that (However I do blame NCARB for a full years delay just to get my authorization to test).  So I am going to take advantage of the down time in the office to get a little extra studying done on a daily basis as well as getting back into my routine of studying after the kids go to bed at night.  Because with my first 4 exams, I learned pretty quickly what is successful for me to study and pass the exams.  For those of you who are concerned about hitting the books again, here is a good post I found to help you find your study style (Three rules for studying for the ARE).  So my goal is to complete my last four sections of the ARE by the end of the first quarter of 2010.  Which should allow me more opportunities to work for offices looking for registered architects or even start my own firm if I so choose to, or even forced to do.  So wish me luck.  In the meantime my blog posts are going to be much more sparadic than they are now.  However when I get back into full swing again, I hope to have a new look for the blog as well as my website (Sym-Home) with updated content to actually show some of the projects that I have completed around the house.  And lets not forget a new title Registered Architect!

So I have joined the world of twitter and have been exploring the vast amounts of instant information and dinner ideas for the past couple of weeks.  What I have learned on my short time with twitter, it is a good way to receive massive amounts of up to date information as long as you are following the right people and or organizations.  Two organizations that I obviously follow are AIA (@AIANational) and the USGBC (@usgbc).  They tweet on a fairly regular basis about recent press releases, articles, and other random pieces of information related to the design & construction field.  However you can receive equal amounts of useless information such as “homemade eggplant parm, steamed artichoke with sherry vinaigrette, and a mediterranean cucumber and tomato salad…rainy Saturday dinner“.  But as I learned by listening in to a social media webinar by @LewisHowes & @SeanMalarkey, social media is exactly what it is called, it is another means of socializing with hundreds if not thousands of people and letting them know what you are doing.  So it is a little more personalized to let people know more about you as a person rather than a company.

In this social media webinar that I attended they were presenting ways for the user to generate business and/or job leads for almost any company.  But not just by using twitter, they also discussed other online networking sites such as LinkedIn and briefly touched upon facebook, which I am a user of all three.  With the exception of facebook, I can see how these can be very effective marketing tools if you are active users of these two sites.  However it could be difficult as an employee of a larger firm to use social media for marketing purposes.  Although you do see some architectural firms creating their own twitter accounts.  On the other hand, as an employee it is a great way to brand yourself and get your information out to others and try to have yourself seen as an expert, which can prove to be useful in these slower times if you happen to be job hunting.  So I would like to offer my opinion on the different social networking sites.

Twitter happens to be my most resent endeavor into the world of social networking.  I created the account after listening to the SocialTruth webinar by @LewisHowes & @SeanMalarkey after seeing its potential for marketing and bringing in business.  However I am currently following 100 people/organizations and the amount of information (or tweets as they are referred to) that comes in every day is overwhelming.  I get peoples random thoughts, links to articles, events, and the occasional question.  As I stated earlier, twitter is a great way to get massive amounts of up to date information.  Therefore the more people you follow, the more information you are going to receive on a daily basis.  So there is no reason to wait for your monthly subscription to come in, because if you are following people of like mind and interests, there is a chance you already read the article online.  And by following more people, the potential you have of more users following your tweets allowing you to spread your message.  I would just recommend using a program such as TweetDeck to help you manage the people you are following.

Facebook, I find hard to swallow as a way of marketing yourself or your company with a personal account.  Now maybe if your company creates a fan page like (fer) Studio did, it is possible.  But really, how many fans are you going to have outside of your employees?  Anyways I did not join facebook to directly market my services.  I joined facebook to reconnect and stay connected with friends and family.  And I must say, since joining facebook about a year ago, I am more in touch with my cousins and old friends lives than I ever was.  Now yes I am indirectly marketing to my facebook friends because I post status updates about my job, and blog posts also get displayed on my “wall”.  However my primary intention is to stay connected with people.  Plus there are things that I do not want to share with my employer/colleagues.  Such as family photos, conversations between friends, and the random drunken picture from an old college classmate that they may post on their profile.  So I am sorry in advance if you happen to find my facebook profile.  I will most likely not accept your friend invitation unless we have had a relationship outside of the workplace in the past.

Now I guess you could consider me an early adopter of LinkedIn.  I have had my account since 2004 and have found it to be a great way to build my professional connections.  It has become an extension of my resume.  Now I am a little more generous with who I connect with than I am with facebook, because one of my potential connections could be my employer someday or could refer me to one of their connections because they are in the need of an architect.  However I am not one to just connect with every person out there like you can or are meant to on twitter.  I use the rule of thumb that if I have worked for/with or have had some form of dealings with, I will connect with them.  But I will not connect with someone that is looking to build their network.  On the other hand if someone is reading this post and happen enjoy my blog, I would be willing to connect with them as long as they state why they are connecting with me (i.e. I enjoy reading your blog), as I have done in the past.

This leaves me with blogging.  My first blog post was in August of 2008.  So I have been doing this for almost a year now.  This is the last form of social media/expression that I thought I would ever get into.  I hate writing and stink at it (I am getting better, I think).  However I am constantly doing research in regards to the built environment and sustainability.  And well, a lot of times it falls upon deaf ears in the office and my wife honestly does not want to listen to me talk about some of the technical stuff that I post.  I got into the architecture profession because I love it.  Therefore this is my way of educating others and sharing some of the information that I learn.  So in a way I am directly marketing my services, but I am also branding myself as an expert, or at least someone that is knowledgeable about the type of issues that I write.

So I encourage you to become social, and if you are on the fence like I was about joining twitter, here are a few article I found stating the case why architects should use twitter.

Perpetual Work in Progress – 10 Tips for Using Twitter to Support Your Practice (reposted on AIA.org)
Why Architects should twitter

On the other hand, every week I feel lucky that I still have a job and still receive a paycheck. Even though we have not had a new project come into our office for almost 10 months.  I guess that is the benefit of working for a smaller architectural firm that is well established.  This is not the owners first recession, so he is a little more prepared for the slow down.  But we have not been totally insulated from the slow down.  We had to let go two of our employees back in January, which equates to almost a third of our staff.  But what makes things nerve wracking is the fact that we have submitted more qualifications statements so far this year than we did all last year.  And out of 10 interviews in the past 3 months, all that work has only landed us one small job that won’t even start up for another month.  I guess we are lucky to get calls to submit for work, or that there is even work out there at all.  I just would like to see the management of the firm out hitting the pavement a little more instead of just wait for Request For Qualifications.

As a result of the slow down, our office has actually been taking advantage of the time to re-tool itself.  First it is starting to think about a new brand.  How can we reinvent ourselves?  We are also updating our website to get the most current projects online.  We have even updated our current CAD software to the latest version and revisited our project standards in preparation for the next project.  It has even given me the opportunity to organize the AIA Ohio Affordable Green Home design competition utilizing more office time.  Something that I did not expect back in December when I received the approval to move forward with the competition.  I have even been given the opportunity to teach Greening Your Home seminars to local homeowners, which should put a few extra dollars in my pocket.  But most importantly potentially drum up some work for the office.

I try and keep my mind off the fact that we are slow and keep myself busy with the organizations that I am involved with.  I will even get back to studying for the ARE (4 more exams to go!) once the competition rolls out later this month.  So hopefully I will have some better news to report within the coming weeks/months as my office prepares for a couple more interviews.  Until then I will continue to absorb as much knowledge as I can with the free time I have and do my part with the marketing efforts and the occasional RFI or LEED submittal that comes across my desk.

-Josh

For those of you who may be reading this and do not know what is involved within the architectural profession I hope this can help explain the process of what we must go through. To practice architecture in the United States, one must first graduate with a degree in architecture that is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). This at a minimum is a 4 year pre-professional degree, plus a 1 year Bachelor of Architecture degree.

Once the graduate is within the work force, they must then enroll into the Intern Development Program (IDP) that is overseen by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). This process typically takes 3 or more years to complete all the requirements. Until recently most states required the graduate to complete the IDP process to even sit for the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE). On the other hand the majority of the states will now allow you to sit for the exam while earning your IDP credits. However you cannot become a licensed architect until you have completed all of the IDP requirements.

But the exam process is a grueling series of exams that test you on design, as well as general practice requirements from contractual obligations to site, mechanical and structural design of the building. The exams are to reflect the practice of architecture as an integrated whole.

Once you have completed the exam, you are then allowed to practice architecture within your home state. Though with today’s technology you can work on a project anywhere within the country and a license from other states can easily be obtained through NCARB by reciprocity.

I look forward to taking my next exam in a few weeks because it gets me one step closer to the end of this long process and will then allow me to practice architecture on my own if I choose to someday.

-Josh

Well it is not going to happen. I do have an exam scheduled for New Years Eve however. I am finding it very difficult to sit down and study. But I consciously chose to expedite this process and have them all completed by June of 2009. So time to really sit down a suck it up and bury my head in the books after the kids go to be.

-Josh