President's Message

 

Ok, let us evaluate where we’ve been for the last three to four months and where we think the next quarter of the year will take us. Does it require us to think beyond our personal business “time frame” and you already know the answer that it does. You and I will not survive, both professionally and personally, if we do not allow ourselves that opportunity to evaluate how we are doing and what to do about it. I shared with you last quarter how we need to think about how we conduct our business and how we design. Now it’s time to look at where we need to take ourselves both in business and in design.
This profession we call Architecture has its many rewards but it also has its “challenges” as well. And the challenge is here, both regionally where the “slowdown” in work may be influencing your business and globally where the emphasis on “greening” may be influencing your design and material choices. What a time to be challenged, as the opportunities seem to expound with every challenge. Don’t you just love that word – challenge. Ugh!

What I can share with you this Quarter is that the words: collaboration, technology and speed are the “watchwords” we’ll need to survive through the next 8 to 12 months till “things” settle down and after the Fall elections. And hopefully they will.

Collaboration and engaging with other talented people working simultaneously and cooperatively to resolve problems and create solutions will be required and will happen to survive.

Technology allows professional designers to display their thought and decision making options in various dimensions via a multitude of electronic media. This will make the design process accessible to our clients and the public alike encouraging their participation.

And speed is taking “advanced” steps to complete various design and construction tasks via collaboration, technology and the use of smart phones, rapid prototyping and building information modeling, among many others that are offering higher levels of service to our clients.

 
Through my travels and visiting other Firms, I find that many are environmentally perceptive regarding technology including their purchases. For example, videoconferencing to reduce traveling and create leaner service delivery lowers carbon emissions. Firms are looking at “efficiency” as a way to sustain the “survivability” in today’s economy.

The question of design is how we can solve the climate-change problem. Look at Dwell Magazine’s July/ August issue to realize how Ed Mazria is “spearheading” the Architecture 2030 Movement or May’s Architectural Record Issue featuring Editor Bob Ivy’s editorial on “collective action” by various professional architectural organizations including the ACE Mentoring Program, which SARA will be looking to affiliate itself with soon.

So many positive avenues to address and to pursue and all of us have the opportunity to “chip” away at solutions.

This past April, CA Council’s Professional Design Awards Banquet held in San Diego and co-hosted by Doug Joyce, ARA and Manuel Oncina, ARA provided an entertaining evening and shared SARA’s commitment to great design and sustainability.

 
While in California, Fred Meyer, FARA, President SARA San Diego Chapter and I had an opportunity to visit and discuss with Alan Petrasek, Senior VP, Clark Construction Group, La Jolla, the ACE Mentoring program and the possibilities of affiliating with them to broaden our commitment to students and those interested in the profession.

Our Board Meeting held in Dallas in April, hosted lively discussions on many issues and “reaffirmed” SARA’s direction helping you and the Profession.

The month of May saw SARA President’s Committee convene in Duluth, MN, to “reminisce” and address the various issues confronting SARA. Topics such as Membership, Conventions, Board Meetings, Benefits, Administration, Education Fund, NCARB, Public Relations, LEED and Global warming kept everyone focused on the issues. I will be anxious to discuss with my Board and the general Membership for “feedback” as the year progresses.

 
May all of you have a safe and great summer and DON’T FORGET that our 52nd Annual Convention, October 15-19, 2008 will be held in Coral Gables, FL. 

June/July Message in SARAScope.

 

 

Michael F. Griffith, FARA
P.O. Box 3527
Bluffton, SC 29910
843-815-4282/Fax 843-815-4283
griffarch@aol.com

 

Read earlier President's Messages in SARAScopes archives.

 

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