GCA International, LLC - Executive Search: Green Building and Design: Architecture, Engineering

Enter The ASLA 2012 Professional Awards

GCA International — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:26:20 +0000

Next Friday, February 3, is the deadline for entry forms for the 2012 ASLA Professional Awards program and we hope you are considering entering your work this year. Submissions are not due until Friday, February 17.   Our program is among the most distinguished in the design industry, drawing submissions from across the country and around the world. The professional awards program features six categories:

General Design

Residential Design

Analysis & Planning

Research

Communications

The Landmark Award

The 2012 awards call for entries is online and contains all the details you need to enter. Award recipients and their clients will be honored at the awards presentation ceremony during the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Phoenix, September 28-October 1. Professional award recipients receive featured coverage in Landscape Architecture Magazine and in many other design, construction industry, and general-interest media.   For inspiration, review the 2011 ASLA Professional Award recipients and jury comments. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Carolyn Mitchell, ASLA Honors and Awards Coordinator, at 202-216-2331 or cmitchell@asla.org.   Your work is what makes this program great, so we hope you will enter!

 Susan  Susan Hatchell, FASLA ASLA President

Architects At Atlantic Wharf

GCA International — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:54:14 +0000

The Boston Society of Architects (BSA) has moved into a brand-new space in Atlantic Wharf. It’s far from the first time that architects have inhabited this site. From the 1980s until the early 2000s, the three industrial buildings comprising what was formerly known as Russia Wharf—Russia, Graphic Arts, and Tufts—were a hot spot for architecture firms. These turn-of-the-century mercantile buildings, designed by Peabody & Stearns and other notable Boston firms, provided these architects with inexpensive, flexible and light-filled spaces. Collaborations were forged, new clients and projects were found, and fledgling firms gained their footing. A professional community was nurtured there, however informally. To find out more about life in these buildings, I sat down recently with a few of the architects who have worked out of these spaces over the years.

Annual DesignIntelligence Trends Forecast For 2012-2015

GCA International — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:29:51 +0000

Ordinary organizations are at risk. In a majority of today’s professional practices, a persistent gravitational pull shuts entry ports into the future’s infinite possibilities. That’s a shame because there is much that can be gained through the implementation of bold strategy, including innovation, growth, and the opportunity to do exquisite work.

Some firms are realizing their strategy through specialization, which allows them to develop deeper and more overt value propositions. When such value is effectively communicated, it is prized by clients. While some organizations in the A/E/C industry are struggling through the uncertainty of changing value perceptions and rapidly changing business realities, we see evidence that a new era is emerging. This era is both sober and exciting.

Foresight is no crystal ball. No, it’s not that. Here is how we study trends, chart shifts, and plan scenarios: The staff of DesignIntelligence and the Greenway Group monitor firm data, best practices, changing strategies, participate in online conferences, and monitor business publications in key subject areas, including design, technology, economics, the environment, and demographics. We gather together with thought leaders including senior fellows of the Design Futures Council, to develop implications for the future of the design professions. We typically use a three-year horizon, with implications and scenarios for even further into the future. This is a type of objective futurism and helps us forget what we think we know, opening our minds to what we need to know.

DesignIntelligence is the journal of the Design Futures Council, which was co-founded by Jonas Salk, M.D., developer of the polio vaccine. He encouraged us constantly to study success in order to jump forward into new possibilities. Since the DFC’s founding in 1995, we have focused on new paradigms of success, including personal, team, studio, and organizational achievement. Salk suggested at one of our first DFC Summits in La Jolla, Calif., that the A/E/C industry could be optimized through new forms and chemistries of symbiosis. This includes thinking together, working together, and feeling together in ways that are purposeful, helpful, and ultimately powerful. Through our Summits and think tanks, we have worked on mutualism — finding mutual advantage in the future of the A/E/C industry. The birthing of DesignIntelligence was the result of the DFC’s commitment to expose leaders to possibility thinking; therefore, each issue is intended to take readers on a tour of probable possibilities.

A/E/C leaders will discover in the years ahead that new success can be realized through innovation underpinned by the emerging power of technology and the richness of imagination among people in this industry. Our 2012-2015 trends research reminds us that strategic plans in some organizations are becoming stale. Yet other organizations have developed a discipline of six-month updates to their plan, mixing strategy, execution, and measurement. Metrics too are advancing in different ways.

At the recent Design Futures Council Executive Board meeting at the Harvard Club in Boston, we engaged in conversations observing that the classical and learned professions have arrived at a moment of self-imposed peril. Working harder is no longer the solution. There is a revolution going on. While this is an uncomfortable situation, unique ideas offer boundless possibilities.

Everything is changing. This is not a bad thing, and yet change does not automatically move us forward. Change can be dangerous. Our mission at DesignIntelligence is to make sense of it all and to support your navigation forward. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.”

Following are 25 mind-expanding trends that move beyond problem solving to creating solutions.

How Design Works For You

GCA International — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:24:29 +0000

If you’ve never worked with an architect before, you likely have questions. Does your project really require an architect? At what point should you involve a design team? What is it like to work with an AIA architect, and how do you get the most out of the experience? Here you can find answers and tools to guide you through the five stages of design, and watch clients and architects describe how the process worked for them. Prepare yourself for a rewarding relationship with an AIA architect. Good design makes a difference.

National Council Of Architectural Registration Boards

GCA International — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:49:45 +0000

Below is a link to join the official LinkedIn group site for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

This group exists for current and future architectural professionals and others who want to stay informed and share experiences related to the regulation and practice of architecture as prescribed by NCARB.

NCARB comprises the architectural registration boards of all 50 states as well as those of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. NCARB assists its member registration boards in carrying out their duties and provides a certification program for individual architects.

“Official” and urgent questions or concerns should NOT be posted here, but should be directed to customerservice@ncarb.org or by calling (202) 879-0520. Likewise, NCARB provides its comprehensive web site at www.ncarb.org as the final authority for all information needs of architects and interns.

[Please see the GROUP RULES for participation guidelines and NCARB’s disclaimer statement.]

For optimal use of this site, group members should set their personal LinkedIn preferences to receive NCARB news and information.

ABOUT NCARB

NCARB protects the public health, safety, and welfare by leading the regulation of the practice of architecture through the development and application of standards for licensure and credentialing of architects.

The architectural profession relies on NCARB as the chief record keeper and standard-bearer of regulation for architects seeking licensure and reciprocity. Also, interns and students studying to be architects use NCARB’s services and resources to take part in the Intern Development Program (IDP) and complete the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®).

NCARB’s Core Values are:

• Integrity
• Accountability
• Transparency
• Collaboration
• Leadership
• Excellence

Join Group

Consulting4architects Blog

GCA International — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:54:13 +0000

Information and jobs for architects and interior designers.

Healthcare Facilities Design Committee

GCA International — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:52:18 +0000

Design impacts the healing environment. What are the best methods for serving patients’ needs in a welcoming setting while attracting and retaining high-quality healthcare professionals? How do you flexibly design across all scales, factoring in varied patient volumes and future technological advances?

Click “register” to RSVP by January 17.

Architecture Design For Aging Committee

GCA International — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:40:49 +0000

Ring out the old and plan for the new. Join the Design for Aging Committee for a brainstorming session on December 19 at 5:00 pm at DiMella Shaffer (281 Summer Street, 6th floor, Boston). Bring your ideas for topics for the committee to cover in 2012, or email them toddooley@dimellashaffer.com.

Click “register” to RSVP by December 18.”

BJAC Named To Architect Magazine’s Top 100 Architecture Firms

GCA International — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:31:33 +0000

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC (1888PressRelease) November 05, 2011 - Dan Fields, AIA, principal and CMO at BJAC, pa (http://www.bjac.com), an architectural firm offering professional services for specialized, complex institutional projects, has announced that the firm has ranked among the top 100 architecture firms on Architect Magazine’s list of Top 100 American Architecture firms. Architect Magazine ranked the companies based on three main factors: profitability, sustainability and design quality. The ranking’s big picture approach allows small and large architecture firms to be considered, with the result that the best firms are chosen and not necessarily just the largest. BJAC specializes in healthcare, K-20 education, research, museum projects and municipal projects.

QUOTES:
“It is an honor to have our group recognized by Architect Magazine,” said Fields. “Inclusion on this list is a testament to the drive and dedication of BJAC’s team to continually provide designs that meet client needs with the highest quality, service and delivery.”

Engineering News Record – Best Projects of 2011 Awards

GCA International — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:05:47 +0000

The Best Projects of 2011 Awards are a series of special events to celebrate and honor the building teams that created the best projects of 2011 nationwide. These extraordinary projects are selected by juries of local prominent industry professionals. Categories awarded cover a variety of building and highway/heavy categories – from Best Commercial Project to Best Highway Project and many more.

These events will be held throughout the fall, 2011 at various locations.