An expansive glass wall on the ground floor of the recently renovated TAT House opens onto a chic and spare outdoor living room. The third-floor of the house is wrapped in “an Ipe wood–framed rainscreen,” allowing “interior and exterior glass walls carry the sense of the outdoors throughout the interior.” We want to congratulate Santa Monica architecture firm fleetwood/fernandez on their beautiful design, as well as their clearly deserving win of Architect Magazine‘s top 2014 Annual Design Review Award.

fleetwood_fernandez

Visit Architect Magazine‘s original post for more photos, elevations, and renderings of this beautiful project.

Shout-out Credit:

Alicia K. Igram, AAI, VP & Branch Rep
Design & Consulting Liability Specialist
IOA Insurance Services – Aliso Viejo, CA
Email: Alicia.Igram@ioausa.com / Phone: 949-680-1789

Architect Creates LEGO Detroit

penobscot_detroit_lego

After all the bad press Detroit has received in the last few years, it’s nice to see that the city continues to inspire architects. For Jim Garrett of Redford, Michigan, it has motivated him to pull out his childhood LEGO sets and spend months faithfully recreating scale models of his favorite Detroit buildings.

“Twelve of those buildings are replicas of real Detroit structures, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Public Library in Midtown and the Fisher Building in New Center. Most of his downtown Detroit buildings are on view at The Henry Ford this month. Even the old red sandstone Union Depot, which stood at the corner of Fort and Third until it was demolished in 1974, is on display.”

The 51-year-old Garrett has been known to clear out LEGO sections in toy stores whenever they go on clearance, but these days it’s easier to find what he needs on the internet. For these kinds of detailed projects, he suggests the site bricklink.com, “sells specialized pieces like arched windows in bulk.”

When constructing Detroit’s tallest Art Deco skyscraper, The Penobscot building, Garrett was relieved to find “LEGO made some grooved bricks that perfectly matched the detail on the actual building.”

“I bought almost the entire world’s supply at the time,” he said.

“It took eight months to erect the Penobscot’s 47 stories. The model is 9.5 feet to the roof and 11 feet to the tip of the red ball at the pinnacle.”

Donna Terek penned the original article for the Detroit News, and it includes a video of the exhibit which is worth a watch.

As Garrett wholeheartedly admits, “It’s my hope that people who aren’t familiar with Detroit will realize there’s more to Detroit than crime stories and bankruptcy. I’d like to think it will help them get an appreciation of Detroit’s architecture.”

“A hundred years after we began building with tall buildings, we have yet to understand how the tall, high-rise building becomes a building block in making a city… in creating the public realm,” says legendary architect and teacher Moshe Safdie of Safdie Architects in Boston. This is the driving force behind his TED talk on How to Reinvent the Apartment Building.

Emphasizing the importance of light, permeability, and nature, Safdie demonstrates how breaking the mold of the standard residential skyscraper could transform the urban environment and the experience of those living in high-density housing.

chicagobean

Dozens of a/e ProNet members from across the country are gathering in Chicago this week for the annual fall meeting. They will be joined by representatives from several top tier professional liability insurance companies and a few major design industry organizations, including the AIA, NSPE, and ACEC.

Over the course of three days, members will receive presentations from the following insurance carriers: Beazley, Ironshore, HCC, Victor O. Schinnerer, Axis, Catlin, Hanover, RLI, All Risks, Liberty, Travelers, Navigators and Arch. These presentations will help inform the specialist brokers of a/e ProNet about industry trends, policy language changes, new coverage opportunities, and the like. It will also give our members a chance to ask questions and make suggestions pertinent to their own clients.

Along with insurer presentations, there will also be ample opportunity for the brokers to network with one another, alerting the group to trends around the country and problem solving in the collective.

To open the week, the Board of Directors will meet, and to close, Kent Holland of Construction Risk will present to the membership on the second edition of a/e ProNet’s Risk Management and Contract Guide for Design Professionals.

wooden gavel and books on wooden table,on brown background

The following is an excerpt from a recent Gordon & Rees LLP article entitled California Supreme Court Holds Principal Architects Owe Duty of Care to Future Homeowners:

On July 3, the Supreme Court of California published its decision in Beacon Residential Community Assn. v. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In short, the court concluded that prime architects designing residential buildings owe a duty of care to future homeowners even though they do not actually build the projects themselves or exercise ultimate control over their construction.

Of importance, Beacon involved a demurrer at the trial court level meaning that, on appeal, the Supreme Court was required to accept the facts pled in the plaintiff’s amended complaint as true. This included the allegation that the Beacon project’s designers provided their services “knowing that the finished construction would be sold as condominiums.” It also was claimed that the defendants played an active role throughout the construction process, including coordinating efforts of the design and construction teams, conducting weekly site visits and inspections, recommending design revisions as needed, and monitoring compliance with design plans. For their various services, the designers were reportedly paid $5 million. The plaintiff alleged that negligent design work resulted in several defects, including extensive water infiltration, inadequate fire separations, excessive solar heat gain, structural cracks, and other safety hazards…

Although not a total loss for the design community, Beacon will have the effect of expanding architects and engineers (A&E) liability to a broader spectrum of claimants and generally keep A&E defendants in lawsuits for longer periods of time.

For an explanation of the court’s decision, including a concise summary of the affects of the ruling on Architects and Engineers, visit the original Gordon & Rees post by attorney Dion N. Cominos.

Complex precedents like this are just one of the reasons why A&Es are best served by consulting specialist brokers about their Professional Liability insurance needs. Does your current professional liability insurance policy include pre-claims assistance? How about the latitude to choose your own council in the event of of a claim? Call your local a/e ProNet Broker and get answers to these questions today.

According to Alison Killing of Killing Architects in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the role of the architect in modern society is undergoing a shift: moving away from the architect as a “master builder”, towards someone who is a specialist in the “built environment”.

New Generations – Killing Architects from New Generations on Vimeo.

Killing Architects recently won first prize in a competition on the future of architecture practice. The contest was put on by the New Generations network of young European architects in late 2013. Watch Ms. Killing’s short interview about the role of architects, and the opportunities for young architects who are willing to take risks and commit to research as a major part of their individual practice.

aepronet_scholarship

The David W. Lakamp a/e Pronet scholarship deadline has been extended to June 11, 2014. Get your application in a soon as possible!

Two students, who best demonstrate strong interest in practice management, will each receive a $5,000 award. The scholarship is open to fourth year undergraduates and graduate students of architecture enrolled in a NAAB- accredited professional degree program. Submissions are reviewed by jury panel that consists members of the AIA Practice Management Knowledge Community (PMKC) and the a/e ProNet organization. Candidates must submit a copy of their transcripts, two letters of recommendation, and an essay on how they would resolve a project management dilemma.

For more information about the scholarship click here. To download the application click here .

You can also read about past scholarship winners on the blog.

What if, instead of architects creating buildings only for those who can afford to commission them, regular citizens could design and build their own houses?

This is the concept at the heart of Wikihouse, an open source construction kit. With this tool, just about anyone can build a house, anywhere.

Alastair Parvin: Architecture for the people by the people

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlt6kaNjoeI]
In this fascinating TED Talk, Architect Alastair Parvin explains his vision for 21st century architecture and design: With the prevalence of open source software, 3-D printers, and other technological advances, the focus of the design industry may now shift from “thinking big” to “thinking small.” Challenging the effectiveness and affordability of one-size-fits-all.

According to Parvin, the stars have aligned to allow us a new industrial revolution, one founded on the democratization of production. Watch as he gives us a one-day-build house, compares citizen-led urban development to the barn-raising cultures of 19th century societies, and evangelizes for open source pioneer Linus Torvalds‘s philosophy: Be lazy like a fox.

How does this strike you? Is it plausible? Practical? Do you think the IKEA-fication of architecture and construction is a good idea or a bad one? Leave us a comment!

MORE: The 10 Most Inspirational TED Talks for Architects

PN - Vol. 21, No.2. 2013 - Building Information Modeling (BIM)Embracing the latest technology can set a design firm apart from the crowd, but it can also set you up for a rough road if you’re not adequately prepared beforehand. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is far from “new” at this point, but some wary design professionals have abstained from it anyway, allowing time to tell whether BIM would be a positive thing for the industry, overall. Good news!

“Building Information Modeling (BIM)… [has] not necessarily opened the door to more claims, as several carriers expected. A few [insurance companies] have found BIM projects to be low-risk; some even went as far as giving discounts to design clients that utilize BIM.” — Engineering, Inc., February 2014

a/e ProNet’s latest ProNet Practice Note, authored by Joseph Barra of Robinson & Cole, can take you from here. The following is an excerpt from Building Information Modeling (BIM): Now that you know how to spell BIM, is it right for you and your firm?

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of developing a virtual, three-dimensional, information rich model to design, construct, and maintain a building project. BIM is much more than software used to produce a pretty 3D graphic. Because a variety of information can be embedded into the model, BIM can also be used to manage the project’s construction schedule (4D); to track project costs (5D); and, once constructed, facility management (6D).

There are varying levels of BIM adoption and use, from an initial pilot project with one player using BIM tools to a team process with agreed-upon collaborative BIM process goals. In ideal process, all project participants share information.

These times are a changin’…

Because BIM is about process and not just software, it gives designers and constructors a unique opportunity to eliminate the barriers to collaborative thinking. One example is found in the redundancies inherent in the shop-drawing process. In this case, the goal of the BIM process is to abolish the wasteful practice of having to draw the entire project twice. Because BIM facilitates teamwork, many see BIM as an opportunity to reach out across disciplines and reconsider the traditional paradigm. Make no mistake, we still need experienced architects, engineers, contractors, and owners to deliver a successful project. But in today’s BIM-enabled world, the process is becoming more collaborative, which in turn redefines the project team’s risk profile.

To continue reading, download the full PDF version of this newsletter, which outlines Factors to Consider before deciding to use BIM (e.g., Type of Project, Timing, Teammates, Project Delivery Method). And if you have additional questions about BIM and/or professional liability insurance, be sure to contact your local a/e ProNet broker today!