AIBC Publications
Hot Corner

Hot Corner 65.
by Michael Ernest MAIBC
AIBC Executive Director

For questions or comments, he can be reached at mernest@aibc.ca or at (604) 683-8588, #304.

In this issue:

Investment Advice
Strategic Wayfinding
Chaos Theory
Architects and Clients
Standing Corrected: Letters of Assurance
Rogue Letters of Assurance Revisited
The Barbosa Gambit
Speaking of RFPs
Documents Update
Architectural Humanity

Don’t tell me it’s mid-June already. I said, don’t tell me. I need no reminder; the evidence is all about. Here is a pair of dead giveaways.

Eight-going-on-nine-year-old boys and their buddies (glad to say, of both genders) have this summer-is-imminent gleam in their eyes, matched in intensity only by that of their teachers. It’s a time for recitals … piano; massed recorders (the aural torture potential of which is approached/surpassed only by a vanguard of violins); and tap dance. Hey, for some people the need to move and define one’s own space comes from within.

The normal flood of incoming Professional Development reports and queries is a raging torrent as the 30 June 2005 deadline looms nigh. Aided and abetted by members’ ability now to self-report and check our own transcripts on-line, the prospects for CES success are further improved. ‘Tis a wise member who keeps a weather eye out for each edition of eNews and the current CES “TRACK” advisory on www.aibc.ca , all designed to facilitate members’ increased learning currency and CES compliance.

INVESTMENT ADVICE

We’ve all learned (please, say ‘yes’) to ignore the invitations to make tax-free pots of money by giving certain foreign nationals access to bank accounts. New word on the street is to avoid tempting stock offerings on origami factories. The projects have been known to fold with alarming regularity.

STRATEGIC WAYFINDING

Do capital-P Politics matter architecturally? Give your head a shake and clear the cranium. Consider what’s on our proverbial platter and not whether, but the extent to which, attitude and power drive policy and operational direction, at different scales. Here’s a quick sampler:

(a) 2010 Olympics, ancillary facilities and projects driven by related investment enthusiasm and political opportunism … implemented by what selection processes, under what terms of reference, with what legacy and long-term cost?

(b) Civil liability reform: in the public interest but heretofore stymied by vested interest and insufficient optical benefit for government … while affecting the insurability of industry participants and perpetuating an inequitable risk-allocation model … even while government agencies drop writs against practitioners who followed those agencies’ standards.

(c) Southeast False Creek: development initiative of major proportion triggering/enabling broad civic thrust in favour of sustainable design but with undetermined regulation, practicability and enforceability on private developers and construction industry participants.

(d) Professional legislation reform: coming to grips with primary objectives for the advancement of our profession in the public interest while being comfortable with the likely cultural changes and being able to get the attention of the lawmakers.

No one said it was going to be easy; and all of the foregoing are in the AIBC’s peep-sights at Council and relevant committees. The volunteer energy is astounding but would benefit from members’ specific experience and insight in affecting political shift. Don’t be bashful.

CHAOS THEORY

No, this is not a reference to an architectural firm’s business plan. Remember? It’s the one which posits that the beat of a single butterfly wing has impact on distant wind and weather forces. Believe what you will about environmental determinism and the connectedness of actions … but the recent report regarding the Monarch butterfly’s migration volume to Mexico being reduced by 75% is disconcerting.

ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS

Interesting what one picks up by reading from tomes residing deep within one’s professional library. Consider this, in relation to “… the ability to deal with clients (which is oft) assumed … by the profession and the schools … inherent in the individual practitioner (while) architects tend to agree that house work is the most demanding and discouraging of all specialties because of personal difficulties with clients.” The author goes on to note, ever so winningly, that “It would be unrealistic to deny that some clients are quite literally barbarians. It is equally futile to ignore the fact that architects, particularly the better ones, tend to be pigheaded; that they arrogate to themselves omnipotence in matters of esthetics.” The source: Robert Woods Kennedy’s “The House and the Art of its Design” (p.293) from the Progressive Architecture Library of the Reinhold Publishing Company (NY), 1953. And so are the stereotypical battle lines drawn. More than 50 years on, much is available to architects (and clients) regarding relationships but the fundamental perceptions persist. The AIBC’s Advisory Service is our longest-standing public outreach vehicle, taking on the challenge of demystifying the relationship while reinforcing the value of hiring an architect. That’s why it’s a component in the AIBC’s communications strategy.

STANDING CORRECTED: LETTERS OF ASSURANCE (CARRIAGE TRADE)

In a previous edition of this column (#63) it was stated, in effect, that a single-family residence does not invoke section 2.6 of the BC Building Code (or its Vancouver counterpart) and letters of assurance. That is typically true but, as was brought to my attention by eagle-eyed members from both the Lower Mainland and the "Heartland", also false in its untrammeled generality. Houses which ‘graduate’ from Part 9 of the code into Part 3, by virtue of their having a “building area” exceeding 600 m2, do attract the requirements of registered professionals’ services and letters of assurance. Remember that “building area” under the code refers to the ground-projection footprint (between firewalls, if any) of the building, not the “building area” as used in the Architects Act (being therein the sum of all floor areas). Another good reason for harmonizing the code with the Architects Act and the way people actually think and speak.

ROGUE LETTERS OF ASSURANCE REVISITED

Never a dull day here at ‘Le Jardin Zoologique en Face du Carree de la Victoire”. We are in constructive dialogue with more than one authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) about some well-intentioned (we trust) but misconstrued aspects of their local building bylaws and/or letters of assurance. Notwithstanding the likelihood of eventual progress because those AHJs wish to cooperate, we need to advise that the local ‘letters’ noted below should not be signed by members … either because the letters themselves are redundant; contain inherent flaws; seek impossibility; or because their supporting bylaws would impose obligations (or terms and conditions) on architects which are neither insurable nor professionally supportable (contrary to the requirements of AIBC Council’s Practice Policy 6.10 and Bulletin 66).

(A) City of North Vancouver: two local letters, and their underlying bylaw sections, confirming (a) professional liability insurance; and (b) owner’s undertakings. The AIBC’s e-mail to the Manager, Inspections is available upon request.

(B) City of Vancouver: a local letter, emanating from Community Services (not Building) regarding, effectively, confirmation of exact conformance of building permit drawings with Development Permit drawings.

Keep those cards and letters coming; the light of day affords the opportunity for calm scrutiny.

THE BARBOSA GAMBIT

When confronted with an unacceptable set of circumstances and demands (hypothetically, of course, regarding, say, a ‘rogue’ letter of assurance or Request for Proposal) be not at all loathe to consider the matter professionally; reflect on the fact that you have a choice; and respond with smile and flourish that you “ … are disinclined to acquiesce to the request.” (source: Captain Barbosa of the “Black Pearl”)

SPEAKING ABOUT RFPs

Did you see/hear that truck rumble through your community? You know, the one which had its backflap down in May (just before the Provincial election) and dropped off various payloads that triggered positive excitement from the East Kootenays to Vancouver Island? To those architectural firms who looked at the resultant RFPs and asked us to help, many thanks … from not only your colleagues but also the client/project beneficiaries of the dialogues which followed. To those firms who maintained radio silence and/or who responded to the RFPs with nary a hitch in their swings … what were you thinking? Rent “Pirates of the Caribbean”; review AIBC Bulletin 64; contact the AIBC; and (thank you, Nancy) just say ‘no’. Consider what you risk, for what return, when you participate in (say) a ‘cattle call’ with unstated (or unweighted) evaluation criteria and are required to provide a wealth of information; to guarantee future construction costs will match the client’s current budget; and to sign an agreement which makes one wonder if the clients (or, more than likely, the client’s advisors) understand professional relationships … of course, all for a fixed price on the “bid” form. Need any other clue as to what is the real basis for selection?

Here’s a summary of such an RFP. Wanted: extremely well-qualified architect who will guarantee construction industry performance outside his/her control for a fixed price while accepting that the client will screw him/her over contractually. Here’s a tidbit: the AIBC will not post an RFP on our web site or in eNews, or otherwise promote an RFP, if the terms of that RFP are not known to be professionally supportable. And, the AIBC will intervene, usually with success.

In that vein, we sincerely appreciated the cooperative and constructive attitudes of Owners’ representatives Don Stewart, Doug Smith, Agnes Szilo, Graham Leslie and Dave Crowe of (respectively) the City of Fernie, the City of Vancouver, the District of Oak Bay, 108-Mile House and Vancouver Community College in amending their RFPs in consultation with the AIBC.

DOCUMENTS UPDATE

Thanks to our Education Facilities Committee (Gregg Brown MAIBC, Chair) and particular input from the Ministry of Education’s Nick Watkins, we now have a revised Practice Note #3 dealing with the operating environment around Schools (K-12) Projects in BC. Benefitting from research and thoughtful consideration by our Building Envelope Committee, we now have a new AIBC Bulletin #56 (approved by AIBC Council) which adds to our “Tariff of Fees for Architectural Services” with respect to the provision of ‘Enhanced Building Envelope Services’ in correlation to Bulletin #34. Both those official AIBC documents are available on our website and are being mailed to each member under separate cover shortly.

ARCHITECTURAL HUMANITY

It’s a hot summer’s day too many years ago and a young architectural graduate, having hit town from a cross-country odyssey, wanders into yet another unknown firm’s quiet office, in the Dominion Building. The market is depressed. Short weeks, short staffs and curt, discouraging, even disparaging dismissals are the orders of the day. This principal, however, invites the innocent in; listens; offers job-hunting advice (do NOT ask for the personnel officer; DO ask for an architect on the letterhead); and goes through the yellow pages and offers suggestions and information (including which letterhead names are no longer alive). Simple grace. Today, Hin Fong Yip (whose small practice recently closed after 45 years in that same location) is retired, not in the best of health but, having set a career-long example of selfless community service across cultural boundaries, not forgotten.

Finally, I’m inclined to ring in the summer solstice with these thoughts. While the German philosopher Goethe limned architecture as frozen music, the Jazz Ambassador Miles Davis was not static. ”Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.” Underlying strength enables improvisation.

Coda.

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