In some of the posts I wrote during the recent AIA convention, I was coming down pretty hard on "credit-chasers" in the ranks. (AIA members are required to earn 18 "learning unit" hours annually, with at least eight about health, safety, and/or welfare.)

The conferences I typically attend are smaller and more focused than the AIA behemoth, and the people who come to them are eager to wring out every bit of information from the sessions that they can. At AIA, on the other hand, people began streaming out of most of the sessions I attended as soon as it was clear that the presentation was nearly over. Not done, but getting there.

There were a couple exceptions, and others from BuildingGreen attended sessions where most of the room stayed put through the duration.

On the way back to Vermont, after the conference, I had a conversation with Nadav about it. He was much more understanding — and/or more forgiving — than me.

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I have a huge amount of appreciation and respect for (and some jealousy of) people plying artisan trades, and had a couple good conversations with AIA'08 exhibitors offering that sort of thing.

The John Canning Painting & Conservation Studios goes beyond artisan; check out the featured projects on their website. In my capacity as poster boy for the A Little Knowledge Club, we chatted a bit about lime plaster and mortar while I stood in awe of their portfolio. And I threw some banal chatter at the patient folks staffing the booth for the Stained Glass Association of America, the members of which also provide amazing, timeless, world-class work.

When my cathedral needs repair, these are the people I'm calling.

But the highlight of the conference exhibition hall, for me, was Hugh Lofting Timber Framing.

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Michael Wentz being interviewed after the presentation

BuildingGreen was given a nice shout-out in the introductory remarks, described as "one of the most important partners over the years" of the Top Ten awards, with special thanks given to Michael Wentz for his extensive assistance.

COTE has ten measure of sustainability that it considers:

1. Sustainable design intent & innovation: Sustainable design is an inherent aspect of design excellence. Projects should express sustainable design concepts and intentions, and take advantage of innovative programming opportunities.
2. Regional community design / connectivity: Sustainable design values the unique cultural and natural character of a given region.
3. Land use & site ecology: Sustainable design protects and benefits ecosystems, watersheds, and wildlife habitat in the presence of human development.
4. Bioclimatic design: Sustainable design conserves resources and maximizes comfort through design adaptations to site-specific and regional climate conditions.
5. Light & air: Sustainable design creates comfortable interior environments that provide daylight, views, and fresh air.
6. Water cycle: Sustainable design conserves water and protects and improves water quality.
7. Energy flows & energy future: Sustainable design conserves energy and resources and reduces the carbon footprint while improving building performance and comfort. Sustainable design anticipates future energy sources and needs.
8. Materials & construction: Sustainable design includes the informed selection of materials and products to reduce product-cycle environmental impacts, improve performance, and optimize occupant health and comfort.
9. Long life & loose fit: Sustainable design seeks to enhance and increase ecological, social, and economic values over time.
10. Collective wisdom & feedback loops: Sustainable design strategies and best practices evolve over time through documented performance and shared knowledge of lessons learned.

While each of the ten projects excelled at more than one of these attributes, they were each presented in conjunction with one measure. The award winners are not ranked.

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"I kinda liked the expo this year. There seemed to be a lot of stuff." —a guy to another guy

A piece of it. Just a piece.

A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction is a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America. Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food.

The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held. At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.

Since its inception, ten million pounds of food has been donated to aid in the fight against hunger. Initiated by the Denver, Seattle and New York Chapters of the SDA in 1992/93, Canstruction now has over one hundred individual competitions scheduled to take place during the 2007-2008 cycle.

Design and Construction Industry professional associations that have partnered with the SDA in organizing local competitions include the American Institute of Architects, the Society for Marketing Professional Services and the International Interior Design Association.

Check out the stunning photo/video archive.

"Using case studies of recent high performance architecture, this session will identify key strategies required to increase sustainable methods to achieve zero carbon goals by the year 2030. The case studies examine design strategies and processes for the next generation of sustainable architecture, going beyond current best practices through synergistic approaches to bioclimatic site design, envelope, energy optimization, daylighting, passive and active systems, and materials." Presented by Terri Meyer Boake and Mary Guzowski; provided by the Society of Building Science Educators.

So... much... important... stuff...

So... much... common sense...

There were entirely too many open seats — but nearly the entire audience was paying rapt attention. It felt like a real victory. Just eighteen credit-chasers left during the summary slide. I counted. True to form, during Q&A, the room cleared — but the exodus started comparatively late.

Listen. There's no way I can do this presentation justice, so I'm not going to try. Forgive me. Download the slide presentation. Look at the information from COTE at the AIA website; scroll down, follow the links.

It's better for you this way.

Nadav Malin and Scot Horst offered up a great, head-twisting presentation about product certifications called "It's Certified Green But What Does That Mean?" to about 500 people. It covered all the territory in the EBN feature "Behind the Logos: Understanding Green Product Certifications" and more.

There may have been some misunderstanding on the part of some attendees who only read the title, however, and not the program description: It sounded like it might have been about LEED certification rather than product certification. And the amount of information to process, even though they presented it in an engaging, conversational style, was voluminous — especially for the abject novice — bringing to light individual certification program histories, inconsistencies, and limitations in what was probably about the simplest way to do it, which was nonetheless hard to digest. Additionally, the sound in the conference center rooms is pingy, with a pronounced slapback echo.

I say these things mostly to give the benefit of the doubt where it might be deserved. I outlined my theory about a largely disinterested AIA membership merely pursuing the required continuing education credits in the last two paragraphs of the "Legally Green" post. The same thing happened at this session: four-fifths fled when Q&A started. It's that remaining one-fifth that are the leaders of the (near) future.

^ shortly after the session began

^ immediately after Q&A began

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Now, having made that snarky comment about white guys in a previous post (for the record, I'm a white guy), I should say that the conference itself has a very nicely diverse attendance. Walking the trade show floor, you're surrounded by a range of ages, what seems like an almost even mix of sexes, and a good variety of ancestries. And not everybody is dressed in fashionable black with high-tone glasses.

I was talking with Jim Newman about it, and he said that most conference attendees are actually from small firms, which have a greater diversity. (So, in the monstrous exhibition hall, it seems we have mostly big manufacturers and suppliers trying to sell mostly high-end wares to mostly small architectural concerns.)

I haven't made it through much of the hall yet. I just attended a session — more on that later — and am about to head to another, co-presented by Nadav Malin.

Here's the BuildingGreen booth in action:

This morning began (for me) with a 7:00 (early!) session called "Legally Green: Legal and Practice Issues of LEED," presented by Betsy del Monte and William Quatman. The room had a capacity approaching 400, and got close to filling up. Betsy's presentation was, for the most part, understandably basic. The big majority of the audience, by show of hands, had not worked on a LEED certified project, or a LEED certifiable project, and were not LEED APs. They were there for continuing education. More on that shortly.

Betsy's take on legislation and owner requirements for buildings to be LEED certifiable, but not certified, falls just a bit short. She noted that the cost difference between a certifiable project and a certified one is marginal at best... and that when somebody says that they saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not pursuing actual certification, it means that they almost certainly did not build a certifiable building. According to Betsy, USGBC fees are the smallest amount of the increased costs of a certifiable building.

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I came to Boston yesterday, giving myself plenty of time to check in at the sprawling Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) for this year's AIA National Convention before heading out — pretty much cluelessly — to get a closer look at this historic city.

I'd been tipped off that the Freedom Trail, a walking tour following a thin red line that ties together many historic sites in town, was a good thing to do. The convention center is just several blocks from downtown, so I figured if I walked toward the big buildings I'd find the trail eventually. And eventually, I found myself at Boston Common and picked it up.

The city's buildings are an interesting mix of old and new. There were a lot of white guys hurrying past all the history, jockeying for position to photograph seemingly any building with a glass facade. They all looked pretty much alike to me — the photographers and the photographed. I know not all architects are about the modern, but there is a deserved reputation.

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