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Reorganize as a “B Corp” and Save the World

C. J. Hughes
March 16, 2012
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Photo © Josh Douglas Smith Vision Architecture designed the Camden Friends Meeting House, LEED-Platinum project completed in 2009. Many firms donate time to projects that do right by the world. Others want to contribute even more, but without jettisoning their business models and becoming all-out nonprofits. Related Links: Does “Doing Good” Pay the Bills? A possible middle ground: reorganizing as a benefit corporation, or “B corp.” While these companies earn profits and pay corporate taxes, they also pledge to act in an environmentally and socially responsible way. In some states, in exchange for their commitment, they are entitled to legal
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Assessing the Intern Development Program

G. Chaise Nunnally
April 16, 2011
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Now three decades old, has the IDP lived up to its lofty goals? The AIA and NCARB created the Intern Development Program (IDP) more than 30 years ago in order to establish a structured training process in architecture firms for students and graduates. The program was meant to expose students to different aspects of the profession, and help them become competent licensed architects. Now three decades old, has the program lived up to its lofty goals?   G. Chaise Nunnally is a freelance writer and editor in Southern California. In an attempt to assess the program and its impact on
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The Name Game

The biggest quandary facing some architects is the wording on the door.
Martin Filler
January 16, 2011
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As any good psychologist will tell you, names are destiny, imposing on newborn babies parental expectations that often become self-fulfilling prophecies.


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IPD Contracts: Ready for Prime Time?

B.J. Novitski
October 16, 2010
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Lawyers say integrated-project-delivery documents have come a long way, but caution is still in order. It may seem unusual to find lawyers agreeing with each other, but there seems to be unanimity on one important issue: Before architects embark on integrated-project-delivery (IPD) projects, they should have their contracts closely scrutinized by legal and insurance professionals. IPD proponents believe collaboration instead of competition within the design/construction team results in better, faster, less-expensive projects. But risk-averse, adversarial relationships are so habitual in the U.S. construction industry that legal structures, insurance policies, and much else needs to change to accommodate these new ideas.
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More Profitable Than Ever

Charles Linn, FAIA
August 16, 2010
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Two architects talk candidly about how they turned their business around even before the recession. In 2007, Marvin Meltzer, AIA (far right), a partner in an extremely successful New York City multifamily housing practice, began going through the sort of business transition that no one should ever face. David Mandl, his business partner and principal of their firm, Meltzer/Mandl Architects, for over a decade, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When an engineering firm interested in buying the business began going over the books, Meltzer and David Carpenter, AIA (near right), who had been helping to run the business in Mandl’s
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No Need to Reinvent the Wheel

We create ways of doing all kinds of things. Here's how some firms save the knowledge for future use.
B.J. Novitski
June 16, 2010
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What’s the buzz about “knowledge management”? Simply put, it’s the creation, organization, and distribution of a firm’s collective information and, often, its wisdom.


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