Please post your comments, suggestions or thoughts for use in the development of any of the Architectural Professional Development topics:
-Licensure Processes
-Unlicensed Practice/ License Abuse
-Architectural Education
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8 comments:
Notes from our 06/01/07 Meeting
DPR & Licensure Board
1. The Licensure staff is worse off than before.
2. The process of the applications & there status is questionable.
3. The seventeen (17) year veteran of the prosecution department did not have his contract renewed for the current year. The third year law student that was assisting is the prosecution for the department & he can’t legally prosecute. Certificates of Discipline are issued which are basically saying “don’t do it”.
4. The licensure board is advisory only & can give an opinion only when asked.
5. No audits of any licenses have been asked for during this past license cycle.
6. The idea of “self regulation” is a good one, but the state will still officially be holding the license as the governing body. They probably would not want to let this go and do we really want to take or can we all that responsibility.
7. We need some type of consensus with the Licensing Board & Architects to the DPR.
8. Three (3) Licensing board members are going to the NCARB conference.
9. The chairman is funded through NCARB dues paid by Illinois.
10. Mike A. is funded by remaining dollars from Mike M. & AIA Illinois.
11. Martinez was funded by ALA according to ALA newsletter.
A.R.E. Resolutions 07-8 & 07-9
1. AIA is not in favor of holding the test back and as long as the candidate has the credits (235) he should be able to take the test. We are in support of the resolutions with no amendments. If you can pass the test out of school you should be able to take the test. Education is not finished with IDP. All questions of the exams are taken from reasonable knowledge.
Unlicensed Architects
1. Many jurisdictions do not require a Licensed Architect for residential projects less than 3000 square feet in size. Unlicensed practice can do a lot of damage with fewer square feet. Plan Book operations are always misleading, the copyright issue and they have no responsibility.
2. Most of the issues are with residential projects.
Licensing Act
1. The sunset of the act is in 2010? Work should begin on changes & updates in 2008 so that we are ready and the leaders. Items for review should be; staff, administration, disciplinary, design firm licensure, off shore work just to name a few.
2. Roles & processes are always changing in the profession. How is “Reasonable Control” of the documents going to be handled with B.I.M. looking to be sooner than later and all drawings are on the computer.
3. Health, safety & welfare should always be at the top of the list.
4. Issues relating to the Interior Designers need continued efforts.
Notes from our 06/15/07 Meeting:
Again we had a lively discussion on many of our continuing topics. Jonathan asked that we include an additional topic to our list “Construction Administration” which has been on the NCARB & National target list (see comments below).
If there are any other topics that should be added, please let’s get them on the table for further discussion. Remember we need to develop AIA IL Policy or Initiative with these topics. They only need to wordy enough to be understood & get the point across. So if we could all continue to take a look at these prior to the next conference call, make some comments on the topics, and forward them around to one another for our next discussion. I have included with these notes both the PDF & Word files for our use.
Construction Administration
1. Construction administration topic needs to be corrected or included properly in the Practice Act. It should not just be “observation” but further described as what architects services should include.
2. We should be taking a stronger role as the HSW issue is involved. Why hire an architect if all that is going to happen is handing the drawings over and not following through with the project.
3. This topic would be one that the insurance industry would probably like or should be involved in the conversation.
DPR & Licensure Board
1. What should our objectives be with the Licensing Board & DPR?
2. We need to state what the practice of architecture should be, not the problems of the DPR.
3. Our policy or statement should be more global & then work our way down.
4. Architects are licensed for the HSW of the public.
Unlicensed Architects
1. The less than 3000sf is covered by the Licensing Act. This is something that we don’t want to take on.
2. “Fishing” is not legal in Illinois but the state has never enforced this issue. NCARB has language on this.
3. Many architects are solicited for projects that are not licensed in the state.
4. At what point is the work “Design and/or Architecture”? Is it when you state that you can provide services of an architect? There are companies that provide specific services such as programming, review, etc.
5. The out sourcing of architectural services will become an issue or the level of service may be the real issue. The term “Direct Supervision” is old and should be updated or explained better. When the entire project is being outsourced (putting the documents together) lends itself to plan stamping.
IDP
1. Fewer & fewer of the architecture graduates have the goal of becoming an Architect. Is this just generational? Are they just working for the dollars and not concerned about moving around from place to place. Is the license really worth it?
2. I don’t need the stamp if I am working for someone who does and I get to work on the high profile projects without the liability.
3. This issue will probably get worse before it gets better.
4. Working under the licensed architect graduates continue to learn more, work faster and sometimes better than the architect. There beef could be “If I can do this why do I need to be an Architect”.
As you can tell there are many avenues to each of these topics. We need to look at them from the 30,000 foot level “as the point was made”. Don’t get to detailed but state the points we believe in, want to follow or others to look at us for. We should be unified for common goals. Here’s our topic list so far:
• Licensing Act
• DPR & Licensing Board
• A.R.E & IDP
• Unlicensed Architects
• Construction administration
Remember we need to develop AIA IL Policy or Initiative with these topics. They only need to wordy enough to be understood & get the point across. So if we could all continue to take a look at these & notes from last meeting prior to the next conference call. Lets all make some comments on the topics, look at the 30,000 foot level of each and forward them around to one another for our next discussion.
As a candidate for national vice-president I said,
“Nothing is more important to AIA than assuring that the future of our profession is in capable hands. For the last two years on the AIA National Board of Directors I’ve helped write AIA policies for architectural education and programs for emerging professionals.”
At that time I believed there was (or should not be) a “gap” between practice in education. Rather I believed, and do now, that education and practice is (or should be) a seamless continuum for assuring that the future of our profession is in capable hands.
This was my call to action at the national level, and it is my call to action to AIA Illinois to implement the following at the state wide level:
• To advocate for a culture of respect and nurturing for students in academic studios and interns in professional offices,
• To promote greater diversity in architectural schools so we can achieve greater diversity in AIA, and
• To improve IDP and mentoring for emerging professionals.
Today I believe that AIA Illinois should seek ways to implement all of the national public policies and position statements I helped write on the national board. They are as follows:
Public Policy
The practice of architecture should be regulated. The privileges and responsibilities of practice should be extended only to those architects who demonstrate through education, experience, and examination that they are ethically and technically prepared.
Position Statements
NAAB Degree The AIA supports a professional degree from a National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accredited program as the most appropriate minimum threshold for educational training. Alternative educational pathways in lieu of a NAAB accredited degree should be considered to fulfill educational prerequisites to licensure on an individual candidate basis.
Internship The AIA supports a comprehensive internship with measurable qualitative training criteria. Further, the AIA supports NCARB’s Intern Development Program (IDP) and its training areas, which provide interns with the diverse training and experience in architectural essential to the preparation for licensure.
Examination The AIA maintains that passing of the Architect Registration Examination (ARE) is the only acceptable threshold for fulfillment of the examination requirement for licensure. The ARE should test for public protection competencies gained through a combination of professional degree education and practical experience, of candidates once they meet the licensing requirements of the local jurisdiction. The AIA through its members, should encourage emerging professionals to complete the examination. The profession and society will be best served by a growing number of licensed architects.
Timing of ARE The AIA supports architectural registration boards’ allowing interns for licensure candidacy to take the ARE following their graduation from a NAAB-accredited degree program and concurrent with enrollment in the Intern Development Program (IDP).
Use of Title The AIA supports protecting the public by reserving the use of the term “architect” and its derivative forms to those individuals licensed as architects. In addition, the AIA supports the use of “architectural intern” or “intern architect” for graduate of NAAB-accredited degree programs.
Interdependence The AIA supports the interdependence of practice and education as elements of the profession that, when integrated, enable students, educators, and practitioners to obtain and maintain the knowledge and skills needed to enter and fully participate in the profession, and to achieve design excellence in service to society.
Public Policy With an obligation to the future of the architecture profession, architects must encourage, recruit, and inspire those who would become architects.
Position Statements
Mentorship The AIA supports its members to recognize and fulfill their obligation to nurture emerging professionals as they advance through all stages of their professional experience, beginning with professional education and progressing through internship and licensure and continuing throughout their career.
Studio Culture The AIA supports a professional practice environment that
encourages the essential values of optimism, respect, collaboration, engagement, and innovation. The architectural design studio culture promotes these ideasl and should serve as the foundation of degree education and professional practice.
You may view these public policies at http://www.aia.org/
I look forward to your suggestions on implementation of these education/practice public policies at the state or chapter level.
I am interested in participating in the policy discussion on professional development and education. The NAAB is in the process of re-evaluating its standards in view of the latest developments in the profession - more emphasis on sustainability and integrated practice. NAAB and the universities work at glacial speed, however, and we don't have that long to realign our own priorities. Other, more nimble, methods of education and re-education will need to be created IMHO.
Frank H.
AIA Illinois Education and Internship Policy
Prepared by Frank Heitzman, AIA
August 21, 2007
1. Education and practice should be fully integrated so that students also participate in practice during school.
2. Promote enrollment of greater numbers of minority students in architectural schools through focused marketing efforts and organized mentoring.
3. Require every licensed architect to participate in mandatory mentoring of interns as a condition to maintaining their membership in the AIA. Define and encourage acceptance of the “Five Distinctive Phases” in an architect’s career: Education, Internship, Examination, Licensure, Mentorship. Recognize that these phases may overlap.
4. Allow interns to take the ARE following their graduation and prior to completion of the IDP.
5. Encourage interns to complete the ARE and become licensed to practice. The profession and society will be best served by a growing number of licensed architects.
6. Allow graduates of architectural programs to use the title “architect” (rather than “intern architect”) prior to completion of IDP and ARE. Those architects that have completed the IDP and ARE and have become licensed in Illinois may call themselves “licensed architect.” Only licensed architects would be allowed to seal permit and construction documents.
7. Allow alternative educational pathways in lieu of a NAAB accredited degree to fulfill educational prerequisites to licensure.
8. Create more graduate schools of architecture in the state. Because of the impending date for requirement of a professional degree for Illinois architectural licensure (January 1, 2014), if we want to sustain the same number of licensed architects who are educated in Illinois, we will need to expand opportunities in the graduate programs. About half of current graduates have an M.Arch. or B.Arch. degree in Illinois.
9. Empower existing community college programs in architecture (COD, Harper, ICC, Oakton and Triton) to offer four-year pre-professional degrees. This will persuade more students with limited financial resources to enter into the profession and would immediately stimulate diversity. Moreover, it would free up the current schools offering M. Arch. degrees to concentrate in that area of education and would open up more slots for grad students in the existing schools.
10. Add courses and programs in “integrated practice.”
11. Establish two or four-year para-architect programs in colleges for people who want to participate in architectural practice but may not want to own their own firm or become a licensed architect. They may want to specialize in certain narrow aspects of the profession such as:
a. Lighting design
b. Acoustics
c. Cost estimating
d. IT services to firms
e. Accounting services
f. Marketing
g. Administration
h. Integrated practice
i. Construction
They would be hired by architectural firms to supplement their staff and bring in needed expertise in specialty areas; alternatively, graduates of these programs could set up their own companies to serve many architectural firms.
12. Include in the requirements for continuing education for licensure and membership in the AIA one or more academic courses per year offered within schools of architecture rather than just unstructured workshops or some of the “lighter” areas of fulfillment such as reading magazine articles. There is a need to establish a formal curriculum for continuing education.
The Illinois Department of Regulations is a mess. I uncovered one of the biggest cases of violations of the Architecture Practice Act in the IDPR's history and reported over a year ago (maybe 2 years now) and the unlicensed "architect's" services are still being offered by a local builder. This is after a collapse of one of his structures with injuries and finding 3 more built the same way. It seems if you build the homes of the town's Mayor, Community Development Director and Police Chief you are immune from prosecution.
K.O.
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