Custom Residential Architects Network

-------------------------------------------
Perry Cofield AIA
Design Ways & Means Architects
Arlington VA
-------------------------------------------

Realtors have a role to play in getting a home built...in site selection and comparables, knowing about design trends, that sort of thing. The public may not realize that an experienced residential architect keeps a constant eye on all this too.  Realtors often know very little beyond the market, but some are able to project an aura of "trust', and present themselves usually as part of a package deal with who else but....a builder! 

Which brings me to why I am against NAHB setting up a home designer certification program.  It is not that home design is not teachable as a discipline, it is what happens beyond the single homesite. With designers trained by and working for the homebuilder, we are back to the same old sad-assed assumptions that yield no-brainer "market driven" developments.  If the architect is not involved in designing the community from the ground up, his impact on society is limited to the wisdom he or she can impart on a custom home.  BECAUSE FOR SOCIAL IMPACT, THE PLAT IS WHERE IT'S AT.   

Last week in DC, the main speaker at a planning conference was full of calls to 'seize the moment'.  Later, chatting with a current state chapter head of AIP, I learned that recent smart growth efforts in that state had been completely undermined by certain developer-politician deals...just like in the movies!  All I can say is several design professions now suffer by a thousand cuts, innuendos, lip service, and just plain blow-offs.  Because suburban production building is much-advanced by Republican interests, and aided by Realtors, who can be the ultimate money-for-nothing rent-seekers.  So it is heartening to see the AIA finally acknowledging, in certain articles, that this fight is a political as everything else in the good ole USA right now. 

Architects: all we can do now is learn how to out-schmooze our competitors, and play it humble, low-key, all on behalf of God, Economy, and Greenery.  CRAN should be commended for its efforts to date, and need not be micromanaged by big AIA.

Hi Perry,
I agree with your position against ANY entity other than the AIA "certifying" anyone who designs buildings & homes.  The AIA is supposed to be the Voice of the Profession.  The public is confused already by peripheral organizations whose members did not earn a degree or go through the difficult path to obtain a license to practice, or maintain CEUs.  All they have done is print some business cards, get a piece of software and declare themselves out for hire.  Can we stop anyone like NAHB from creating such a certification program?  Probably not.  That doesn't mean we have to roll over and like it.  And if there is anything we of the CRAN AIA can do to thwart such programs in the future, that would certainly have my assistance and endorsement. In my opinion, if CRAN had its way, we would all be supporting mandatory professional State licensing for residential architects, the first requirement of such being: an architectural license. And that would be a good thing.  Designing homes properly is a very complex task and we all know that "designers" don't do what we do, or as well.  If it requires a building permit, it should require an Architect. 

-------------------------------------------
Rand Soellner AIA
Architect/Owner/Principal
Home Architects
Cashiers NC
-------------------------------------------