Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) discussion. We had two white papers that we built under the aegis of the Construction Owners Roundtable. Having the software guys there at the table was great in terms of being able to talk about the things that the software could do but were being inhibited by certain regulatory environmental decisions. I was on the executive committee of AIA National at the time, so I was able to bring this discussion to the Board, and the Board got behind it. As luck would have it, the chair of the AIA Contract Documents Committee was Phil Bernstein, FAIA, who, after a long career with Cesar Pelli, Phil had joined Autodesk as their lead VP for the AutoCAD product and then the Revit product. I went to Phil and said, “We need some pieces of the puzzle in the realm of contract documents that go together to help give our practitioners guidance.” Phil was able to harness the Contract Documents crew to come up with the first outline specs and the contract templates that could start to guide this IPD conversation. When I became president of the Institute in 2007, one of the things that I was able to launch was the first suite of IPD documents. That’s now widely recognized, widely used, but there is still skepticism, particularly on the owner’s side, on some of these things. But the success stories, particularly with healthcare projects coming in under budget and under schedule with great performance were really gratifying. As AIA president at the national level, you’ve got the bully pulpit to advance issues you wish to highlight. You still have your own time because there are other people who are working on other things the Institute is pursuing whose efforts you can support. I chose to use my voice around sustainability issues. In 2006-07, we were still in the early days with LEED. There were a number of opportunities that came up on Capitol Hill to influence policy. I got to know Ed Mazria, FAIA. I was in an airport someplace in 2006, and that Metropolis edition with the rolls of blueprints and the smoke coming out on the cover caught my eye. I struck up a conversation with Ed and was able to help him move some things along to get LEED, more familiar with the energy issues. At that time, it was more about designing for low energy use index numbers versus tracking the actual performance of the completed project in CBECS. I had a couple of interesting, raucous conversations with LEED leadership about whether it is CBECS or it is ANSI. CBECS! I want to see the real-world performance! The energy bill in 2007 was working its way through Congress, and our AIA national advocacy team was able to get some provisions into the bill, around the tax credits. Many of us here in Utah take advantage of the 179d tax credit available in that legislation. I had the opportunity to testify before both the House and the Senate Subcommittee on Energy. One of my proudest moments is getting those provisions included. I got to participate in the Solar Decathlon in D.C. on the Mall. As wonderful as that was, there were many other gratifying components of that year. It was the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Institute. I focused my time on getting to as many local and state components as I could to help them celebrate the 150th anniversary. We had a whole series of events. We did Blueprint for America, which was getting local components to look at what they could do in their community to set the stage for the next 150 years. We did a national survey of America’s favorite buildings. When that came out, I got a chance to promote that in print media, on the radio, on TV and by doing a press conference in one of the House office buildings thanks to Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Portland, Oregon. Then on April 13, which is the anniversary of the founding of the Institute, 13 architects in New York City went down to City Hall and incorporated AIA, and then went to Delmonico’s for lunch. The Board was able to have a big celebratory dinner at Delmonico’s on April 13; that was great fun. The Empire State Building came out on top as the number one building in America. I wrote a letter to its owners congratulating them. They said, “Next time you’re in New York, we’ll go through the building.” So, as part of that April 13 celebration, as I was in New York, I visited the Empire State Building. As you come in the front door, they have a big showcase trophy case; there was my letter blown up to poster size! We went all the way up and all the way down through the building. But then the drop-the-mic moment was at our 2007 convention in June in San Antonio. There was the Investiture of the new class of the College’s Fellows. We did it in front of the Alamo at sundown, which was pretty spectacular. But it was the last day of the convention: the final keynote, that was my highlight. I was pushing the sustainability issues as far as I could. I brainstormed with the two folks, Gwen Dakis, FAIA, and Carl Meyer, FAIA, who were the convention and education co-chairs, about who our speakers would be. And I said, “Al Gore, I want Al Gore.” We talked to our friends at McGraw-Hill and Arch Record, and they said, “Yeah, we can cover that fee. We can take care of this.” Now, how do we get to Gore? We were going through the speakers’ bureaus, his office and friends on Capitol Hill … we really were having a hard time making the connection. Gwen’s mom was a Chautauqua person. Chautauqua Conference is a big deal in Upstate New York. One day, Gwen gave me a call and said, “I was just off the phone with my mom. She is at Chautauqua and Al Gore’s there.” I said, “She’s got to Olympia Centre Neiman Marcus 15
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