AIA 2009 Convention Coming Up April 30th

Moscone Center in San Francisco will be the hub of all activity for the American Architect Institute's 2009 Convention and Show.

Many manufacturer's will be there, to date I've seen AVM, Duradeck, Dex-O-Tex, Excellent Coatings and Parex LaHabra/Mer-Ko as exhibitors for decking/exterior products, I've also seen Tremco and Kemiko listed...

Probably sold out for manufacturer's, but you can register to go-click here to go 's 2009 Convention website for the rates and dates

CONSENSUS DOCS Challenges AIA on "Who's in Charge"

Read this article on a new group challenging AIA's dominance on contract documents...

A new challenger to AIA documents

ConsensusDOCS, a new family of construction documents, puts the owner in charge of the project.

By TIM CALDERBANK, JOE STRAUS and JANET KIM LIN
Bullivant Houser Bailey

After an intensive three-year effort, a consortium of owners, contractors and trade groups joined together and have published what they consider to be contract documents based on best practices and proper risk allocation, for the benefit of the construction industry at large. The result is a new family of construction documents entitled ConsensusDOCS, where “DOCS” stands for designers, owners, contractors and sureties.

ConsensusDOCS is endorsed by 22 construction organizations — including the Associated General Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors and National Electrical Contractors Association — that represent a wide selection of industry members, from developers to owners to general contractors to subcontractors.

Despite the wide consensus represented by these national trade organizations, proponents of the long-standing contract documents published by the American Institute of Architects argue that the oft-revised AIA documents are more than sufficient and there is no need for another family of construction documents. For the reasons below, we disagree with that conclusion.

The owner is in charge

READ THE REST BY CLICKING HERE!

AIA East Bay offers Green Roof Waterproofing/Drainage Course

Click our headlines to read the entire article at AIA East Bay's Blog-

AIA East Bay is offering on Thursday July 17th in Redwood City and all day course on greenroof waterproofing and (more important than waterproofing) drainage...

AIA members are eligible for continuing ed credit.

Designers and contractors should probably attend. Tell 'em we sent ya!

AIA Trust's "White Paper" on Risk Management Ideas For Condominium Projects

Everyone has to deal with insurance and risk when building, developing and designing condo's-including the Architects. Very often builders form LLP's that just develop the condo you are looking to buy. When all the sales are closed, often the LLP is closed too, leaving entities that are still around to deal with the lawsuits from HOA attorney's.

This White paper from the AIA Trust, issued in April 2006 and authored by attorney G. William Quatman, FAIA, Esq of Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, P.C. in Kansas City MO, discusses the condo crisis and defect suits from the Architects' side and discusses how to deal with the problems in condo building.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Here are the highlights of the attached White Paper on risk management as relates
to condominium projects:

There has been incredible growth in the housing market nationwide. Construction
defect litigation has exploded in several states, drawing aggressive plaintiff law firms to
what has become a “cottage industry” of filing suits on behalf of condominium owners
and Homeowner Associations (“HOA”) against developers, contractors, architects and
others for actual or alleged defects. Some architects and contractors have dropped out of the condominium market due to suits and high insurance. Insurers for contractors have invoked exclusions in new policies for any residential construction and insurers for architects charge increased premiums and require a supplemental application for
condominium projects. With many condominium projects developed by single-purpose
LLC’s, which are dissolved after all the units are sold, the unit owners and HOA’s often have no recourse against the entity who sold them their unit. As a result, many sue the contractor and architect.

As of January 2006, a total of 27 State Legislatures have passed “Right-To-Cure” Acts
(or Construction Defect Acts) that are aimed to reduce suits by requiring the HOA and
the condominium unit owners to give advance written notice of a defect to the contractor prior to filing a lawsuit. In 14 states, the law also protects architects. See Appendix G for the full text of these statutes and hot links to the actual laws. These laws set out a pre-
claim procedure whereby the contractor (and sometimes the design professional) have
the right to inspect the property, conduct testing, and then offer to repair or settle the dispute, or to deny liability, before any lawsuit is filed. In a few states, the HOA must give advance notice to the unit owners and explain the options and the cost of litigation. In at least one state, the HOA board must send the owners a copy of the contractor’s responseto the claim and a vote is required before suit can be filed. These laws can greatly assist in reducing costly litigation, however in nearly 75% of the states there is currently no protection for the architect. AIA has lots of work to do in this area. Of the 27 states with “Right-To-Cure Laws”, only 14 of those include design defects or specific mention of architects.


CLICK THE HEADLINE TO READ THE ENTIRE PAPER AT AIA TRUST