Table of Contents
Note:
This newsletter uses HTML. If you are using e-mail software that isn't HTML
enable, or have the read-HTML option disabled, please follow this link to the
newletter:
http://www.aiawa.org/newsletters/0505newsletter.html.
President's Message
Spring is flying by and the legislative
season is over. We have had some notable successes this year, chief of which
was successful passage of 2SSB 5509, High Performance Public Buildings, a
bill requiring sustainable building design for state-funded projects, which
was signed into law April 8th. Our Sustainable Design Resource Group worked
long and hard to help craft the bill and to get it passed. Big kudos to Tony
Gale and the other members of his group for all their excellent work. Another
bill that has figured large during the session is HB 1848, Condominium Liability
Reform. Steve Masini, Jeff Hamlett, and many others on the Practice Resource
Group have put in long hours reviewing the bill and suggesting revisions.
Our Executive Director, Stan Bowman, was finally able to bring about a compromise
with the bill’s supporters to make some needed changes. The bill isn’t
perfect, but should help alleviate some of the litigation pitfalls that have
been going with this building type.
Stan Bowman has been invaluable in tracking bills, getting information to
the Resource Groups, gaining consensus on our positions, lobbying and testifying.
In fact, he’s been so vocal that at one point he lost his voice for
a week.
Speaking of Resource Groups, they are the lifeblood of the legislative process
for Washington Council. They are the sounding board when Stan and the Executive
Board need input on our legislative positions. Since the groups are made up
of members from all Chapters, they are a great forum for discussions of how
a bill might affect the architects of the state. If you aren’t already
on a Resource Group, I urge you to find one that interests you. Go to the
website, aiawa.org and
click on Advocacy. Even if you don’t actively participate right away,
you will find out how the process works.
Many of our members have given their time freely to write, call, or email
their legislators, or to come to Olympia to testify in committee hearings.
I would like to thank all of them for the dedication they exhibit to advance
the profession of architecture with our elected officials. It is that effort
that spells the difference between a bill that supports our position and one
that is detrimental to us, as well as between a bill passing and failing.
Several times, Stan has sent out email alerts to the general membership to
contact their legislators. Please don’t just hit the delete button when
you get these; the legislators really do listen. It only takes a few minutes
of your time. If you need more information on a bill, you can go to the Legislature
link on our web site (found under the Advocacy link) to find your legislators,
read bills, etc. You can also contact the AIA Washington Council Board Members
for your Chapter or Stan Bowman.
The final big push will be adoption of the state Budget for the next biennium.
By the time you read this message, the Budget will (hopefully) be passed and
the session over. But that won’t be the end of our activities, by any
means. The Board, resource chairs and others will be reviewing what went on
this session – where we were successful, where we had set-backs, which
legislators came through for our positions, where we have to do further education
on our issues. The Chapter Political representatives on the Board will also
be kicking off the annual APAC campaign. When you are contacted for a contribution,
please don’t ignore it. We use the money in our campaign chest to support
candidates who are instrumental in forwarding our priorities in the legislature.
No matter how you feel personally about campaign contributions, they are a
fact of life.
One final note, not dealing with the legislature. Our annual Civic
Design Awards luncheon will be held June 10 in Seattle. Plan to attend!
We honor not only the architects who design the projects, but also the clients.
As you all know, behind every outstanding project is an outstanding client.
Lets all show them that we appreciate all that they do to make a project successful.
Lois Wardell, AIA
President
AIA/Washington Council
AIA/WA Has Big Successes in 2005 Legislative Session
The AIA Washington Council had success
on its top legislative priorities in 2005: pass green buildings legislation,
pass condominium liability reform, protect the integrity of the licensing
system, protect the qualifications based selection (QBS) system for procuring
architecture and engineering services, and prevent new taxes from being
imposed on the profession.
Following is a short summary of these top five priorities. In future editions
of Architect Articles, we will provide information on additional legislative
issues that were active in the 2005 Legislature. For a complete list of
bills tracked by the AIA/WA in 2005, please visit our website, www.aiawa.org
and click on “Legislative Update.”
|
In the center, seated, is Governor
Christine Gregoire. From left to right are Bob Wardell, AIA, Stan
Bowman, Lois Wardell, AIA, Mike Smith FAIA, Fulton Gale, FAIA, Amanda
Sturgeon, AIA and Linda Villegas Bremer, director of General Administration.
|
High Performance Buildings—First Law in the Nation
The AIA/WA helped to pass the first statewide law requiring buildings be
built to higher environmental and energy efficiency standards. Engrossed
Substitute Senate Bill 5509 requires that all state-funded buildings be
built to either the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in LEED
Silver (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating
System®. Schools will have a choice between LEED Silver and the Washington
Sustainable Schools Design Protocol (the Protocol). State funded affordable
housing projects will have to adopt an available system for measuring building
performance as well.
Click
here to read the full story.
Condominium Liability Reform Passes
Engrossed House Bill 1848 makes important changes Washington’s tort
and construction laws to improve the quality of multifamily housing projects.
The bill has two parts. First, it requires new steps to ensure condominiums
and other multifamily housing projects are built right. Second, it encourages
disagreements to be resolved through mediation or arbitration rather than
expensive litigation. Underlying all of the reforms is a broadened role
for architects in the design, construction and inspection of such facilities.
Click
here to read the full story.
AIA/WA Holds the Line on Licensing Standards
There were several bills this year that could have weakened Washington
State’s standards for professional licensure. AIA/WA is an advocate
that state restrictions on the market should only occur when there is a
significant threat to public health and safety, the proposed restricted
practice does not impinge upon the practice of architecture and the proposed
standards for licensure meet stringent professional standards.
First, a group calling themselves “soil scientists” sought
to be licensed (House Bill 1811). This group was acting out of concern that
the geologists licensing law enacted in recent years would preclude them
from practicing. Their proposal, however, was poorly drafted and ill conceived.
HB 1811 also highlights the danger of passing new licensing without a thorough
review of the need for and the impact of increased state regulation. New
regulations often cause other groups to step forward seeking state protections
for their industry segments as well, regardless of whether such regulation
is necessary.
Second, interior designers again brought forward a proposal for new state
regulation of their industry (Substitute House Bill 1878). SHB 1878 had
many problematic provisions including expanded scope of practice into areas
of architecture and engineering, weak educational standards and permissive
grandfathering provisions. The AIA/WA had provided many detailed recommendations
on how to fix the bill to meet necessary public policy standards. However,
the interior design organizations chose not accept AIA/WA’s recommendations
and pushed their bill forward without AIA/WA agreement. The bill died, but
could be back in future years.
Click
here to read the full story.
AIA/WA Halts Fee Bid Bills for A/E Services
In Washington State, government agencies hire architects and engineers
based on their qualifications to perform the work and not based on a price
bid. This process, known as qualifications-based selection or QBS, protects
the clients’ interests by ensuring they have the most qualified firms
designing and managing projects. House Bill 1435 and its companion Senate
Bill 5474 would have undermined this system by allowing water and sewer
districts to hire engineers based in part on price proposals. AIA/WA worked
with the Architects & Engineers Legislative Council (AELC) to educate
lawmakers on this issue. The bill died in committee after members of the
AIA/WA and American Council of Engineering Companies of Washington (ACEC/WA)
testified against it.
Architects Avoid New Taxes
The legislature entered the session with a budget gap of nearly $2.4 billion.
This is the third biennia in a row that the state budget has been out of
balance. With such a big gap, there was a lot of talk about needing to raise
taxes across the board. In the end, the Democrat majority did raise over
$500 million in new taxes to fund a 12% increase in state spending. But,
none of these taxes landed directly on architects or architecture firms.
Several tax hike bills were introduced that would have hurt architecture
firms, but all were defeated, including: a new tax on “intangible”
property (SB 6004, SJR 8212), a bill that would have imposed taxes automatically
(including a sales tax on professional services) when spending outruns revenue
in a given year (HB 1095), and a new tax on “unearned income”
(HB 2318). Also stopped was a provision in the transportation revenue bill
(SB 6103) that would have authorized a county/city head tax of a $24 per
employee head on businesses. While the transportation package did pass with
an increase of 9.5 cents in the gas tax, the other business taxes were not
part of the package.
Join AIA/WA To Celebrate The Best Of Public Architecture
in Washington
2004 Honor Award/McGranahan
Architects.Photo by Matt Todd Photography
|
The annual AIA Washington Council’s
Civic Design Awards Program (CDA) and
award recipients will be recognized on June 10, 2005 at the Fairmont
Olympic Hotel in Seattle.
The CDA is the major awards program for the AIA/WA council. It identifies
public projects that are hallmarks of civic design. The Honor Award is
given to projects that not only embody design excellence, but also show
a certain amount of creative risk taking and problem solving. Civic projects
earn the Merit Award by exemplifying their particular type of civic space,
and the Citation Award is an acknowledgment of quality design based on
individual reasons.
For the first time in several years, the awards program will be held
in Seattle. Hosted in an historic hotel, the event will draw architects
from across the state to celebrate civic design architecture. This year
also has one of the largest group of applicants with 47 different projects
being reviewed.
For more information on the awards program or to register for the event,
contact Kris Schwarz at kschwarz@aiawa.org
or 360-943-6012. Information is also available on the AIA/WA web site:
www.aiawa.org.
I-330: A Down Payment on Comprehensive Liability
Reform
By Dana Childers
Executive Director, Liability Reform Coalition
W
hy should architects and builders care about the physician-backed Initiative
330 (I-330), the health care access initiative?
The reason is that architects and builders are facing ever-increasing liability,
particularly for multi-family housing projects. Banding together with the
health care industry to pass I-330 in November will send a clear message to
legislators in Olympia that citizens want and need liability reform. I-330
can be the down payment on comprehensive liability reform.
Consider Mike Brown’s story. As a Seattle-area builder of condominiums,
Brown could develop a whole comedy routine around his trove of predatory trial
lawyer stories. His most recent run-in occurred at the tail end of his latest
condominium project.
During the final building phase, Brown moved into one of the units. Answering
the phone one morning in his condo unit, Brown realized he had a trial lawyer
on the other end offering legal services for future construction defects.
Obviously, the lawyer, trolling for business, did not realize the condo tenant
was also the builder. The story is even more amazing because the building
wasn’t yet completed and the units had not all been sold.
Long Term
Care Insurance Seminar
Offered by Gjurasic/Story Group
Date: June 8, 2005
Time: 7p.m. - 9 p.m.
Location: Coast Bellevue Hotel Hemlock Room
625 116th Ave. NE,
Bellevue
For more information call Luke Gjurasic at 888-614-2273.
To reserve a space at the seminar, call 800-722-0394
Directions: Take NE 8th Ave. exit off 405. Hotel is on SE corner of
that intersection, just S. of Denny's on 116th. Phone is 425-455-9444.
|
On one hand, these stories are humorous, if not audacious. On the other
hand, trial lawyer abuse of the liability system in this state has made liability
insurance for condominium projects nearly impossible to find, much less afford.
The 2005 Washington State Legislature again gave the cold shoulder to any
meaningful liability reform. Year after year, the Liability Reform Coalition
(LRC) advocated for a comprehensive liability reform bill. In 2003 and 2004,
such reform enjoyed bipartisan Senate support. Unfortunately, year after year,
Democratic leaders in the House blocked any and all liability reform.
The House roadblock is why Washington’s hospitals and physicians opted
to take their case for liability reform to the voters this November via I-330.
The LRC supports I-330. Make no mistake; this is not just a health care industry
issue, it’s a business issue.
The liability system in Washington state is broken. Rising liability costs
have put pressure on industries across the state, limiting businesses’
ability to be competitive. As you know, these escalating liability costs have
driven up the cost of housing construction. It’s also forced charities
to curtail services and affected the availability of high-risk medical practitioners,
such as those doctors who deliver babies.
Individual taxpayers are directly affected by our out-of-control legal system.
Under current law, it’s not uncommon that the deep pockets of government
end up footing most of the bill resulting from a lawsuit. Our new state budget
includes more than $142 million to pay claims and related defense costs, such
as attorney fees. We, the taxpayers, are left holding the bag for frivolous
lawsuits and runaway jury awards. The only clear winners are—you guessed
it—trial lawyers.
On a national level, Tillinghast-Towers Perrin actuarial consultants recently
released a study that said every U.S. citizen pays a “litigation tax”
of $845. This means someone making $50,000 year has to work nearly a week
just to pay for the higher cost of goods and services due to the liability.
I-330, which goes to the voters in November, imposes sanity back into the
health care liability system. While all economic damages are and should be
fully recoverable, the so-called noneconomic damages, or those damage awards
that are given for “pain and suffering,” are capped at reasonable
levels ranging from $350,000 to just over a million dollars.
In addition, I-330 would limit the percentage that personal injury lawyers
may take from jury awards or settlements, putting more in the pockets of the
injured patient.
Unfortunately, the powerful trial lawyer lobby in this state is interested
in protecting the income stream from lucrative medical liability cases. The
Washington State Trial Lawyers Association has single-handedly financed a
competing initiative (I-336) that provides no substantive liability reforms,
but instead simply clutters the November ballot.
The need for liability reform extends far beyond healthcare providers. Those
in the design/build industry are in dire need of liability relief. Contractors
from around the state have found themselves unable to find or afford liability
insurance—even those who have never had a claim against them. This is
due to the explosive growth of lawsuits against designers and builders of
homes and condominiums. This, of course, has a direct impact on the cost availability
and cost of housing.
If I-330 wins in November it will send a clear message to the legislature
that comprehensive reform—including construction reform and joint and
several liability reform—is supported by the public. The flip side is
also true: If I-330 goes down, the discussion for liability reform will end
in Olympia.
The yes on I-330/no on I-336 campaign needs your support. For more information
and opportunities to get involved, visit www.yesoni330.org. It is critical
that architects and others in the construction industry do everything possible
to ensure passage of I-330. To stay abreast of the campaign and other liability
reform issues you can subscribe to the LRC E-News by simply sending your email
address to dana@walrc.org.
Member Spotlight: Northwest Architectural Company
The AIA Washington Council has been reorganized
to focus on government advocacy efforts. Part of that reorganization was the
creation of “Resource Groups,” each dedicated to a specific area
of public policy. Any member of AIA/WA can join these groups. During the legislative
session they review bills and recommend positions on legislation to the AIA/WA
Board of Directors. In between sessions, they are tasked with policy research
and development. 
Like any volunteer organization, the Resource Groups rely upon member activism.
Recently, one architecture firm made a strong commitment to supporting AIA/WA's
new mission.
The Northwest Architectural Company has offices in Spokane and Seattle. They
have always had firm members involved with the AIA at the local, state and
national levels. This year, they made a new commitment to the AIA by placing
firm principles on every one of the AIA/WA’s six resource groups.
Bruce Blackmer, FAIA, stated, “We see how the legislature affects us
each day in our practice and everyday lives and would rather influence that
process positively rather than just accept what otherwise might happen without
the input of the profession.”
From the AIA/WA Board of Directors: Thank you to Bruce and the NW Architectural
Company for their ongoing commitment to the profession and the AIA.
Capitol Connections Tour Review
Ralph Belton, SRG Partnership, was joined
by Tony Cook from General Administration on February 1 to lead a tour of the
Public spaces in the State Capitol Building for the attendees of the Council
Capitol Connections event. They started in the first floor Public spaces that
were created during the renovation project. The tour started in the space
for student groups to congregate and went into the Columbia Room, the domed
room, that is used by constituent groups and public gatherings that aren't
held in the Rotunda.
They proceeded to the second floor, home of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor,
Treasurer and Secretary of State. They were met by Patrick MacDonald, Assistant
to the Secretary of State, who spoke with them about the history of the building
and gave a users point of view for the project.
They went up to the fourth floor where they were able to observe the chambers
and take final questions.
The scope of the project has evolved over time. At one time it was to include
an underground addition and a phased remodel. As executed, it was about a
3-year construction project that was done in two phases. Phase one was primarily
a seismic upgrade of the dome structure. It consisted of shotcrete and carbon
fiber reinforcements of the three "dome structures” There is an
outer dome, inner dome and the cone structure that supports the lantern at
the top. These structures and the supporting colonnade were also connected
with extra reinforcing to the base building below. This included the insertion
of a 68' grouted rebar into the center of each column supporting the dome.
Phase two was primarily an upgrade of all building systems on the lower four
floors of the building (MEP, telecom, sprinklers etc.) Since this required
opening up most ceilings and floors and walls, the team took the opportunity
to make minor plan revisions to improve exiting and provide the public space
on the first floor.
All of the work was executed in accordance with the US Secretary of the Interiors
Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings. The project is also
pursuing LEED certification.
