may 2013 rostrum
DESCRIPTION
AIA Newark & Suburban Architect section newsletterTRANSCRIPT
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
AIA Newark and Suburban Architects A Section of AIA New Jersey
AIA New Jersey is a Chapter and Region of the American Institute of Architects
MAY 2013
Issue 5
The Rostrum
Official newsletter of the
Newark & Suburban
Section of AIA-NJ
Published monthly
Submit events, case
studies, photos, comments,
or other content for
consideration to:
President’s Message 1
A Remembrance 2
MetamorphAIAsis 3
Design Awards 2013 Update
4
You Called Me What?! 5
Building Tours - Hyde Park
7
Inside this issue: The AIA’s Statement of P u rpo se and Po s i t i o n
Statement:
AIA is a visionary member organization providing advocacy, leadership and resources for architects to build a better world.
AIA Newark Suburban will donate $1000 to aid emerging
professionals fto attend the National Convention in June.
The emerging professionals must be New Jersey based or
a New Jersey resident
attending an out of state architectural school. AIA New
Jersey is spearheading this effort.
On another note, following our very successful Live the Box
and Newark Visitor Center
competitions, the completed design Boards are available to
the membership for display at
Welcome to Spring!
Here are some of the events planned for May (and beyond):
On May 1st we will welcome Congressman Frelinghuysen
to our General Meeting Roundtable.
On May 2nd , it’s our annual
Trade Show at the Glenpointe Marriott in Teaneck.
May 15th is our USGBC
sponsored LEED Green Associate Prep Course.
May 6th is our Gold Outing in
Bloomfield at the Forest Hill Field Club.
M a y 3 1 s t , E m e r g i n g Professionals will have a mixer.
Look for upcoming details on
our website.
June 20-23 is the AIA National
Convention in Denver Colorado
local libraries, schools, et. al. These will be given away on a
first come, first served basis. Contact Julie Pagnotta at
[email protected]. All
boards that are not claimed by June 1st will be recycled.
Information for all of our events is included on the
Section website.
Thank-you to everyone. We look forward to seeing you at
our next General meeting.
Louise C. Addonizio AIA, PP,
LEED BD+C, NDICQ qualified,
President AIA Newark Suburban
2013
Rostrum 2013 Issue 5
Page 2
AIA Newark & Suburban
Board Members
Officers
LOUISE ADDONIZIO, AIA
President
JOHN A. CWIKLA, AIA
President-Elect
STEPHEN ROONEY, AIA
First Vice President
NATASHA SUZANSKY, AIA
Secretary
ALEX GOTTHELF, AIA
Treasurer
KEVIN McCORMICK, AIA
Past President
Trustees
Trustees 2013
YOGESH MISTRY, AIA
BILL MUNOZ, ALLIED
MEMBER
Trustees 2014
PAUL TIAJOLOFF, AIA
RONALD WESTON, AIA
JASON PEIST, ASSOC. AIA
ALOK SAKSENA, ASSOC.
AIA
Trustees 2015
DIEUJUSTE PIERRE, ASSOC.
AIA
FRANCISCO GRIMALDI,
AIA
Section Administrator
JULIE PAGNOTTA
AIA NS 2012 Committees
Halevy Hercules Simmons, AIA Halevy Hercules Simmons, AIA, at 83, of St.
Louis, MO. died on April 9th. Before relocating to the ‘Gateway of the West’ he had
practiced here in New Jersey.
My family’s synagogue, Temple B’nai Israel
pretty much filled the entire site at 706 Nye
Avenue in Irvington, NJ. There was a great need to increase the amount of classrooms to
accommodate a growing Monday to Thursday afternoon Hebrew School, where the children
of the congregation were taught to read Hebrew and learn about their culture and
heritage.
I do not know how the leaders of the congregation selected Mr. Simmons to solve
their space problem. It may have been as simple as seeing the ‘Jewish sounding’ name
in the Yellow Pages, but I like to think that it was because the leadership was very
progressive during the early 1960’s. You see,
Mr. Simmons was not Jewish. He was one of the very few African American architects
practicing in New Jersey, and probably the entire country, fifty (50) years ago.
The building had been constructed in 1922. It
had a large exterior concrete stairway from the sidewalk up to the main level and a pair of
doors with two (2) single doors on either end that opened into a lobby. The lobby served as
a meeting place before and after religious services and in turn had an additional copy of
doors that opened to the Sanctuary beyond. Below the Sanctuary were a large Social Hall
and classrooms and an office for my mother
who was the Executive Secretary for Rabbi Benjamin Englander, the spiritual leader of the
congregation.
Mr. Simmons’s creative solution was to
capture the space on either side of this stair
and provide two sets of classrooms and a
meeting room in the space over a new marble set
of stairs that were now inside the protected building envelope of the addition. The exterior
was clad in white precast concrete slabs attached to a steel frame. The interior lobby was redone
in book-matched red oak paneling complimented with a stippled white ceiling and beautiful new
recessed lighting.
The Jewish community is long gone from Irvington, but this beautiful and tasteful addition
to a rather drab concrete building has stood the test of time and now encloses the E'glise Baptiste
de la Nouvelle Jerusalem Church, where Rev. Joseph Etienne is now the spiritual leader. Mr.
Simmons’s rendering of the proposed solution is
still prominently displayed on the wall of the entrance stair.
Upon arriving one day to pick up my mother, she directed me to go upstairs as she knew that Mr.
Simmons was there reviewing the construction
going on. I was directed to ask him for an after school job. I remember running up those stairs
two at a time, getting to the top, to see him correct two carpenters who were not installing
the paneling properly.
The sense of power that he exhibited as he explained in a complete caring and professional
way what he expected of these men in following his documents, sealed the deal for me. When I
had the chance, I asked him for a job. He hired at $1.00/hour as an office boy, to organize the
books and samples in his Library, shovel snow, empty the coal furnace, and cut the grass on the
front lawn of his office in East Orange. He
helped me with a school project to enter a competition for high school drafting students
sponsored by the then Newark AIA Chapter and introduced me to New York Institute of
Technology, where I started my studies the following fall.
Continued on page 3
Rostrum 2013 Issue 5
Page 3
metamorphAIAsis- Emerging Leaders
Mr. Simmons originally wanted to be a
carpenter like his father, but one of his high school teachers told him that there was more to
building than carpentry and introduced him to architecture. He was a graduate of Howard
University.
After practicing here in NJ, he made the decision to relocate to St. Louis and took a
position with HBE Corporation. HBE, known for hospital design/build, also ventured into hotel
building and Mr. Simmons became the chief designer for the Adam’s Mark Hotel Chain, one
of which was atop an existing office building where he made sure that all of the rooms had a
view of the river and the Arch! After a decade,
he left HBE. Fred Kummer, President and CEO was quoted as saying, “I wanted to do something one way, and Hal disagreed. He was a very independent man with a mind of his
own.” This quote reminded me of the day long ago as I watched him correct the carpenters
installing the paneling in the synagogue’s lobby.
After HBE, he went into private practice and
specialized in renovating public schools. St. Louis Superintendant of Schools Jerome B.
Jones in a letter he wrote to Mr. Simmons stated “when you observe the completed
buildings, note with a gleam that there is a little bit of you represented there.” Knowing
how he helped me and other needy youths toward college along with his work during the
struggle for civil
rights, I believe that there is a little bit of
that gleam in every life he touched.
Jerome Leslie Eben,
AIA
AIANJ Regional Director, ’11-‘13
Simmons, AIA Continued from page 2
May is Building Safety Month!
The Intern Development Program (IDP)
prepares future architects for the requirements of our profession. However, it is through the
AIA that the Leaders of Architecture are made.
Every day we listen to advocacy for the
profession. When you open your AutoCAD
each morning, when you point a major design flaw in a project and even now by reading this
article, you are advocating for architecture!
It is easy for us to talk about architecture.
What is not easy is talking about architects.
Furthermore, it is even harder to talk about yourself. Buildings are stagnant, they are what
they are. We can classify buildings by period, style, and recall a number of facts that would
impress your college history professors. But can you talk about yourself in the same way,
with the same passion, as you can your favorite building? If your answer is no, then
you should consider becoming more involved
in the AIA and its programs.
One simple problem for emerging
professionals is the fact that we are not architects; how can you speak for something
you are not. Let’s forget the term architect for
the moment (as that is an entire lengthy discussion in itself), and replace it with the
term Leader. What the AIA is good at accomplishing is evoking passion for what you
do and passion is what inspires leadership. And there are no state laws that prevent you
from calling yourself a Leader!
As a 2nd time attendee of the annual Grassroots Leadership Conference held in
D.C., I have noticed a drastic change between 1st time attendees and those who return.
During my 1st conference, I followed my local
Continued on page 5
Rostrum 2013 Issue 5
Page 4
AIA Newark & Suburban
Links
Calendar
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NJAPAC
DESIGN AWARDS 2013 The Design Awards Committee
is pleased to announce that the 20th annual Newark and
Suburban Design Awards will be held Thursday, October 17,
2013 from 5:30-9:30 at The Morris Museum in Morristown.
It promises to be an interesting and stimulating
evening that will allow AIANS
members and guests to view the project boards and enjoy
good food and drink against the magnificent backdrop of
the Muse um and i t s collections.
My fellow Design Awards
Committee members Judy Donnelly, AIA (past President
2010); Julia Buteux, Assoc, AIA; and Wesley Corner, AIA
are currently in the process of selecting another diverse and
distinguished group of jurors,
as well as coming up with new wrinkles to make this year’s
event truly memorable.
The 2013 Newark and
Suburban Design Awards
competition is open to all NS members, including Associate
AIA members. For the project submitted, the NS member
should have played a primary role in the project, such as
project designer or project manager. Projects may date
from any period of a member’s
career, and projects that have been previously submitted but
were not awarded may be entered again. Please visit the
Newark and Suburban web site for complete submission rules
and requirements which are available as a downloadable
pdf file. Please look for
further developments and announcements both here in
the Rostrum and on the Newark and Suburban web site.
I would like to encourage all of our Section’s members to
show us the work you do and
are most proud of. Be sure to mark down October 17 on
your calendar for the opportunity to see the work of
our member firms while enjoying live music and
delicious food and drink in the company of your AIA
colleagues.
Starting with this issue of the Rostrum, we will be featuring
a submitted project each month from past Design
Awards. This month’s featured project is the Lincoln
School Alterations and Addition in Kearny, NJ (pictured below)
by Fa l lon + Pacheco
Architects. This project, in the
Non-Residential Built category, was awarded a Gold Medal
and was the unanimous first choice of our three jurors,
Dennis Wedlick, AIA; Hayes Slade, AIA; and Gary Brewer,
AIA. They held it up as “an example of what can happen
when you hire an architect.”
They praised how the design team created a better sense of
place from what existed and they “ loved” the new
courtyard.
Donald Chin, AIA Newark and Suburban Design Awards
Chairperson
Rostrum 2013 Issue 5
Page 5
metamorphAIAsis
chapter and only sat next to somebody I knew.
What I missed was the wealth of information and mentorship every person in that room
possesses. When I had the opportunity to attend the conference again, I was not shy
about asking people to share their knowledge with me!
As a takeaway from this conference, I have
initiated a project to make myself a better leader. It is called the #elevatorsilence project
where I introduce myself to someone new each day and hold at least a 5 minute conversation
with them. For 150 days, I will tweet @elevatorsilence about the first person I meet
that day and record the conversation. I am
even tracking the diversity of people I approach as well as the diversity of conversation so that I
open up without sticking to one niche. This will allow me to overcome my social anxiety while
allowing me to advocate for myself. Furthermore, when I am an architect, I will not
have fear in trying to procure future projects from random strangers.
The Elevator Silence Project is not something
that I would have been able to start on my own without the inspiration I received from the AIA.
When I attended my first Grassroots, I was very
shy and feared that people would not
understand me. I realized that after years trying to change the way I spoke, that I only
really needed to change how people hear me.
In hopes of inspiring you, I will begin my
conversation with you by instilling some
knowledge…
Let’s reimagine this quote by Louis Kahn
where the Brick is not your building, but it is you!
And if you think of Brick, for instance,
and you say to Brick,
"What do you want Brick?" And Brick says to you
"I like an Arch."
And if you say to Brick "Look, arches are expensive,
and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that...?"
"Brick?" Brick says:
"... I like an Arch"”
Jason Peist, Assoc. AIA
Continued from page 3
Rostrum 2013 Issue 5
Page 6
You Called Me What?!
Here is an issue that has been
gnawing at me for several years now, and with the AIA
wanting to focus on Emerging Professionals I think now is a
good time to bring this to the table.
If you look at the map below you will see what graduates
who are pursuing licensure, or
‘interns’, are titled.
With the variance from state to
state, you can see why the titling gets to be confusing
among peers and the public (clients) alike.
Being from New Jersey, this creates quite a quandary for
our ‘interns’. “What do I call
myself?” “How do I easily explain to someone what I do
for a living without violating any State licensing rules?”
I feel that those of us on the
licensure track are work really
hard to earn the title of ‘architect’ and out of all the
different titles listed above, one stands out as the most
accurate description of who we are. And that title is
‘Architect-In-Training’ . Plain, simple, gets the point
across and lets people outside
the profession know what you do.
It may not seem like a big deal to those of us with our licenses
but by finally resolving this issue, our organization can
focus on more important issues, as a whole. Licensed
and un-licensed members
working move the profession forward as a unified group.
Below is my description of the A r c h i t e c t - I n - T r a i n i n g
designation, as I see it.
Architect-In-Training
The term "Architect-In-Training" is a professional
designation from the National Council of Architecture
Registration Board (NCARB) used in the United States to
designate a person certified by the State as:
Graduated from an NAAB-
accredited architecture program or re lated
requirements as approved by the Board. and
Enrolled in IDP (Intern
Development Program) or
A D A P T ( A r c h i t e c t D e v e l o p m e n t a n d
Professional Training) and
Working under the direct
s u p e r v i s i o n o f a
Registered Architect (RA).
Continued on page 7
Rostrum 2013 Issue 5
Page 7
Continued from page 6 ….You Called Me What?!
Once an individual meets these requirements,
the state board awards that person an ‘Architect-In-Training’ (AIT) designation.
Receiving an AIT designation is one step along the path toward licensure as a Registered
Architect (RA).
Clarification of the term
An Architect-in-Training can do architectural work, such as designing buildings, but requires
the supervision and direction of a Registered
Architect, since the RA is exclusively able to perform certain tasks such as signing and
sealing documents and offering architectural services to the public.
Significance of the designation
Lack of the AIT designation does not
necessarily represent a stigma for an unlicensed architect. The inverse is more appropriate:
having the AIT designation represents a level of
distinction.
Having the AIT designation shows an
understanding of fundamental architectural principles and it also expresses some level of
commitment towards the architecture profession.
Many unlicensed architects do not enroll in IDP
or plan to sit for the ARE exams so having the
AIT designation is a way to separate the AIT from those unlicensed architects who are not
on a path to licensure.
AIT designation as a part of licensure
Each state's statutes delineate the requirements for the experience and education needed to
become a Registered Architect once AIT or IA designation has been earned. The requirements
vary depending on the State and the licensing
board, but for most architects the process typically includes the following steps:
Graduate from an NAAB-accredited architecture program
Enrolled in IDP (Intern Development Program)
Accumulate a set amount of architectural
experience, typically under the direction of a RA. (In most states these requirement take
about four years)
Pass the Architect Registration Examination (ARE) to receive a RA designation.
John A. Cwikla, AIA President-Elect AIA Newark & Suburban Architects
1 Did you know on average that it takes almost 12 years from the time you graduate from high school to get your
architect license: 5 years to complete a bachelor of architecture degree and 6.4 years to complete the Intern Development Program and the Architectural Registration Exam (according to the 2007 Internship and Career Survey). This is currently the longest licensure track time among all professions, even more than doctors and lawyers!
2 The Architect Development and Professional Training Program or ‘ADAPT‘ is my idea for combining the IDP and CEU programs into one comprehensive and more easily understood program. The title is also self-explanatory as to what it is there to do, mainly develop and train architects.
Building Tours - Hyde Park, NY
June 9 2013
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Springwood,
home of Franklin D. Roosevelt - also FDR Library, the Beatrix
Ferrand Garden at Bellfield,
and the Richard B. Fischer Center for the Performing Arts
- all in the vicinity.
Details: $30/person, travel is
on your own; meet at the Vanderbilt Mansion site @ 10:15 AM (note, this is a
Sunday event).
Contact: Judy Donnelly or get
additional information and details at the AIA Newark
Suburban web site. For site
specific information click here
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site
