The General Archive of the 1583 – 1646

It’s almost our 500 year anniversary! Spain had a thorough and meaningful influence on city planning on early America, although the legacy is not widely known. This legacy was a governing code of city development called the Laws of the Indies, issued formally in 1573. OK, so we’ve got a few years until that official …

The Role of Style in Defining Architectural Excellence

I’m thrilled to be traveling to Seville, Spain next week and blog about the experience for the American Institute of Architects. The AIA, through the Committe on Design, hosts a few conferences a year in cities with a robust architectural history. The fall conference features a mix of historical and modern buildings and sites, including …

Why I Decided to Convert My LEED Accreditation

I recently attended a US Green Building Council Charlotte Region Chapter event on LEED AP credentialing and maintenance, as part of the process of ‘converting’ my general LEED AP credential to the more up-to-date designation of LEED AP With Specialty. As a Specialty, I’ve chosen BD+C, which is the USGBC’s acronym for Building Design + …

USGBC: The Return of Precedent-Setting CIRs

The USGBC announced recently that it will bring back Credit Interpretation Reports for public use. Long a valuable tool for LEED project teams everywhere, the public, precedent-setting CIRs disappeared with the coming of LEED 2009. And the USGBC says there may be a format improvement, too. Whereas the old CIR database was confusing to use, …