The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for February was 52.6 (any score over 50 indicates an increase in billings), and the Inquiries Index was 61.8. By sector, institutional had the best score, 54.8, followed by mixed practice (52.7), residential (52.0), and commercial/industrial (51.7).
At the AIA's annual convention in San Antonio, Marvin J. Malecha was elected as the institute's 2008 first vice president/president-elect and 2009 president. Currently dean of the College of Design at North Carolina State University, Malecha is an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture distinguished professor. In 2003, he received the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architecture.
Also elected at the convention were the AIA's 2008 vice presidents: Peter J. Arsenault, a principal at Stantec Architecture and head of the firm's Rochester, N.Y., office; and Clark Manus, CEO and design principal of San Francisco–based Heller Manus Architects.
The School of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has announced that Barkow Leibinger Architects has won the 2007 Marcus Prize for Architecture. The Berlin firm is the second recipient of the biennial prize, which offers a $50,000 cash award and the chance to lead a UWM design studio for one semester.
Former Architecture editor in chief Reed Kroloff has been appointed director of Cranbook Academy of Art and Art Museum, effective Sept. 1. Kroloff is currently the dean of Tulane University's School of Architecture.
In late May, the California State Assembly passed a bill that would ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs between 25 watts and 150 watts by 2012. The bill is the first of its kind in the U.S. Its author, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, says a move to alternative sources such as compact fluorescents would reduce artificial lighting's drain on the state's energy, from the current 2 percent of overall energy consumption down to 0.5 percent. At press time, the bill was awaiting approval by the Appropriations Committee.
Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates has won the AIA's 2007 Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor awarded by the institute. Founded in 1982 by Andrea Leers and Jane Weinzapfel, the firm is the first woman-owned practice to receive the award.
The National Council of Architectural Registration's 2007 survey of state boards finds that there are 112,650 registered architects in the U.S. The survey includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
The third edition of ASTM International Standards for Sustainability in Buildings is now available on CD-ROM. The new version includes all of the ASTM standards referenced by the U.S. Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers as of January 2007.
The Getty Research Institute has acquired the architectural archives of Pierre Koenig, whose Case Study Houses helped define California Modernism. The archives contain more than 3,000 documents, drawings, models, photographs, and slides.
Oregon Business magazine has ranked MulvannyG2 Architecture No. 9 on its list of the 10 best companies in Oregon to work for. The firm also received a fourth place ranking among all large companies for best work environment.
For his creation of the Durable Fly Ash Brick,Popular Science magazine has named retired University of Missouri professor of engineering Henry Liu one of its 2007 inventors of the year. Because the bricks are formed through pressure rather than kilns, their production creates no greenhouse gases. As strong and durable as conventional bricks and composed almost entirely of fly ash, the bricks are also more uniform in shape and could potentially offer cost savings of up to 20 percent.
