For a lot of reasons, the Architectural Registration Exam is a very daunting thing to a young architect, mostly because the exam itself seems like such an enormous task to take on. The biggest problem with the licensing exam is that, when all is said and done, its just a test. That’s it. A task that needs to be completed, a burden that needs to be overcome. And since it’s a basic human tendency to find the simplest method of completing such a task, it comes as no surprise that there are a lot of exam candidates that are just interested in test-taking strategies (being told things like “pick ‘C’,” for example) than drawing upon one’s knowledge and experience to...

At 38 years old, I am a very young architect. But in the terms of the use of digital technology in the practice of architecture, I am relatively old. When I finished my undergraduate studies, I worked in an architectural office that was one of the last offices still assembling construction documents on paper. Ink, pencil, drafting vellum, and blueprints were synonymous with (if not symbols of) the architectural industry for generations before me. And just as I was entering the field, all of these traditional tools were being pushed into a storage closet as our firm followed the industry to incorporate Computer-Aided Drafting Design (CADD) programs into the core of our practice. CADD was a logical upgrade to practice....

A brief intro… You may remember a recurring feature of Columns during the 1990s entitled “Dossier”, in which a different member architect was highlighted in each issue. They answered questions to give insight into who they were, both professionally and personally.  Well, it has been 15 years, and we have decided it is time to bring it back, featuring updated questions for the world we live in today.  A lot has changed in those 15 years but one constant is that AIA Pittsburgh exists because of, and for, its members, and the larger architectural community that the membership represents.   Here is a peak into the minds of architects. We begin the resurrection of the Dossier with a look at...

2011 closed on a sorrowful note as the architecture community lost a forward-thinking colleague in Roger Kingsland III, AIA, on December 24th.  Founder and managing partner of KSBA, Kingsland was not bound by traditional use of materials.  An “ideas” man, he was instrumental in conceptualizing the firm’s value-added Customer Service Center practice, which has been implemented on 90 projects in 24 states nationally, and 10 countries internationally.  Using what has evolved into the Sustainable Technology Business Center (STBC) building concept, the firm focuses on architect-led design-build work, creating design solutions that address the rapidly changing needs of the technological age and the people who work in it. Kingsland was actively involved in his community.  A member of the AIA, he...