Four State Components Receive Government Affairs Assistance Grants
AIA Colorado, AIA Florida, AIA Montana, and AIA Ohio will receive Government Affairs Assistance Grants ranging from $1,250 to $3,000 for high-priority, precedent-setting government affairs initiatives. The Government Affairs Advisory Committee (GAAC) awarded the matching funds to these components for assistance with legislative, regulatory, and legal initiatives related to government-affairs activity that affects public policy and architecture practice.

Istanbul’s New Housing Trends: Caught Between Global and Local?
Over the last two decades, Istanbul’s socio-cultural and urban identities have been transforming radically. Turkey’s globalization, internationalization, and rapid flow of information have played a significant role in changing this grand old city and her people. This rapid economic and social change demands continual redefinition of urbanization and housing concerns, say professors Ulku Altinoluk and Hulya Turgut of Istanbul’s Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Architecture. Especially for newly emerging urban areas, it is essential to define what a “good quality environment” means to users today, they say.

AIA Northern Virginia Chapter 2002 Design Awards Celebration
The AIA Northern Virginia Chapter bestowed four awards of excellence, seven awards of merit, four associate/intern awards, and a special citation for lighting design and design interest in a cost-effective solution at the chapter’s annual awards ceremony June 7 at the new Gannett USA Today headquarters in McLean, Va. The winning projects are located in Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Maryland; West Virginia; Florida; and California.

Your Kiplinger Connection (members only)
AIArchitect offers AIA members exclusive access to three stories a week to help them manage their practices and plan for the coming year. (Nonmembers may subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.)
HR: Telecommuting coming back, midsize firms outsourcing HR. Office Tech: High speed satellite Internet coming in 2004. The Economy: Expect a 4 percent gain for 2004.

Project watch
Branding to the Max: HGA Redesigns Portions of General Mills’ Bell Tower
Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA)’s new design for three floors of the General Mills Bell Tower in Minneapolis has silly rabbits, doughboys, and a Wheaties-inspired, basketball-themed conference room cheering and inspiring clients and workers alike. By creating flexible spaces, providing access to daylight and exterior views, and encouraging collaboration through the floor layout with color, graphics, and wayfinding, HGA’s design met overall goals expressed by the famous food maker. In addition, each floor design had to support a special departmental feel or identity. Careful listening to each department’s work habits and business goals allowed HGA to design solutions that met team needs and objectives—and personalities.

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BEST PRACTICES (members only)
Please, Don’t Make Me Negotiate Fees
When asked at the 2003 AIA convention how he would be able to keep intact his overall design concept for the World Trade Center rebuilding, Daniel Libeskind commented, “Architecture is about negotiations.” Architects know they have to negotiate on behalf of their building designs, write Steven J. Isaacs and John D. Kidd, teachers of effective negotiation at the Advanced Management Institute in San Francisco. Yet when a client says that the design fee has to be cut to stay within budget, many architects fail to negotiate successfully, if at all. “How strange!” the authors say.

World Trade Center Memorial Contest Attracts Record Entries
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation announced last week that it received 5,200 submissions from 62 nations and 49 states for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition, making it the largest design competition in history. The competition, which the LMDC is administering, was created to select a memorial to honor the victims of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Practice! Practice Practice!
Three new classes available from AIA eClassroom
AIA eClassroom has just added three new practice-oriented distance learning programs to its repertoire of continuing-education classes for architects. Drawn from the highest rated presentations at this year’s AIA national convention, these programs offer two credit hours each.

AIA CAREER CENTER
Here Are This Week’s Featured Opportunities

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