AIBC Intern Architect Survey Results (Part 1)

Thank you to those who participated in the survey. The survey results will be used by the AIBC’s Registration and Licensing Board as well as the National Intern Architect Program Task Force to drive changes to the Intern Architect Program (IAP). To view the results of the first survey, click here. Please stay tuned, as we will have a second survey posted soon. The following is a summary of the results written by Johnnie Kuo IA.AIBC, a member of the Intern Architect Committee:

The survey has drawn its result from 59 responses. Most respondents (over 84%) have never been registered as intern architects outside of Canada or BC. There is a small percentage (15%) of respondents who are registered architects outside of Canada. Nearly 73% of respondent interns are employed full time, while 12% are unemployed.

Highlights from the survey results:

• When choosing firms, level of responsibility granted is rated “Very Important’ for 63% of respondents, size of firm and benefits are rated “Somewhat Important” by 42% of respondents; identity of firm principals seems to be least important.
• Over 60% of interns feel they are sufficiently exposed to a range of work that allow them to fulfill CERB requirement; among the remaining 37%, most often identified issues are lack of contract administration, construction and site related experience.
• Two-thirds of respondents are paid annual salary, compensated for overtime pay that is either straight time banked as holiday time or time-and-a-half paid out/towards holidays. The same percentage reported that they do not supplement income with outside work.
• 25% of respondents are paid 60K or more; about 56% are paid between 45K and 60K annually. The same percentage of respondents feel their compensation package is fair. Two-thirds of respondents reported that their compensation package insufficient to meet their living needs.
• Most commonly provided benefits are full payment of AIBC annual dues, cost shared dental, and AIBC PD courses.
• Most concerning is the fact that nearly 60% of respondents do not find the time and effort spend towards getting registered as an architect worth it from a professional or personal perspective. They also do not feel that they have been adequately compensated financially for the time and effort already spent towards getting registered.

Future survey topics and pertinent comments include:

• Employment standards and compensation
• Ethics
• AIBC improved monitoring or regulation of the current system to ensure interns are getting appropriate experience
• NCARB
• Support and respect for interns in their professional development, work environment, and finances
• Intern resources and peer support (juggling demands from work, exams, and courses while maintaining a healthy life style)
• Internship process here in BC vs. elsewhere
• CERB and exams, NCARB exams vs. EXAC
• Young firms and design culture
• Registration requirements
• Perspectives from self-employed or contract-base interns
• Unemployment

AIBC Intern Architect Survey Series

The AIBC and the Intern Architect Committee want to know what is happening with the Intern Architects in BC. A series of short surveys have been developed and each will be posted every couple of months linked to the Intern Architect blog and in the Intern Architects section of the AIBC website.

Please take the time to fill out the surveys to let us know how you are doing. The surveys will ask you about a series of categories such as mandatory course work, exam processes, experience with your mentors, your professional involvement with the community, satisfaction with the intern program, what your greatest obstacles have been, and submitting CERB hours. Your feedback is vital for improving the program. The first survey will review your current and previous employment, remuneration, and your career path. Please take a moment and begin the first survey.

June Oral Review Session

The application form for the next Oral Review session is available to download from the AIBC website. The Oral Review is open to those Intern Architects who have:

-completed and logged at least 2800 hours (preferably completed all of the required hours); and
-completed the required AIBC courses.

The Oral Review session will be held on June 17th and 18th, 2009. The Intern Architect Committee will be hosting an Oral Review Preparation Workshop on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm at the AIBC offices. All those planning to sit an oral review this round are welcome to attend. Please r.s.v.p. to registration@aibc.ca.

Site Planning & Design

This article deals with preparation for the Site Planning graphic vignette which is one part of the Site Planning exam (ARE 3.1) and Site Planning & Design exam (ARE 4.0).

The old Site Planning exam (ARE 3.1) consists of three vignettes: site planning, site grading, and site zoning. The new exam, called Site Planning and Design (ARE 4.1) consists of two vignettes, site planning and site grading, and a multiple choice section. This article won’t discuss the multiple choice component found in the new exam –resource for that can be found in the Kaplan and Ballast study guides, available for loan at the AIBC.

The graphic vignettes on the old and new exams are the same, the software used to perform the vignettes is the same, and therefore all of the study resources for the old exam with regard to the graphic vignettes are still relevant. The critical resource from the old exams for the graphic vignettes is the Norman Dorf Solution manual. This book gives one example of a passing and failing solution for each vignette with analysis, tips, and a must-read section called 'Fatal Errors'. Professor Dorf’s frank and clear writing style makes for quick and indispensable study material -a must read and in my opinion the best place to start when studying for any graphic vignette.

Make sure to also look at the Kaplan and Ballast study guides for their sample passing and failing solutions. Also go the NCARB website and download the study aid which also contains a sample vignette with a passing and failing solution. Find it on the NCARB website under ARE 4.1 study aides (on the left sidebar) click, then look for Site Planning & Design (on the right sidebar).

The grading and zoning vignettes are ‘give aways’ to quote Norman Dorf in his solutions guide. They require some practise but are generally straightforward. The more difficult vignette, site planning, requires a layout of a specified programme onto a site. The programme typically consists of two buildings (which are placed as pre-drawn symbols), a plaza, walkways, parking, and an access road. The complexity of this vignette has to do with following the programme and its requirements to the letter, while also using the custom software created for this exam. The software is a little bit awkward but it becomes easier with practise.

You will find the free practice software on the NCARB web site. After familiarizing myself with the software and trying out the vignette, I watched videos posted by the late Norman Dorf as well as those posted by Interns on the ARE Forum. These showed how to efficiently layout parking, how to gauge ‘closeness’ on a site plan, and how to efficiently manipulate grades and solve the site grading vignette. I watched all the videos, practiced the vignettes in the following days, and watched all the videos again for review. These videos were extremely useful. Go find these videos on the ARE Forum use this address: http://www.areforum.org/forums/forum22/83868.html

NCARB’s practice software comes with only one background per vignette. This should not stop you from practising the site planning vignette over and over, testing different layouts each time in order to satisfy the same programme on the same background. I found trying to use different layouts clarified a lot of questions I had about getting the layout correct. For example, what are the implications of running parking north south versus east west? How does entering a parking loop from the middle differ from entering from the side? Can I nudge all the parking and the access drive over 10’ if I had to, and how long would that take me (this is good practice for the exam, where you might find yourself nudging items at the last second after realizing something was laid out incorrectly)? At what distance does a driveway kill a tree?

For those who’d like even more practise, there are alternative backgrounds and programmes that can be patched into the NCARB software. You can find these in the ARE Forum under: uploads/site planning/SP alts/sp alts inst.txt. I found these layouts more difficult than the original practice software vignettes and the exam but still useful for the practise.

The critical task in the site planning vignette is to make sure all the programmatic requirements are fulfilled. To save time you may want to transfer the requirements from the screen onto a piece of paper, which makes a quick and useful reference during the drafting stage of the vignette and can be a good checklist once you think you have completed the vignette. I found the alternate vignettes (with their alternate programmes) a good way to practise this –and it does take practise.

What I did to study for the Site Planning graphic vignette (ARE 3.1) -there are multiple choice questions on the new exam, but I am not addressing that in this article or list…for that, simply look at the ARE 4.0 study guides):

1. skimmed the ALS and Ballast study guides for the graphic vignette sample problems
2. downloaded the practise software from the NCARB web site
3. practised using the software (two or three evenings after work)
4. watched the videos on the ARE Forum (one evening)
5. practised the vignettes (3 evenings)
6. read the Norman Dorf Solutions manual after completing each vignette
7. practised some more
8. practised summarizing the programme quickly (especially for the site planning vignette) on scratch paper, and used the alternative vignettes posted on the ARE Forum FTP site in order to practice writing down different programmes.
9. wrote the exam (note: this sequence describes preparation for only one part of the exam)

After watching the videos and practicing yourself, be sure to read the following approach to working through the vignette by clicking on the FTP button in the ARE Forum (areforum.org), then clicking Site Planning, then download ‘Dan’s helpful hints’.

If there is anything you think should be added to this article please leave us a comment. Good luck!

-Anthony Milkovich, IA

Role Call: Architects in School

The Architects in Schools (AIS) Program is looking for enthusiastic and energetic volunteers to:

• Join the AIS Committee.
• Participate in AIBC Day at CANSTRUCTION on Tuesday, April 28th.
• To represent the AIBC and the AIS Program in classrooms and at events around the province.

The goal of the AIS program is to promote awareness, appreciation and interest in architecture through the educational institutions throughout BC. Architects in Schools advocates for the inclusion of studies in architecture and the build environment as an essential part of the BC curriculum, facilitates discussion of strategies that support better built environments and sustainable communities and seeks to develop and maintain educational materials and projects to promote the teaching of architecture in the school system.

Current projects include: CANSTRUCTION and the Austin Heights Design Charette with Centennial High School students in Coquitlam.

If you are interesting in serving on this committee, volunteering to work in the classroom/career fairs or would like more information, please contact Carla Brown-John, Director of Administration and Human Resources: (604) 683-8588, Ext. 317.