6.12 AIAVT News

On March 20, more than 20 members of AIAVT met to discuss a range of public policy issues. Held at Vermont Technical College.  More...

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Dear Members: 

We heard from a few of you that there were no images or links in the previous June newsletter email announcement. Ironically, this was related to our desire to provide improvements—the recent web site upgrades. We believe we have fixed the problem; please enjoy! If anyone  receiving this message has no photos or links below, please write info@[remove this text]aiavt.org.

Best Regards,

The Newsletter Team

On March 20, more than 20 members of AIAVT met to discuss a range of public policy issues. Held at Vermont Technical College, the meeting was initiated by AIAVT's Public Policy Committee, which has made enhancing communication between our organization and state policy makers a primary goal.

AIAVT Immediate-Past-President and Public Policy Committee Chair Harry Hunt of Stowe facilitated the meeting, which began with a talk focused on recent developments in Vermont’s life safety codes and federal guidelines for building accessibility. The talk was led by Bob Duncan, AIA, of Duncan Wisniewski Architecture in Burlington; last year, on behalf of AIAVT’s Public Policy Committee, Duncan had served on the Division of Fire Safety (DFS) Building Code Study Committee, which had been formed as a requirement of 2011’s Vermont’s House Bill 287, Act 52, Section 46(d). 

“The purpose of the DFS code committee was to provide findings and recommendations to the state's general assembly—for clarifying and simplifying building codes,” said Duncan. “We were also charged with evaluating current use of multiple building and life safety codes and assessing the costs and benefits of each.” 

The DFS committee, which met six times over a five-month period to review the codes that have been adopted in Vermont, was chaired by DFS Deputy Director, Bob Patterson. Frequent participators included Jonathan Wood, Director of Fire Safety, Vermont Department of Public Safety (VDPS); Mike Desrochers, Deputy Director of Fire Safety, VDPS; municipal fire and building inspectors from around the state; and representatives from the Structural Engineers Association of Vermont, Associated General Contractors of Vermont, Housing  Vermont, and individuals from other state and municipal entities. 

“Through my involvement in the work of this committee, I learned that the leaders of the Division of Fire Safety welcome the participation of architects and engineers in the updating and development of codes in the state, and are committed to improving the outreach of the department to us, particularly in the area of education when code updates are adopted,” Duncan said. 

Duncan reported that the committee had made these recommendations: 

• Provide additional fire and building code training for architects, engineers and contractors;
• Improve interaction between designers and DFS staff through joint training;
• Improve understanding of the application of state fire codes by project types through the inclusion of a matrix chart; 
• Update state codes on three-year cycles, consistent with national code organizations—to keep pace with technology, products and design;
• When a conflict arises between codes, instruct designers to follow the life safety code and not the most stringent code—and specify this within the state fire code.  

Tom Bursey of Freeman French Freeman Architects said that based on what Duncan had presented, the collaborative aspect of the DFS committee had led to productive outcomes. “However,” he said, “for many of us in the room it pointed to the need for a permanent committee of this nature.” 

Duncan summed up by reviewing some of the most recent federally mandated changes to the Vermont Access Code. For a copy of the latest standards (i.e., 2010 ADA Standards), visit www.ADA.gov.   

After Duncan’s talk, Public Policy Committee member Sandy Vitzhum, AIA, of Montpelier, reviewed several bills with relevance to architects that were being discussed during Vermont’s 2012 legislative session. These bills, including their status at the time of the meeting, are as follows: 

• S. 146, Independent Contractor Certification, has passed the Senate and is in the House Committee on Ways & Means. It has been folded into S.137 (the unemployment bill). The bill defines a subcontractor to clarify who must pay benefits.
• S. 131, Contractor Registration, is now in the Senate Committee on Government Operations for review.  This bill would direct a study on the subject.
• S. 143, Building Energy Disclosure (Source:  Home Builders and Remodelers Association lobbyist Amanda Ibey), the Senate Finance Committee continued to take testimony on this bill; however, a number of senators had expressed concern that the online scoring tool is too subjective and questioned its accuracy. Experts testified the accuracy of the tool is approximately 30 percent. The Finance Committee is recommending that the bill that the Senate Natural Resources Committee passed be amended by striking out the building disclosure and gross fuel receipts tax sections. The only part of the bill that would remain regards the creation of a thermal efficiency task force.
• S. 145, Home Inspector Licensing and Regulation, has been incorporated into a bill on professional regulation.  It is in Senate Committee on Government Operations.
• H. 643, Commercial Building Energy Standard, was in the House Natural Resources Committee.
• Accessory Apartment Dwelling Unit has been passed by the Senate; the bill provides an alternative size limit for accessory dwelling units within or attached to smaller homes. The law originally stated that a dwelling unit does not exceed whichever is the larger: 750 sq. ft. or 30 percent of the total habitable floor area of a single-family home. The bill changes 750  sq. ft. to 600  sq. ft.
•  S. 0099 Mobile Home Parks Building Codes includes a provision regarding building codes; it would direct the Commissioner of Public Safety to develop and maintain, on the DPS website, a chart or grid that would depict categories of construction (including new construction, major rehabilitation, change of use, and additions) and their respective building codes (IBC and NFPA 101). Building industry professionals have expressed confusion over which code to use when the two are in conflict; this provision is intended to enhance clarity. The bill also directs the Commissioner to: 
• Offer construction and design professionals the opportunity to participate in division of fire safety staff training;
• Update the building codes on three-year cycles, consistent with codes developed by code-writing authorities; and
• Create a publicly accessible link where interested parties can read the decisions that are decided on appeal to the Commissioner. 

After the presentations, attendees broke into small groups to share ideas. These sessions led to agreement that: 

• Ideally, the director of the Vermont’s code enforcement body would be an individual whose training is specific to building codes.
• Architects would benefit from increased knowledge about codes. Joint education for code officials and architects would help improve collaboration. More frequent training sessions offered by the state would be appreciated.
• A general provision, to let new technology and products be explored before they are adopted into code, should be initiated.
• All registered architects might receive an annual postcard with a schedule of code revisions and updates along with an email notification at the time of implementation.
• An improved process for appeals to life safety code determinations by Agencies Having Jurisdiction would be appreciated by architects.
• Permit applications would be easier to use than they are at present if they were based on the 16 divisions.
• Large projects should have an opportunity for a "sketch review" meeting between officials and the design team.
• Code interpretation should be uniform across the state.
• AIAVT might recognize exceptional plan reviewers each year with a prize or other mechanism.
• AIAVT might consider working with a lobbyist to gain influence at the lawmaking level. 

At the conclusion of the meeting, Hunt encouraged attendees to visit the state legislature website at http://www.leg.state.vt.us/, where there are links to bills and contact details for representatives and senators. URLs for Vermont code information were also provided:  http://firesafety.vermont.gov/Standards; http://publicservice.vermont.gov/energy/ee_commstandards.html (commercial energy); and http://publicservice.vermont.gov/energy/ee_resbuildingstandards.html (residential energy). 

AIAVT deeply appreciates VTC's provision of a venue for the meeting; special thanks go out to VTC’s Mary Jeanne Taylor for coordination. 

By Carol Miklos 

Winning was very satisfying," said Brattleboro-bred Adam Lemire after learning that his project to create a bicycling center for Portsmouth, New Hampshire had received the top honors in a Young Architects Forum Competition recently organized by AIA New Hampshire. "It signified that others valued and appreciated my approach to architecture, which incorporates infrastructural and landscape solutions in public spaces.”  

Earlier this year, AIAVT Vice President and Program Chair Tom Bachman of Gossens Bachman Architects in Montpelier spearheaded the effort to survey the membership on their preferences regarding the AIAVT Annual Meeting and Design Awards. Sixty members from across the state responded to the survey, with good representation from architect, emeritus, and associate members.

The key findings of the survey were as follows:

•            Three-quarters of respondents had attended the event in the past; those that had not most commonly cited conflicting commitments as the reason for not attending.
•            With respect to the primary reason members attend the awards, over half attend mostly to meet and socialize with colleagues; about one-quarter attend mostly to see the entered projects, and another quarter of respondents attend primarily because their firm has won an award.
•             Regarding geographic preferences for holding the event, Burlington and Montpelier were preferred, with White River as the third preferred location. Venue suggestions included UVM, Champlain College, Senate Chamber, National Life Building, Main Street Museum, and the Tip Top Café.
•             As to day of the week, over half preferred the event continued to be held on a Thursday.
•             Regarding the dining aspects of the event, the most respondents preferred a sit-down, self-serve buffet and were willing to pay $35-44 per person. Most respondents also preferred to purchase alcohol rather than have it included in the event ticket price.

The Programs Committee will be taking these research results into account in planning future Annual Meeting and Design Awards Programs. Thanks to all those who took the time to participate in the survey.

Dear Readers:

We hope you've been enjoying our redesigned newsletter. The new format now allows you to enlarge the images; simply click on them. To reduce them back to their original size (i.e., to keep reading!), click on the "x" in the lower right corner.

Also, if you prefer to print out the newsletter to read it, from Explorer, try going to the "gear" icon at the top right, scrolling to print, and then choosing "landscape." This might enable you to better print both columns of the newsletter at once.

I hope you're  having a great summer. 

Best,
Carol Miklos, Executive Director

7/19-21     Workshop—Methods & Materials for Wooden Window Restoration, presented by Historic Windsor, Windsor

8/15-18     Workshop—Historic Plaster Repair Methods, www.preservationworks.org/workshops.shtml, presented by Historic Windsor, Windsor

9/6  Mill Tour— presented by Amoskeag Woodworking, Inc. at their Fairfax facility.  

9/1-9/30     AIAVT Design Awards Traveling Show—Hooker Dunham Gallery, Brattleboro

10/19-21     AIANE Conference & Design Awards—See http://www.aiavt.org/aiane_conf/

AIAVT News is published by AIA Vermont, a Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. 

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Carol Miklos                                               Executive Director                                   AIA Vermont