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| Architosh Staff ([email protected]) |
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Mac architects frustrated with AIA's Windows-only electronic documents
Macintosh-based architects getting treated like second-class members by AIA Macintosh-based architect Robert Pfaffmann, AIA, of Pfaffmann + Associates in Pittsburgh wrote in to tell us about his frustration with the American Institute of Architect's Windows-only electronic forms for AIA standard documents -- documents necessary for architects to conduct standard practice. For those not involved in architecture, licensed architects in this country are generally members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and utilize the institute's many standardized legal and non-legal forms and documents for various phases of the design and building process.
Traditionally these documents were paper-based only and architects obtained them directly from the AIA -- who have local chapters in every major city in the US. But since computers have taken over paper-based practices, the AIA has offered electronic versions of these documents so that architects can print them directly in their offices. Unfortunately for architects using Macs, the AIA's current electronic forms are Windows-only -- despite many request by many Mac-based members. Stand up and let your voice and your AIA membership dues count! Rob Pfaffmann, AIA, (once an AIA President, 1992) copied us on his recent communications to Mr. Koonce of the AIA on the day of the Microsoft Antitrust case verdict:
The AIA needs to support all members equally It doesn't matter if many leading (famous, elite or whatever) design firms use the Macintosh or not. It should be simply about membership fees being paid to the American Institute of Architects to help fund its many programs, events and services and that ALL paying members should have equal access to the AIA's offerings, including software. It simply isn't right to give Macintosh AIA members second-class membership simply because it is more convenient to just support Windows. Not unless the AIA wants to cut membership fees for these Mac-based members. Besides the numbers are there! The AIA has no excuses... Obviously there might be a case made if the amount of AIA member architects using Macs were just a few percent. Then even the fees generated by these members would, perhaps, not justify the expense of a cross-platform solution. But shame on them! This isn't nearly the case at all. Surveys show that Macintosh-based architects are at least 10% and other surveys -- including a survey conducted online last year by the AIA itself -- showed Mac-based architects as high as over 30%!
Here in the Boston area these high numbers are substantiated. VAR's serving the architectural CAD market for cross-platform CAD programs such as Graphisoft's ArchiCAD and Diehl Graphsoft's VectorWorks have detailed numbers on the amount of Macintosh penetration in the architectural firm market. It is reported that approximately 150 plus Boston area AEC firms use Macintosh computers as a primary or cross-platform solution ... this out of close to 500 firms. Even a semi-random phone survey of some of the most prominent architectural firms in Boston will yield these same results. Firms -- as prominent by way of prestige, size and design fame -- that use Macs include firms like Koetter Kim & Associates, Shepley Bulfinch Richardson Abbott (as in H.H. Richardson), Earl R. Flansburgh and Associates, and ADD Inc, to name just a few. And many smaller firms use Macs as well. And Boston is just one of a number cities that have major Macintosh marketshare in the architectural space. San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, and the list goes on! It is time Mac-based, AIA member architects stop feeling ignored for using the Mac and use their large numbers, membership fees and leverage to reform the AIA's unfounded 'discriminatory practices'. Of all of this nation's professional institute's, one would expect the AIA -- an early champion of rights for minority, women and gay architects -- would be more 'tolerant' and open to diversity and choice in computing in architecture. It is simply inexplicable behavior from an institute that has historically been so 'highbrow' and enlightened in the past.
Other Architosh News and Special Reports Architosh Seybold Report: Mac products for CAD/AEC - Part 1 solidThinking 3D app coming to Mac OS 9 and OS X VersaCAD returning to the Macintosh! iDisk to be powerful tool for AEC and "design pros"
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