Continuing Education for Architects

It’s the weekend before Christmas, a joyful time filled with gatherings of friends and family, exchanges of gifts and well-wishes, and reflections upon the meaning of the holiday season. It’s also a time overflowing with to-do lists and deadlines as the end of another calendar year looms. In my case, it means devoting a considerable share of this weekend to fulfilling my professional continuing education requirements for 2019. Bah! Humbug! 

Architecture is a rapidly changing field. Continuing education is required for architects to stay current with the latest advancements, skills, and technologies impacting their work. Continuing education is also necessary to satisfy State of Oregon professional licensure requirements. And for members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), completing a minimum number of learning units (LUs) is mandatory for retaining membership in good standing. Overall, continuing education is a way for architects to fulfill their obligation to stay abreast of critical developments in the profession. 

The Oregon Board of Architect Examiners (OBAE) stipulates architects must acquire a minimum of 24 Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) learning units within each biennial renewal cycle, while the AIA requires members to complete eighteen (18) Learning Units (LUs) of continuing education every year to retain their membership. Of these, twelve (12) must be on the topics of Health, Safety & Welfare (HSW). One hour of continuing education equals 1 LU. 

Because architects have a duty to protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare, HSW topics address each category: 

Health: Those aspects of professional practice that improve the physical, emotional, and social wellbeing of occupants, users, and any others affected by buildings and sites. 

Safety: Those aspects of professional practice that protect occupants, users, and any others affected by buildings or sites from harm. 

Welfare: Those aspects of professional practice that enable equitable access, elevate the human experience, encourage social interaction, and benefit the environment. 

I find myself in this predicament because I failed to take advantage of continuing education opportunities spread throughout the past 12 months. Coming into this weekend I had only acquired 5 of the 18 learning units (and only 4 of the 12 HSW credits) required by the AIA for 2019. Cramming most of my CE studies into a single, late December weekend reflects neither good judgment nor thoughtful planning. Thank goodness there are online continuing education centers, such as that provided by BNP Media, which touts itself as the “#1 provider of FREE AIA continuing education.” 

The courses offered by BNP’s Continuing Education Center cover an impressively broad range of topics. Each is accompanied by a quiz, which you must take and pass in order receive the associated learning unit(s). BNP offers some of its offerings as live webinars, while others are simply read-learn-quiz format. The courses I’ve taken so far this weekend included the following: 

• Sustainable Metal Buildings 
• The Evolution of Parking
• Selecting Rigid Cover Boards in Commercial Roofing Systems
• Cool Roofing for Cool Climates
• Continuous Insulation in Framed Exterior Walls
• A More Transparent Shade of Green: PCRs Drive Restrooms to the Lead in Green Design
• Wood Structures: An Impressive Renewable Resource
• Breaking Old Rules for Air-Barrier Installation
• Gypsum Wallboard: Specifying Levels of Finish
• Controlling Moisture in Masonry

I could have made my life easier by attending one of the major design or construction industry conferences, such as the 2019 editions of the AIA Conference on Architecture or CONSTRUCT Show (which is affiliated with the Construction Specifications Institute). These conferences typically offer dozens of continuing education opportunities in the form of seminars, tours, or forums. I’ve had no trouble completely fulfilling my CE requirements by attending just one such conference a year, as I did by going to the 2018 AIA Conference on Architecture in New York. The thing is, I didn’t find the 2019 destinations, which were Las Vegas and National Harbor, MD for AIA and CONSTRUCT respectively, particularly appealing.(1)  Next year, the AIA Conference will head to Los Angeles and CONSTRUCT will take place in Grapevine, TX (in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex), neither of which is calling to me—we’ll see if I go to one or the other. 

I may be slogging through the online CE courses this weekend, but I’m happy they’re conveniently available in that form. I appreciate the importance of continuing education and being a member of a profession that works to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. So rather than be dour and Scrooge-like, I’m grateful to be an architect always with much to learn, one able to enjoy the warmth and comfort of this most wonderful time of the year. 

Happy Holidays everyone!

(1)  I attended the AIA Conference on Architecture in Las Vegas in 2005 (besides having visited the city on two previous occasions), and the principal attractions in the vicinity of National Harbor are those in Washington D.C., which I’ve been to on two occasions. Because my opportunities to take time away from the office are limited, I tend to be picky about which conferences I choose to go to.