In this session, we will learn the fundamentals of all successful AE firms and provide the basis for making well-grounded business decisions. We will learn how firms can transition from being professionals providing services, to highly tuned businesses that can identify the needs of the marketplace and create services and products that are appropriately priced and yield consistent and greater profits.

Rather than seeking out new projects that merely build upon your current skills, you will start from a business-thinking mindset, where processes that are critical to building a thriving firm are examined and constituted in your firm. We will explore the importance of data within an architect firm and demonstrate how careful collection and interpretation can lead your firm into more exciting and profitable territory.

Following are the course's Learning Objectives:

1. Identify why a “business-thinking” mindset is of utmost importance for service professionals
2. Explain best practices for implementing a metrics-oriented leadership system
3. Summarize how data-based performance management drives smarter business decisions
4. Analyze how profitability drives growth rather than being merely a result
5. Reframe your firm as a platform that enables you to achieve your business and personal goals

Addressing student behaviors, improving the learning environment, and enhancing the sustainability of educational buildings with design.

Learning Objective 1:
After reading this article, you should be able to: describe how the inclusive restroom design concept addresses the bad behaviors plaguing bathroom spaces and improves student safety

Learning Objective 2:
After reading this article, you should be able to: summarize the ways that acoustical surfaces, lighting, and HVAC systems are being used to improve the comfort of the learning environment, helping students perform better in class.

Learning Objective 3:
After reading this article, you should be able to: identify various solutions that can be incorporated to heighten security throughout a school.

Learning Objective 4:
After reading this article, you should be able to: explain some of the sustainability strategies making schools more environmentally friendly.

Designing with Pre-Crimped Woven Wire Mesh is a streaming video course that explores interior and exterior applications and functions for woven metal mesh products in architectural design. The course examines key functions of these materials, details the manufacturing process, and outlines critical specification considerations to ensure beautiful and long lasting installations.

This course will teach students how to recognize non-compliant rooftop equipment support scenarios and will discuss their impact on safety and the public health, general welfare, and property value.

 The class is a high-density orientation to lighting considerations and methods in the healthcare environment. Topics will include application situations, impacted populations, design methods, and a review and critique of examples of successful and less-than-successful healthcare lighting designs.

At the end of this course, participants will:

1. Identify current trends in the healthcare lighting design and the impact lighting has on its occupants and the environment. 
2. Identify who is impacted by our lighting design decisions and learn best practices on how to light the spaces they occupy.
3. Identify specific lighting needs of patient rooms.
4. Identify emerging lighting methods including design for circadian health.

Designing buildings for life safety and wellness is getting easier.

This course aims to help educate the designer about what performance fabrics are, the content of various fabrics, how they work, and the benefits to a sustainable design in meeting and maximizing your goals of occupant health, safety, well-being, and sustainability. Windows, views, and openings in buildings present the classic battle between form and function. The designer naturally wants the building’s occupants to enjoy views and light, but the solar heat gain from these openings can wreak havoc on sustainable goals. Sophisticated and high-performing solar control fabrics can help reconcile the form and function of light, views, and sustainability.

HSW Justification:
Substantially all of this course is dedicated to a discussion of the health, safety and welfare aspects of performance fabrics through their appropriate specification, their fabrics' chemical composition, their proper use, their ability to meet safety and performance standards, and their aesthetic contribution.

Learning Objective 1:
The student will learn how to analyze shading fabrics for solar light management including energy reduction, glare and outward visibility, using published shading coefficient data.

Learning Objective 2:
The student will be able to list certification requirements for indoor air quality, anti-bacterial protection, flame retardancy, and environmental regulations.

Learning Objective 3:
The student will be able to identify fabric composition options with an emphasis on sustainable design.

Learning Objective 4:
The student will be able to apply their knowledge of performance fabric features to unique, real-world applications in healthcare, hospitality, government, business, and residential projects.

Operable glass walls can provide for flexible interior spaces, safer interior environments, rapid and highly accessible connections to exterior spaces and all the benefits that ensue, such as fresh air, light, unobstructed views and rapid egress in the event of emergency. This course examines how operable glass walls meet those challenges and then shows the application of those principals in several case studies.

This course will review the importance of acoustics in architecture, discuss the fundamental principles of sound management, explore how to design interior spaces to maximize occupants’ comfort, and review emerging tools to solve for both sound and lighting. It will also focus on the standards that govern acoustic requirements for diverse applications.

This course will describe the benefits of moveable glass walls in education environments from K-12 through higher education. It includes a comprehensive look at design options, framing and installation options, interior and exterior connecting applications, acoustical attenuation, daylighting, and 21st Century Educational design.

HSW Justification:
Privacy, daylighting, on-demand teaching flexibility, improved teaching outcomes and student and teacher health benefits are the primary focus of this course.

Learning Objective 1:
Identify and recognize the significance of flexible space in school design to safely accommodate variable educational needs

Learning Objective 2:
Assess the health and welfare aspects of glass wall systems in terms of providing daylight and views to students, teachers and staff.

Learning Objective 3:
Explain the importance of acoustics and the impact on student performance, and creating a better indoor environment.

Learning Objective 4:
Determine ways to incorporate the design principles presented into building project documentation as shown in project examples.