Associations: Dynamic Connections for the Profession

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From Architectural Record

For more than 50 years, the AWI has kept the design community informed by standards setting, the training of design professionals and woodwork manufacturers, and the marketing of members' products and services to potential business partners. About 10 years ago, an Affiliate Membership classification for design professionals was created. Modest membership dues offer a cost-effective way for architects and interior design professionals to become better acquainted with advances in architectural woodwork. Today, AWI counts thousands of Affiliates among its membership.

If one product has defined the growth of AWI it is the Quality Standards Illustrated (QSI). Since its initial appearance in 1961, the Quality Standards Manual, now in its eighth edition, has become a standard reference guide, recognized by architects, designers and specifiers as the authoritative source on fine architectural woodwork. Working with the Architectural Woodwork Manufacturers Association of Canada (AWMAC), the latest edition was introduced as a unified North American Standards in 2003.

AWI offers designers its internationally-recognized Quality Certification Program (QCP), that certifies woodworking firms that demonstrate consistent adherence to quality standards. Certified firms are tested and inspected by industry professionals on their ability to fabricate, finish and install projects according to the Quality Standards Illustrated.

According to AWI Executive Vice President Judith Durham, nearly every General Services Administration project incorporated the QSI and member work. One of the latest projects is the Prettyman addition to the Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C. This project is a collaboration of three AWI member firms involving millions of dollars of fine woodworking. Over the years, AWI members have helped renovate the White House, the Library of Congress, and dozens of state houses across the country.

Promoting the use of metal roofing through education is the key objective of the MCA, whose members' include producers and manufacturers of metal roof and well products, as well as suppliers who produce accessories and raw materials. The MCA has numerous AIA-certified continuing education programs and technical resources on its web site, and its members work with code bodies to provide accurate information on sustainability and applications, and to correct discrepancies. For example, few know that virtually all of MCA's metal products are 100 percent recyclable and have a minimum of 25 percent recycled content.

According to MCA's Director of Marketing Steven Collins, MCA has launched a marketing and educational program entitled "The Metal Initiative." This is a coalition of metal related companies and other associations who have banned together to expand the use of metal in construction.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record.
Originally published in June 2005

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