Professional associations

Professional associations are considered a voluntary organization of individuals sharing a common interest in the advancement of knowledge, either within a single field or across a broad spectrum of disciplines. The major function of these organizations like the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), (all based in Washington, D.C.), and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) of New York, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) of Alexandria, Va., the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) of Chicago, Ill., and the International Code Council (ICC) of Falls Church, Va., is to aid and encourage the collection, collation, and dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of their members and the community as a whole.

"There was no real contact, only competition," commented Peter Walker, FASLA, on the state of communication among landscape architects before the ASLA established a dialogue among leading professionals, with its CEO council. The council provides a secure forum for firm leaders to discuss details of the business, customer trends and current challenges. Providing such targeted networking groups is one of the most valuable offerings of professional associations.

2005 Special Art Award from NTMA, Plaza Las Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Walker is Partner-in-Charge of Peter Walker and Partners, Landscape Architecture, Berkeley, Calif. Founded in 1983, the firm employs approximately 35 landscape architects, whose projects span the world, from the 1,000-acre Millennium Parklands in Sydney, Australia, to the World Trade Center Memorial in New York. "There are diverse interests in this profession, with some landscape architects focused on ecology, others on style, and even more focusing on everything in between," said Walker. "Professional associations give you the opportunity to hear what's really going on, but you have to put in the time."

While some associations put focus on one profession, others like DBIA take a broader focus. One of the youngest associations, DBIA was founded in 1993 to advocate and advance the design-build method of project delivery within the design and construction community. The method incorporates architecture/engineering and construction services under a single contract to provide a seamless team. DBIA members include practitioners from all project phases, plus public- and private-sector project owners.

"To build a building you need more than one discipline. Today you need to assemble a team of professionals − from insurers and owners to architects and facilities maintenance engineers," said Barry Bannett, CEO, DBIA of The Bannett Group, Ltd. of Cherry Hill, N.J. "We're focused on educating the industry on this method," added Bannett, who serves as an instructor for the association's certification program, Designated Design-Build ProfessionalTM. Currently, many GSA projects require the design-build method for their contracts, with expectations of it becoming the preferred project delivery method by 2011.

CSI also takes an integrated approach. Its 17,000 members represent all disciplines engaged in on-residential building design and construction. CSI's mission is to continuously improve the process of creating and sustaining the built environment. They do that by facilitating communication among all those involved in that process. "Our work is about creating a common language among the industry by providing uniform ways of classifying the entire life-cycle of a project," said CSI Executive Director Karl Borgstrom, Ph.D. "Members like our association because we're diverse − we have people from all over the industry, the nation and the world working together to improve the way we work together."