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The Procrastinator's Pro Con is AIA Philadelphia's annual year-end continuing education symposium. Will you still need credits for 2024? Earn them at this year's Procrastinator's Pro Con! 

Please note: Non-AIA Member certificates are $10/course. AIA Members will see their credits reported directly to their online transcripts and can request complimentary program certificates. 

Program Schedule
 

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Best Practices in Precast Concrete Multifamily Construction
Credits: 1 AIA LU (HSW) | 1 LA CES Credit (HSW)

Program Description: Precast, prestressed concrete multifamily and residential buildings are built to last, providing accelerated construction and material efficiency benefits relative to alternative or traditional construction methods. Completed precast concrete multifamily buildings reflect the culture and history of the surrounding community while providing safe, robust, and visually appealing structures. Precast fabricators are leaders and pioneers in modern prefabricated construction techniques, with proven track records and hundreds of completed projects annually in the Mid-Atlantic region. They are trusted partners, working side-by-side with owners, designers, and construction professionals from the earliest stages of project design through turnover of the completed structure.

Speakers: Eric Denny, Metromont Corporation LLC, and Dawn Decker, PCI Mid-Atlantic

10:05 AM - 11:05 AM
The Role of the Geotechnical Consultant in the Design Process
Credits: 1 AIA LU (HSW) | 1 LA CES Credit (HSW)

Program Description: This course will instruct attendees on the essential value that comes from having a quality geotechnical consultant fully engaged in a project from the start through construction. Highlights include how the geotechnical consultant can fit into the project consultant flow, evaluation methods used to determine the safety of a building, and how results from site/soil analyses are use to determine a building's foundation requirements. 

Speaker: Jared Green, Langan

11:10 AM - 12:10 PM
Wind, Water, and Lawyers!? – Lessons Learned in Building Envelope Design
Credits: 1 AIA LU (HSW) | 1 LA CES Credit (HSW)

Program Description: The successful design of a resilient, reliable, and code-compliant building envelope has become increasingly challenging with pressures on budget, schedule, energy, and design. The majority of problems stem from deficiencies in installation and workmanship, but that does not prevent claims from being asserted against the design professional. In this continuing education offering, you will hear from both a building envelope expert and seasoned lawyer who will explore common mistakes that contribute to building envelope failures, identify best practices to achieve a reliable building envelope, review approaches to drafting contract documents to avoid confusion during construction and litigation, and discuss how water intrusion claims can be defended.

Speakers: Vittoria D. Greene, Milber Makris Plousadis & Seiden LLP, and Jillian Burgess, RWDI

12:10 PM - 12:40 PM 
Break for Lunch

12:40 PM - 1:40 PM
How To Win With First Impressions 
Credits: 1 AIA LU | 1 LA CES Credit

Program Description: Winning high-quality clients can be distilled down to building better relationships. This presentation will delve into a proven and repeatable framework to help architects qualify clients, foster strong relationships, and make an amazing first impression. The 4-part framework will help you to be more confident in sales conversations and more attractive to high-quality clients.

Speaker: Tyler Suomala, Growthitect

1:45 PM - 2:45 PM
Warning Signs of a Claim
Credits: 1 AIA LU | 1 LA CES Credit

Program Description: This program is designed to provide design professionals with a comprehensive overview of common design and construction challenges that can result in liability claims. Through this session, attendees will gain an understanding of how differences in insurance coverage between contractors and design professionals can impact the liability exposure of architects and engineers. Participants will also acquire essential risk management tools to enhance situational awareness and identify potential liability risks during the design and construction phases. By the end of this program, attendees will be equipped with the skills to recognize and evaluate potential risks early and will learn how to leverage various resources, including loss prevention assistance, to effectively manage professional liability risks.

Speakers: Robert McLucas, AXA XL, a division of AXA, and Brianna Girard, AXA XL, a division of AXA

2:50 PM - 3:50 PM
Early Design Decisions: Priming Mass Timber Projects for Success
Credits: 1 AIA LU (HSW) | 1 LA CES Credit (HSW)

Program Description: Mass timber is a unique, non-commodity building material and, to lay the groundwork for success, certain critical decisions must be made as early as possible. These decisions can have a big impact on cost and can either increase or limit opportunities later in design. There are many cases of project teams that want to realize the full benefits of mass timber, but, because they base their designs on traditional building practices instead of optimizing them for mass timber, end up with avoidable price premiums. This presentation will walk through early project decisions and design steps, focusing on how to optimize projects for mass timber and how one early decision can influence others. Topics will include construction types, fire ratings, column grids and beam/panel spans, acoustics, and MEP integration. Completed mass timber projects will be used to illustrate the variety of viable options when navigating these key decisions.

Speaker: Shannon A. Williams, PE, WoodWorks

3:55 PM - 4:55 PM 
Acoustics 101
Credits: 1 AIA LU (HSW) | 1 LA CES Credit (HSW)

Program Description: Acentech will present the fundamentals of acoustics in buildings: sound waves, human perception of sound, behavior of sound indoors and outdoors, acoustic properties of building materials, reverberation, designing for sound isolation between different spaces, the difference between absorbing and blocking sound, and the basics of noise and vibration control for building mechanical system. We will touch on the role of acoustic modeling in current design practice. Specific project examples and stories from the field will illustrate each of the main concepts, along with several live and interactive demonstrations during the seminar.

Speaker: Terence Tyson, P.E., INCE Bd. Cert., Principal, Acentech

Questions? Please contact:
Julianne Foley
Director of Membership & Events
[email protected]

THANK YOU SPONSORS