The Studio 27: Assimilation

by Tim Alatorre

Justin Ribble, LEED AP, Associate AIA, B’Arch ’03 joins us for a conversation about a number of great three letter acronyms: CAB, CSE, IDP, AIA, ARE, ACE, and BIM.

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Show Notes

Site News

  • New Facebook Fans
    • Monica Shahrokhfar
    • Greg Wynn
  • Tim’s big adventure with the CAB
    • A Big thank you to Elise Drakes and Mark Drwyer
    • What are the CAB offices like?
      • Shout out to Erin, receptionist at the CAB
      • Number of employees in the CAB office
    • Why do commissioners volunteer to give the oral exam?
      • They care about the profession
      • Free Food!
    • Shout out to Lily Dong!
    • What about loosing the oral component of the test?
      • Can IDP add it?
    • Pass rate of the California Supplemental Exam (CSE)
      • Haley has some numbers!
        • 2006-2007 – 1,082 candidates – pass rate = 47%
        • 2007-2008 – 901 candidates – pass rate = 50%
        • 2008-2009 – 1,043 candidates – pass rate = 48%
        • 2009-2010 – 838 candidates – pass rate = 51%
      • Tim thinks the pass rate is fair given his understanding of the process
    • Are Californian architects better than other architects from other states?

General News

  • THE SIX-MONTH RULE
    • By the time you’re probably listening to this, it’s probably in effect, so get informed and get to logging those IDP hours!!
    • Due to system performance under severe volume pressure the reporting deadline for the Six-Month Rule has been extended to Friday, July 2, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The e-EVR is operating at full capacity. Please be patient as you may encounter lengthy response times. It is strongly recommended that you continue to be diligent in your efforts to access the e-EVR during off-business hours.
    • http://ncarb.org/

Rapid Fire Questions:

  • Cal Poly or Berkeley? Cal Poly
  • Autocad or Revit? urgh… Revit
  • Parallel bar or T-Square? T-square
  • Facebook or LinkedIn? Facebook
  • Arch Record, Arch Digest, or Architect? Record
  • Drafting dots or tape? tape
  • Yellow trace or white? yellow… only communists use white
  • Ad Markers or Prisma? Ad
  • Pen or Pencil? pen, all the way
  • Mac or PC? both… Mac for home, PC for work
  • What’s the Meaning of Life? FUN (to enjoy the time that you have while you’re still here)

SCORE: 746

Interview

  • Who are you?
    • From Oregon, decided to see the world and rather than go to Univeristy of Oregon he decided to go to Cal Poly.
    • San Luis Obispo was actually like his hometown, so the adjustment was good.
    • He finished in 6 years, and is glad that he took the time to enjoy his senior year rather than hurrying up to finish and get out.
    • He was able to work in a few offices before he , so when he needed to find a “real job in the real world” he was able to apply those past experiences.
  • He has felt disconnected in the years since graduation?
    • When he found sloarch.com, after searching for a Revit question, he was happy to have a place to feel more connected.
    • He’s only a few hours away from SLO and feels that he should get back and get involved.
    • It’s interesting since it is a larger program and students move all over the place after graduation, so having a chance to reconnect and get back into the network being created is a really good thing.
  • He’s worked with a lot of Cal Poly grads.
  • He spent his 4th year in the east coast program:
    • While here in CA, you can almost always find a Cal Poly grad in a firm, on the east coast it was “Cal Poly what?”
    • Living outside of D.C. and Alexandria makes you feel the political pressure in the area, so there is more competition and rivalry in all aspects of life let alone the program you come from.
    • It was a great experience, he was able to step outside and feel a part of programs outside Cal Poly, which was a great experience since it gave him persepctive.
    • The diversity of professors at the program, where they came from and their specialties was great.
    • It was nice to see how other schools teach design.
  • Why stay in CA after graduation?
    • Looking back he wanted to get back east, it’s a great place to live but it’s hard to afford it.
    • Sacramento was a good market and affordable.
    • While there are parts of Oregon that he misses he feels that he has experienced all he could for the time being there, so he’s happy in Sacramento for the time being.
    • Oregon is to California as Sacramento is to San Francisco, to put it in perspective.
  • Working towards licensure?
    • Doesn’t have to complete IDP, so he’s happy about that.
    • Took his first exam about a year or so ago, then work got really busy and it was hard to come home after a long day and study, so recently he’s getting back into studying, taking ARE study classes at the local AIA Chapter.
    • The goal is to take 4 exams between now and September.
    • The firm he works at currently is really supportive about professional development. Use this time to do what you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t have time, to become better.
  • ACE Mentoring, how is he involved?
    • It’s one of those things that he always wanted to do, mentoring high school students about what the profession is and what a career in the building industry is really like.
    • Pay it forward a bit.
    • He’s learned a lot about how others view our field, their perception of “architects” and what they do.
    • Exposing students to the multidisciplinary aspect of our profession as well as the professional and office conduct that you need to know to be a professional.
  • Strong feelings about Autodesk??
    • His office recognizes that Revit is the direction to go, so they’re in the process of transitioning everyone to Revit one by one and they’re currently working on their first Revit project.
    • After going to an outside training session there was a need to develop their own way to use Revit based on the type of high end design and modern work his firm does.
    • His biggest gripe is the license process and releases, having to re-up every year isn’t sustainable or do-able, especially right now with the economy.
    • He’s slowly prying himself away from Sketchup and CAD.
    • He recognizes how powerful Revit is and how you can make it do what you want it to do… as long as you keep up your subscription.
    • Transistion is always slow and has it’s hang ups and resistance.
    • Revit is changing the role of the “CAD drafter”.
    • On the flip side, students now are learning Revit, and by the time they become employees think of the change the profession will have seen.

About the Author


Tim Alatorre