The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has inaugurated New Mexico architect Robert M. Calvani, FAIA, NCARB as its 2020 President.
For the next year, Calvani will lead the nation's 55 architectural licensing boards amid seismic upheavals taking shape within the architectural profession amid the economic and social tumult resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.
In a statement announcing his inauguration, Calvani writes, “I am honored by the trust placed in me to lead the Council this year. NCARB has built up great momentum in the past several years, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to be agile, embrace new approaches, and raise awareness of our important work to protect the public.”
According to the announcement, Calvani aims to focus his tenure on "exploring issues related to regulating incidental architecture practice, architects’ responsible charge when signing and sealing documents, and ethics in the profession" while also expanding "efforts to communicate the work of NCARB and state licensing boards and improve diversity and representation within the profession."
Calvani is the founder of of NCA Architects, an Albuquerque-based firm with extensive educational, judicial, and commercial focuses. Calvani has served on the New Mexico Board of Examiners for Architects, helped develop the Architect Registration Examinsation (ARE) 5.0 exam suite while sitting on the Test Specification Task Force, and has served on NCARB’s Audit, Experience, Experience Advisory, Practice Analysis Steering, Procedures and Documents, and Regional Leadership committees, among many other activities.
Calvani has earned degrees from both the University of New Mexico and the University of California, Los Angeles and is licensed in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas.
In 2021, Calvani will hand over the reins of the organization to Texas architect Alfred Vidaurri Jr., FAIA, NCARB, AICP, who currently serves as NCARB's First Vice President / President Elect. Upon taking office in July 2021, Vidaurri will become NCARB's first Latino president.
3 Comments
Translation: More of the same. Business as usual at NCARB. They will keep on ripping people off with exorbitant fees.
The following email message was sent 24 July 2020. As of 28 July 2020 it has not been opened or answered. I am an architect. I hold NCARB Certificate 14935. Best regards, Charles Traylor
Jesse Ingber
Customer Service Relations
Joshua C. Batkin
Vice President, Council Relations
Aloha Mr. Engber and Mr. Batkin,
This email message concerns a program of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, known as the Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect (BEFA).
It appears to me that the granting of licenses to some foreign architects is possibly questionable when considering that some of these architects live and work in countries with what I would refer to as "still developing economies." Rates of compensation for labor in many countries are more than a whole order of magnitude lower than what is paid for comparable work performed here in the United States.
Architects from said countries, armed with NCARB Certificates and US State Architect licenses, might set up front firms in the US for sales and marketing and ship architect-of-record work via the Internet to be done in one or another of these low cost-of-living countries. Is the NCARB a catalyst for promoting lopsided international architectural services competition in favor of these foreign architects and against US domestic architects and architectural firms?
I am interested to learn what justification the NCARB has for supporting and promoting the BEFA, given the described circumstances. Please respond and if you think it might be appropriate forward this email message to your Board of Directors. Thanks.
it's like they've been working from (their second/third) home, uninterested in something like the news
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