Here's a good reason to hop up and register NOW: under the new system, you will only be able to become a LEED AP if you prove that you have worked on a LEED registered project. Many owners and government entities require that their new facilities COMPLY with LEED but do not actually REGISTER with LEED, so that requirement may prove elusive for a lot of people.
As it has been explained to me by a person in our firm who has ties to USGBC, when the LEED AP was established, no mechanism was put in place to retire the credential, so GBCI cannot remove one's LEED AP status. GBCI took over the credentialling from USGBC and has risen the bar to entry with harder tests and continuing education requirements. GBCI apparently thinks the old LEED APs are not good enough, so it has created all these subcategories: LEED Green Associate (intended for "non-technical" people like sales reps who have no direct role in LEED projects), LEED AP (the thousands who have been accredited to date), LEED AP + Specialty (all new LEED APs will receive a specialty, and old LEED APs who "opt in" to the new rules will get one, too; to get more than one you'll have to take another test) and FINALLY, LEED Fellow (for people who are leaders in the field of sustainabiliy.)
Confused yet?
The $50 fee is nothing compared to the continuing education requirement, which is 30 hours every two years (basically 15 hours a year, a total pain in the ass.) GBCI has not decided what form the continuing education will take. If we are VERY LUCKY, they will allow all the CEUs that the AIA allows, meaning that you can attend a lunch and learn or do a free online course. If we are very unlucky, they may impose stricker CEU requirements which could mean attending very expensive and time-consuming seminars such as the ones at the AIA conventions.
My advice: get on board before they pull up the rope!
i can't believe i'm considering signing up for this racket ..
but my city is going 'green' and is phasing in the requirement of public buildings to the LEED certified. great, more hoops and reviews and especially fees to pay. nice!
Sheeple? Such a retarded word, get your head out of the sand.
Fact is LEED accreditation (though yes, it does cost money) will, in the future, practically be a prerequisite to a successful career - even if it is a commercialized and somewhat convoluted means to an end. The end, a global sustainability movement and green 'fervor', certainly justifies whatever problems you have with it.
I love how people waste time with this shit. It seems like becoming LEED AP is more important than getting your arch license. Nice propaganda there....
Houston_arch is absolutely right. If you don't register and sign up for a test date (which is $400 unless you are a USGBC member), the door will close on LEED AP accreditation by Mar 31st. Registering with GBCI is not enough to save you from the cutoff date.
Scam? Maybe. A rip off? Probably. I know a few people out there that sniffed at the idea of LEED as another expensive marketing greenwashing scam for corporates to brag about on their mission statements. The non-believers have ended up taking the test, because the fact of the matter is that there has been no other national (or global) program that has been more successful than LEED at getting the building industry to take sustainability seriously. Clients are not going to magically wake up one day and think "I'll build a sustainable building" - they need motivation, incentives that they can wrap their business brains around. I think any steps towards getting people to build with more environmental consciousness is a great step.
The government is taking this seriously, and that is a big, big step for them. We need more initiatives to build green.
At one point our entire country was set on the space race. The belief back in the early 60's, was that we could be living on the moon by 2000.
How is that working out for everyone? This is just another fad that will die a lingering death. When it is all over, I'll be able to say, I didn't take the bait, hold my head up high and look down my nose at the sheeple and still have provided every bit a sustainable/green building as any lead AP.
i know this fad will die but my concern is the level to which governmental agencies are moving toward LEED. once a city adopts that some buildings require LEED silver, gold, etc. then the push will be for all to follow the process and then we're stuck.
another review and higher fees for the building plan check/permit process. we already have minimum energy requirements in california (title 24 part 6) but the government keeps pushing to make things more and more restrictive.
i'm afraid my architecture license isn't enough anymore. but i don't have the $400 for this exam right now.
Each unto their own. I've seen LEED succeed and it's a good thing. Federal, State and City work is a rapidly moving toward greening, and LEED is their chosen benchmark. Can you blame all the businesses out there that are desperately trying to get into the green building market?
At the end of the day, no matter how a building is designed / built / certified, if it's environmentally sensitive it's a win for sustainability, present and future generations.
Would anybody want LEED to be part of ARE's....so when you are an architect you have the knowledge of LEED as opposed to have some kid with LEED beign more respencted than an actual architect
why the nay saying and fad talk, folks? if anything, it is a great learning experience and a great introduction into building sustainable architecture. if you don't believe it's important to build sustainable/environmentally friendly buildings, i suggest you might be in the wrong profession.
i also imagine you do not work for a firm that requires its employees to become LEED AP certified. what happens in the future if you want to work for a firm only to find out they require certification of its employees? Will you tell them to fuck off? I doubt it.
I think it is very important to be environmentally friendly. Sutainable/green design is important. That doesn't mean I want more alphabet soup groups in my pocket telling me how it has to be done. I've got the IBC and IRC for that and I don't need to be certified for those nor do I have to pay money every year. A scam is a scam is a scam.
scam is an awfully harsh (and inappropriate) word to be using. at that point, is it the alphabet soup people telling you how to build your building or the client.
As far as I understand, i should register and sing up the date for the exam until march 31. So, I can take the current version of exam until June 30.
What if I fail the exam? Am I able to re-take the current version of exam until June 30? Or is this just one time chance to take the current version of the exam until June 30?
If you take the exam before March 31, fail and register your retake before March 31st, you can take it again. But if you fail after March 31, you have to wait for the new system.
and for one, i seriously hope the future of architecture isn't going to be reduced to bureaucratic sustainability hoopla. let's not forget that at the end of the day that no matter how environmentally "friendly" a building might be, no one gives a shit if the design sucks.
so, not that i need to justify the above comments, but in my experience all of this work that has been jizzed out as LEED this or LEED that are really just using it as a mask over a fundamentally uninspiring building, AKA louvers over the windows and stucco the rest.
it's one thing to make your design environmentally responsible. it's quite another to make into a profit-centric organization. isn't it enough that we have to deal with the snaggle-tooths in the plan check office and the NCARB evil empire?
I agree in part, the USGBC has become a profit centric organization... At the outset, the USGBC almost planned for itself to become obsolete. In other words, if it worked, building codes would become more stringent, owners would start looking at life cycle costs and energy costs, etc. etc. and LEED would no longer need to exist as it does.
Now they have this whole new system that is rolling out that mimics in many ways the AIA with their whole continuing education credits and annual fees... Remember, nobody has to be LEED certified to certify a building... it merely buys the project a point.
I think since the test was started, all the people that were going to get certified by and large have... and so they needed a way to continue to bring money in... thus the new system of being accredited...
They know if they start raising fees to register projects, owners will stop registering them all together because it isn't worth the money. If owners/clients didn't care about LEED, marketing departments in architecture offices wouldn't care how many people in the office were LEED accredited... people would stop paying the 300 or 400 dollars a test and the USGBC would disappear...
I agree that this is yet another way for one of these organizations to make more $$$...
I am falling for it however as the owner of a small practice fearing that if I dont have the LEED AP after my name..slowly but surelyI wont even have the small practice that I have today!!..I am all for sustainability..but we dont need additional fees and titles..lets just make it part of local/regional zoning codes and regulations that each city gets to enforce.
Frankly, in studying the book..it has all the things that Architects have been advocating for yeras in various meetings with their clients, city officials and others..such as densification of the Cities, stopping suburban sprawl, more green space, etc... Well..now that the rest of the people have woken up to it..they are getting ahead of us and asking us to pay and get certified for what we always had advocated anyway!
LEED promotes higher densties but zoning codes are written by Lawyers and frustrated planners and they still effectively promote suburban sprawl..so the answer may be to revisit all the zoning codes !
as per my previous argument, u can bitch about a not so environmentally friendly bus, but if 200 ppl drive their own eco-friendly car instead of taking bus, there are more damages done comparately speaking...
unfortunately, Leed is promoting u how to design a eco-friendly sports car rather than a bus to serve the major of poor ppl in this world.
Much of LEED is BS, I agree. But whilst unemployed for the last 8 months, I swallowed the pill and spent the $400 to take and nail the test. I was at a career fair yesterday and no one was hiring, but everyone that I talked to was happy to see I was LEED AP and told me on the spot that most resumes they received were not from LEED APs. So it helped. Architecture is a business and LEED AP sells. People who aren't in the building industry know what it is. It's like Megapixels for cameras. The more you have, the more people will buy, even if they don't know what it is. I'm a 12 MP camera phone now.
hasselhoff> sorry to hear that, but that makes me more angry... during the financial crisis, my institution had cut down the annual license fee or even exempted...
these Leed ppl even take advantages of our desperate professions and start charging this n that in this harsh environment (upgrading new version)! makes me feel sick!
"1: add louvers over all south, west and east facing windows
2: defer remaining requirements to MEP."
3: Make all walls two inches thicker.
4: Poured concrete is one of the "greenest" technologies... use it.
5: Recess windows by a few inches.
6: Reduce parking requirements to 1 space for every few units.
Has anyone seen that LEED platinum mansion in India? How many cars does it hold?
I remember preparing for the LEED exam a long while back and one of the funny things was that you only got 1.5 points for having an urban property but you got like 10 points if you installed a 30,000 dollar grey water reclamation system.
"As it has been explained to me by a person in our firm who has ties to USGBC, when the LEED AP was established, no mechanism was put in place to retire the credential, so GBCI cannot remove one's LEED AP status."
That person in your firm is incorrect. When the new accreditation is put into place, anyone who passed under 2.0 is going to lose their accreditation. Apparently the 2.0 test was pretty easy and they're phasing out people that passed under it. 2.1 and 2.2 accreditation will be grandfathered.
Those of you that are complaining about LEED being useless need to understand a few things:
First, if you dismiss such things as "useless" then good luck finding a job or holding onto one once you find it. There are many rules, regulations, codes and requirements related to our practice. Those who seek to learn, understand and implement them are in high demand. Those that want to gripe about them all the time will never make it past being a draftsman.
Second, you might be interested in knowing that when ADA was first passed that many people back then also considered that a phase that would soon pass. Obviously they were wrong.
Third, I imagine those of you that are complaining know little to nothing about it. I am not an environmental activist by any means, but I've done two LEED projects and have read most of the USGBC NC&MR Reference Guide (still studying) and find the program to be quite impressive. While the point system is not perfect, it's headed in the right direction.
Fourth, we who have been in architecture for decades can tell you that most owners will not lift a finger to help the environment unless they're forced to. Right now LEED is a voluntary program, but that is changing. The City of Dallas passed a code last year that beginning in 2010 all commercial projects must be LEED certifiable (IE, not "certified" but meeting all the requirements of certification). The LEED concept is not a fad, it is here to stay. Get in on it now and you'll make yourself that much more valuable to your employer.
DFW-Arch-
Could you provide a link showing that those who passed the LEED 2.0 will be phased out of the new system?
This is the first time I am hearing that requirement.
Thanks
DFW, I agree with T D on the phasing out of 2.0 LEED takers- is it a rumor or has it been stated somewhere by GBCI?
Is GBCI a for-profit organization? I doubt it, but a lot of posters seem to think it is. Yes, the test costs money. It costs money to develop the test and money to andminister the test. (GBCI hires testing companies to give it.) Just look at what it costs to take the ARE, and that's a test given by the government, not a private organization.
It's very expensive to get a building LEED certified because of the mountain of paperwork that has to be reviewed by GBCI. Perhaps eventually the GBCI will be able to base the fee on the construction cost, similar to building permit fees, but right now I supect that they are just trying to keep pace with the rapidly expanding number of submissions.
I agree with DFW that it is useless to dismiss LEED. This tough economy provides yet another painful lesson that to stay employed in the architecture field, you have to KEEP UP and not fall behind the pack. Keep your skills up, keep your knowledge current, keep up with the software, get licensed and get LEED accredited. This is true whether you have 2 years in the profession or 20! Regardless of whether you think LEED is valuable or total BS, it was the first out of the gate, and is the most recognized sustainability brand in our industry. It is rapidly becoming desirable among cities and developments to have a LEED building, and the brand is becoming known in the general public. So if you can't put the $400 on your credit card today, realize that you're probably going to do it eventually.
Also, for those of you whom the $300 or $400 test fee is an issue, it may be helpful for you to know that although you have to give your credit card information when signing up for the test, you will not actually be charged until you take the test.
^ that helps, because i wasn't planning on taking it until late june (since you can't reschedule after march 31). and i don't have the $400 right now ..
plus there's this:
If you cancel more than 30 days prior to the scheduled date, you will not be charged the exam fee or the $30. If you cancel between 3 and 30 days prior to the scheduled date, you will be charged $30. If you cancel 2 days or less prior to the scheduled date, you will be charged the full exam amount.
I'm so glad that I passed my LEED AP exam under the old ver. 2.1 as a "practice" exam before starting the ARE.
While LEED does seem somewhat like a scam (not exam fees but commissioning fees) it is something I support. That said, for me the LEED AP certificate takes a back seat to the one saying I'm a registered Architect.
Problem with LEED is that right now "green" is such a buzz word that it does seem the ARE's and actual architectural registration is getting over shadowed by LEED. I for one can see the point of continuing ed to maintain an Architectural license, but 15 hours/year for LEED is a bit over the top.
i signed up this morning, before gbci's site crashed. but good news! you get 'til april 1st to sign up!
The GBCI website will be undergoing maintenance until March 30, 2009 at 11:59 pm (Eastern Time).
Due to unexpected website maintenance, we are extending the deadline for registration for the LEED AP NC and CI exams to April 1, 2009 at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time).
Why you should sign up for the LEED exam by March 31st
Here's a good reason to hop up and register NOW: under the new system, you will only be able to become a LEED AP if you prove that you have worked on a LEED registered project. Many owners and government entities require that their new facilities COMPLY with LEED but do not actually REGISTER with LEED, so that requirement may prove elusive for a lot of people.
As it has been explained to me by a person in our firm who has ties to USGBC, when the LEED AP was established, no mechanism was put in place to retire the credential, so GBCI cannot remove one's LEED AP status. GBCI took over the credentialling from USGBC and has risen the bar to entry with harder tests and continuing education requirements. GBCI apparently thinks the old LEED APs are not good enough, so it has created all these subcategories: LEED Green Associate (intended for "non-technical" people like sales reps who have no direct role in LEED projects), LEED AP (the thousands who have been accredited to date), LEED AP + Specialty (all new LEED APs will receive a specialty, and old LEED APs who "opt in" to the new rules will get one, too; to get more than one you'll have to take another test) and FINALLY, LEED Fellow (for people who are leaders in the field of sustainabiliy.)
Confused yet?
The $50 fee is nothing compared to the continuing education requirement, which is 30 hours every two years (basically 15 hours a year, a total pain in the ass.) GBCI has not decided what form the continuing education will take. If we are VERY LUCKY, they will allow all the CEUs that the AIA allows, meaning that you can attend a lunch and learn or do a free online course. If we are very unlucky, they may impose stricker CEU requirements which could mean attending very expensive and time-consuming seminars such as the ones at the AIA conventions.
My advice: get on board before they pull up the rope!
thanks for the heads up. maybe I am just dense, but I have found the LEED website a bit confusing, especially when it comes to exam who-what-when!
ahh......
need a linky.....
It's a big fucking scam...
just registered for the hell of it.... but for some reason the testing centers in my area dont have any open seats..wtf....
i think just as long as i registered i should be good for now....
i can't believe i'm considering signing up for this racket ..
but my city is going 'green' and is phasing in the requirement of public buildings to the LEED certified. great, more hoops and reviews and especially fees to pay. nice!
and i gotta pay $400 for this test? the HELL?
4 hundy? Wtf?!
Man, the sheeple just keep on coming.
Hey, anybody remember the "pet rock"?
Nothing like a good fad.
LEED SCHMEED. wake me when it's over.
if i had $400 to spare i would
Sheeple? Such a retarded word, get your head out of the sand.
Fact is LEED accreditation (though yes, it does cost money) will, in the future, practically be a prerequisite to a successful career - even if it is a commercialized and somewhat convoluted means to an end. The end, a global sustainability movement and green 'fervor', certainly justifies whatever problems you have with it.
I love how people waste time with this shit. It seems like becoming LEED AP is more important than getting your arch license. Nice propaganda there....
Houston_arch is absolutely right. If you don't register and sign up for a test date (which is $400 unless you are a USGBC member), the door will close on LEED AP accreditation by Mar 31st. Registering with GBCI is not enough to save you from the cutoff date.
Scam? Maybe. A rip off? Probably. I know a few people out there that sniffed at the idea of LEED as another expensive marketing greenwashing scam for corporates to brag about on their mission statements. The non-believers have ended up taking the test, because the fact of the matter is that there has been no other national (or global) program that has been more successful than LEED at getting the building industry to take sustainability seriously. Clients are not going to magically wake up one day and think "I'll build a sustainable building" - they need motivation, incentives that they can wrap their business brains around. I think any steps towards getting people to build with more environmental consciousness is a great step.
The government is taking this seriously, and that is a big, big step for them. We need more initiatives to build green.
At one point our entire country was set on the space race. The belief back in the early 60's, was that we could be living on the moon by 2000.
How is that working out for everyone? This is just another fad that will die a lingering death. When it is all over, I'll be able to say, I didn't take the bait, hold my head up high and look down my nose at the sheeple and still have provided every bit a sustainable/green building as any lead AP.
ha ha ha
i know this fad will die but my concern is the level to which governmental agencies are moving toward LEED. once a city adopts that some buildings require LEED silver, gold, etc. then the push will be for all to follow the process and then we're stuck.
another review and higher fees for the building plan check/permit process. we already have minimum energy requirements in california (title 24 part 6) but the government keeps pushing to make things more and more restrictive.
i'm afraid my architecture license isn't enough anymore. but i don't have the $400 for this exam right now.
Each unto their own. I've seen LEED succeed and it's a good thing. Federal, State and City work is a rapidly moving toward greening, and LEED is their chosen benchmark. Can you blame all the businesses out there that are desperately trying to get into the green building market?
At the end of the day, no matter how a building is designed / built / certified, if it's environmentally sensitive it's a win for sustainability, present and future generations.
Would anybody want LEED to be part of ARE's....so when you are an architect you have the knowledge of LEED as opposed to have some kid with LEED beign more respencted than an actual architect
How many letters in the alphabet do you really need at the end of your name?
Joe Smith, AIA, RA, Lead AP, CBO
Damm, what a mess.
for architects it will probably be:
LEED AP+BD&C
(Building Design & Construction, formerly New Construction and Major Renovations)
----------
i can't believe architects have let this get so out of hand .. but that's what happens when hysteria takes over.
why the nay saying and fad talk, folks? if anything, it is a great learning experience and a great introduction into building sustainable architecture. if you don't believe it's important to build sustainable/environmentally friendly buildings, i suggest you might be in the wrong profession.
i also imagine you do not work for a firm that requires its employees to become LEED AP certified. what happens in the future if you want to work for a firm only to find out they require certification of its employees? Will you tell them to fuck off? I doubt it.
I think it is very important to be environmentally friendly. Sutainable/green design is important. That doesn't mean I want more alphabet soup groups in my pocket telling me how it has to be done. I've got the IBC and IRC for that and I don't need to be certified for those nor do I have to pay money every year. A scam is a scam is a scam.
scam is an awfully harsh (and inappropriate) word to be using. at that point, is it the alphabet soup people telling you how to build your building or the client.
everything you need to know about making a LEED certified building:
1: add louvers over all south, west and east facing windows
2: defer remaining requirements to MEP.
done.
do i get my worthless $400 piece of paper now? it will look great with my worthless $80,000 diploma.
As far as I understand, i should register and sing up the date for the exam until march 31. So, I can take the current version of exam until June 30.
What if I fail the exam? Am I able to re-take the current version of exam until June 30? Or is this just one time chance to take the current version of the exam until June 30?
Thanks.
If you take the exam before March 31, fail and register your retake before March 31st, you can take it again. But if you fail after March 31, you have to wait for the new system.
pathetic, .._. .._ _._. _._
i pity ya if this is how you choose to view your profession.
defer to MEP? doubly pathetic.
sorry to hear you wasted your money. i hear trader joes is hiring.
i just call it how i see it.
maybe you should try these:
and for one, i seriously hope the future of architecture isn't going to be reduced to bureaucratic sustainability hoopla. let's not forget that at the end of the day that no matter how environmentally "friendly" a building might be, no one gives a shit if the design sucks.
so, not that i need to justify the above comments, but in my experience all of this work that has been jizzed out as LEED this or LEED that are really just using it as a mask over a fundamentally uninspiring building, AKA louvers over the windows and stucco the rest.
it's one thing to make your design environmentally responsible. it's quite another to make into a profit-centric organization. isn't it enough that we have to deal with the snaggle-tooths in the plan check office and the NCARB evil empire?
I agree in part, the USGBC has become a profit centric organization... At the outset, the USGBC almost planned for itself to become obsolete. In other words, if it worked, building codes would become more stringent, owners would start looking at life cycle costs and energy costs, etc. etc. and LEED would no longer need to exist as it does.
Now they have this whole new system that is rolling out that mimics in many ways the AIA with their whole continuing education credits and annual fees... Remember, nobody has to be LEED certified to certify a building... it merely buys the project a point.
I think since the test was started, all the people that were going to get certified by and large have... and so they needed a way to continue to bring money in... thus the new system of being accredited...
They know if they start raising fees to register projects, owners will stop registering them all together because it isn't worth the money. If owners/clients didn't care about LEED, marketing departments in architecture offices wouldn't care how many people in the office were LEED accredited... people would stop paying the 300 or 400 dollars a test and the USGBC would disappear...
I agree that this is yet another way for one of these organizations to make more $$$...
I am falling for it however as the owner of a small practice fearing that if I dont have the LEED AP after my name..slowly but surelyI wont even have the small practice that I have today!!..I am all for sustainability..but we dont need additional fees and titles..lets just make it part of local/regional zoning codes and regulations that each city gets to enforce.
Frankly, in studying the book..it has all the things that Architects have been advocating for yeras in various meetings with their clients, city officials and others..such as densification of the Cities, stopping suburban sprawl, more green space, etc... Well..now that the rest of the people have woken up to it..they are getting ahead of us and asking us to pay and get certified for what we always had advocated anyway!
LEED promotes higher densties but zoning codes are written by Lawyers and frustrated planners and they still effectively promote suburban sprawl..so the answer may be to revisit all the zoning codes !
don't forget the cork flooring and low VOC paint!
follow the leeder!
they say for those who past the previous exam need to pay and retake some new parts again?
this is like window, every year there is an upgrade, n if u don't upgrade, ur screw one way or the other^^
as per my previous argument, u can bitch about a not so environmentally friendly bus, but if 200 ppl drive their own eco-friendly car instead of taking bus, there are more damages done comparately speaking...
unfortunately, Leed is promoting u how to design a eco-friendly sports car rather than a bus to serve the major of poor ppl in this world.
be an architect with dignity, speak the truth, boycott the leed.
LEED shouldn't be doing it.
Much of LEED is BS, I agree. But whilst unemployed for the last 8 months, I swallowed the pill and spent the $400 to take and nail the test. I was at a career fair yesterday and no one was hiring, but everyone that I talked to was happy to see I was LEED AP and told me on the spot that most resumes they received were not from LEED APs. So it helped. Architecture is a business and LEED AP sells. People who aren't in the building industry know what it is. It's like Megapixels for cameras. The more you have, the more people will buy, even if they don't know what it is. I'm a 12 MP camera phone now.
hasselhoff> sorry to hear that, but that makes me more angry... during the financial crisis, my institution had cut down the annual license fee or even exempted...
these Leed ppl even take advantages of our desperate professions and start charging this n that in this harsh environment (upgrading new version)! makes me feel sick!
"1: add louvers over all south, west and east facing windows
2: defer remaining requirements to MEP."
3: Make all walls two inches thicker.
4: Poured concrete is one of the "greenest" technologies... use it.
5: Recess windows by a few inches.
6: Reduce parking requirements to 1 space for every few units.
Has anyone seen that LEED platinum mansion in India? How many cars does it hold?
I remember preparing for the LEED exam a long while back and one of the funny things was that you only got 1.5 points for having an urban property but you got like 10 points if you installed a 30,000 dollar grey water reclamation system.
"As it has been explained to me by a person in our firm who has ties to USGBC, when the LEED AP was established, no mechanism was put in place to retire the credential, so GBCI cannot remove one's LEED AP status."
That person in your firm is incorrect. When the new accreditation is put into place, anyone who passed under 2.0 is going to lose their accreditation. Apparently the 2.0 test was pretty easy and they're phasing out people that passed under it. 2.1 and 2.2 accreditation will be grandfathered.
Those of you that are complaining about LEED being useless need to understand a few things:
First, if you dismiss such things as "useless" then good luck finding a job or holding onto one once you find it. There are many rules, regulations, codes and requirements related to our practice. Those who seek to learn, understand and implement them are in high demand. Those that want to gripe about them all the time will never make it past being a draftsman.
Second, you might be interested in knowing that when ADA was first passed that many people back then also considered that a phase that would soon pass. Obviously they were wrong.
Third, I imagine those of you that are complaining know little to nothing about it. I am not an environmental activist by any means, but I've done two LEED projects and have read most of the USGBC NC&MR Reference Guide (still studying) and find the program to be quite impressive. While the point system is not perfect, it's headed in the right direction.
Fourth, we who have been in architecture for decades can tell you that most owners will not lift a finger to help the environment unless they're forced to. Right now LEED is a voluntary program, but that is changing. The City of Dallas passed a code last year that beginning in 2010 all commercial projects must be LEED certifiable (IE, not "certified" but meeting all the requirements of certification). The LEED concept is not a fad, it is here to stay. Get in on it now and you'll make yourself that much more valuable to your employer.
the actual price, then is $400 for the registration, and $185 for the book, right?
so its $585, right? Or is there a cheaper way to get the book?
DFW-Arch-
Could you provide a link showing that those who passed the LEED 2.0 will be phased out of the new system?
This is the first time I am hearing that requirement.
Thanks
DFW,
ADA doesn't charge $185 for a book that you need to take their $400 test.
I am taking the test later this week. I have done LEED projects.
I think the environment is too important to leave it to USGBC.
DFW, I agree with T D on the phasing out of 2.0 LEED takers- is it a rumor or has it been stated somewhere by GBCI?
Is GBCI a for-profit organization? I doubt it, but a lot of posters seem to think it is. Yes, the test costs money. It costs money to develop the test and money to andminister the test. (GBCI hires testing companies to give it.) Just look at what it costs to take the ARE, and that's a test given by the government, not a private organization.
It's very expensive to get a building LEED certified because of the mountain of paperwork that has to be reviewed by GBCI. Perhaps eventually the GBCI will be able to base the fee on the construction cost, similar to building permit fees, but right now I supect that they are just trying to keep pace with the rapidly expanding number of submissions.
I agree with DFW that it is useless to dismiss LEED. This tough economy provides yet another painful lesson that to stay employed in the architecture field, you have to KEEP UP and not fall behind the pack. Keep your skills up, keep your knowledge current, keep up with the software, get licensed and get LEED accredited. This is true whether you have 2 years in the profession or 20! Regardless of whether you think LEED is valuable or total BS, it was the first out of the gate, and is the most recognized sustainability brand in our industry. It is rapidly becoming desirable among cities and developments to have a LEED building, and the brand is becoming known in the general public. So if you can't put the $400 on your credit card today, realize that you're probably going to do it eventually.
Also, for those of you whom the $300 or $400 test fee is an issue, it may be helpful for you to know that although you have to give your credit card information when signing up for the test, you will not actually be charged until you take the test.
^ that helps, because i wasn't planning on taking it until late june (since you can't reschedule after march 31). and i don't have the $400 right now ..
plus there's this:
If you cancel more than 30 days prior to the scheduled date, you will not be charged the exam fee or the $30. If you cancel between 3 and 30 days prior to the scheduled date, you will be charged $30. If you cancel 2 days or less prior to the scheduled date, you will be charged the full exam amount.
I'm so glad that I passed my LEED AP exam under the old ver. 2.1 as a "practice" exam before starting the ARE.
While LEED does seem somewhat like a scam (not exam fees but commissioning fees) it is something I support. That said, for me the LEED AP certificate takes a back seat to the one saying I'm a registered Architect.
Problem with LEED is that right now "green" is such a buzz word that it does seem the ARE's and actual architectural registration is getting over shadowed by LEED. I for one can see the point of continuing ed to maintain an Architectural license, but 15 hours/year for LEED is a bit over the top.
i signed up this morning, before gbci's site crashed. but good news! you get 'til april 1st to sign up!
The GBCI website will be undergoing maintenance until March 30, 2009 at 11:59 pm (Eastern Time).
Due to unexpected website maintenance, we are extending the deadline for registration for the LEED AP NC and CI exams to April 1, 2009 at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time).
Joe Smith, AIA, LEED AP+BD&C, CITM
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