AIA/LA International Practice Committee Meeting Minutes

At AIA/LA
3780 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 800
Los Angeles, California 90010
4:00 PM Tuesday , March 2, 2010
In attendance:
Fred Kerz, AIA Chair, fpkerz@gmail.com
David Fridlund, Co-chair, dfridlund@gmail.com
Christian Keinapfel, ckeinapfel@paravantarchitects.com
Stephen Albert, salbert@tagarch.net
Mahmoud Gharachedaghi, mahmoud@gadarchitect.com
Henry De Jesus, henry.dejesus@perkinswill.com
Tina Aghassian, taghassian@hlblighting.com
Dejene Habte-Mariam, dejene_1@sbcglobal.net
Alba Altmann, Architectwaa@aol.com
Tony Freitas, tony.freitas@arup.com
Mike Gehring, mgehring@kgmlighting.com
Jim Porter, Altoon+porter Architects
Nick Antonio, nick.antonio@arup.com
David Courtney,david,dc,associates@gmail.com
Mo Borghei, mo@archi10.com
Gary Williamson, garylwilliamson@sbcglobal.net
Pari Ghaemian, pghaemian@gmail.com

Call to order 4:20pm: Fred Kerz, AIA, Chair

1. William Bresee and Nicole Davis-Tinkham from Collins Collins Muir and
Stewart, Attorneys at Law presented a power point slide show about contracts and
difficulties working in foreign countries. Topics included: Going Global,
Relationships, Payment Issues, Identifying Markets, Practice Act, Standard of
Care, Claims and Disputes and Translated Contracts.
2. Jim Porter of Altoon+Porter Architects spoke of his experiences in writing over
100 foreign contracts and his collaboration matrix contract that Architectural
Record wrote an article about.
3. After the presentations, members were asked how they might help the committee
be more successful and contribute to particular areas of interest for each member.
Some members wanted more time at the meetings to network with others at the
meetings and to delve into subjects in more detail. It was decided that in the
future, speakers would be limited to a one-half hour presentation, and we would
limit presentations to only one speaker per meeting.
4. Future meeting topics are as follows:
April Video Conference with Singapore @ ARUP
May Markets in India
June Marketing internationally
July LA’s Competitive Advantage
August Opportunities in Latin America
September International Sustainability
5. Next months meeting on “a video conference with ARUP in Singapore” will take
place in the offices of ARUP.
6. Next meeting is scheduled for April 6, 2010 at ARUP, 12777 West Jefferson
Boulevard Suite 200 Los Angeles California 90066. .

The meeting was adjurned at 6:45 PM.

Thank you Amanda Daunis, Steve Tanner and the AIA/LA for your support.