Seen and Heard at AIA 2014

The 2014 AIA National Convention descended upon Chicago from June 24-26. With more than 20,000 architects in attendance, the AIA National Convention is clearly one of the most significant gatherings of architects each year.

We gladly took the chance to attend the event and see what our partners and others were talking about in the design community. Here are a few of the highlights from the show:

ClarkDietrich New Drywall Framing System

ClarkDietrich used the event to launch the next generation of their popular ProSTUD® Drywall Framing system, as well as to demonstrate their ClarkDietrich Wall Type Creator™ which is the first Revit® add-on design tool that incorporates detailed information on wall elements and design properties, such as UL assemblies based on fire rating requirements, STC sound ratings and limiting height design.

The CavityComplete™ Wall System

Owens Corning aligned with Heckman Building Products Inc., Mortar Net Solutions™, Rodenhouse, Inc. and Tremco® Incorporated to launch The CavityComplete™ Wall System at AIA. The CavityComplete™ wall system is a compatible, code compliant and warrantied system for steel stud with masonry veneer.  The system is engineered to bring together key components in a system solution for architects and contractors.

Building Envelope Buzz

Whether it was industry leaders like Dow Building Solutions or Dryvit (who also launched a new mobile app at the convention), new offerings from the likes of 3M or installation/thermal bridging solutions like SMARTci, we continue to see growing interest in the building envelope. Energy and sustainability clearly remain at the front of the conversation with architects and many companies are positioning themselves as a key component in envelope systems.

Resilient Design

The theme of the convention was “Design with a Purpose” so ideas such as “resilient design” continue to gain traction as next steps beyond energy efficiency, green products and sustainable buildings.

The AIA Convention was a great chance to see what topics and trends are on the minds of some of the leaders in building design.

*photo source http://convention.aia.org/