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Apr 24, 2025 • AIA Brooklyn
Designing Against Deflection
6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Location: Floor & Decor Showroom
850 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11232
Attention: Principals, project architects and designers! Come-one-come-all for this important presentation and live demonstration hosted by AIA Brooklyn sponsor Floor & Decor.
We all know that structures are designed with a degree of deflection in mind. If you have been working with venerable Brooklyn brownstones or other vintage structures, you know that these beloved buildings are sturdy but often too flexible to support tile floors, especially during this moment when large format porcelain floors are so popular. The “old school” mud-bed-and-cleavage-membrane detail that many of us grew up with is often too thick and cumbersome and too time-consuming for contemporary aesthetics, budgets and schedules.
Floor & Decor is hosting this presentation with Schluter-Systems to educate us about structural deflection and the wide array of thin, contemporary systems that allow us to deliver the finishes our clients want hassle-free and crack-free.
At 31st Street and Third Avenue near Industry City, Floor & Decor is closer than you think — only an 8-minute walk from the 36th Street D-N-R Station. There is also a big free parking lot. Light fare will be served and you’ll earn one HSW learning unit.

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May 8, 2025 • AIA Brooklyn
Owners vs. Architects: Key Strategies for Contract Negotiation
6:00 pm–8:30 pm
FX Collaborative
8th Floor
235 Duffield Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Attention principals, partners, and those of you who would like to be…
Running a firm? Think you might like to someday? Then this presentation is for you.
A solid agreement between owner and architect resides at the center of every successful project.
Our work with owners constitutes the ultimate merger in physical form: we all want to see the building or project to get built, but owners and architects typically have different agendas. In order to secure financing and investors, owners need a firm understanding of costs upfront with an obvious goal to hold those numbers to a minimum, whereas architects want to ensure that their contract allows for a degree of artistic freedom and innovation alongside the requisite technical precision and municipal approvals.
This presentation by Robert Herman and Hope Plasha, both veteran attorneys in this field, will provide you with strategies for these critical negotiations. Topics for discussion will include fee structures and schedules, owner’s and architect’s obligations, staffing and consultants, responsibilities and liabilities, intellectual property and construction administration.
The presentation will be followed by a lively Q & A, so bring your questions.
Hope Plasha has a broad-based national law practice covering all aspects of real estate law, including acquisitions and sales, construction and design contracts, development and leasing, and all manners of complex real estate financing. She also serves as an outside general council for real estate for a large multinational corporation, and she has supported the real estate goals of numerous not-for-profit institutions in the cultural, educational and medical sectors. She has received numerous awards within the legal and real estate fields. Hope is an alumna of Columbia University, she earned her j.d. from Yale, and she also holds a degree from the University of Oxford.
Robert Herrmann Chairs Offit Kurman’s New York Construction Law Practice. He represents design professionals, and other construction-related firms and privately held businesses. He acts as general counsel to a number of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, lighting designers, engineers, owners, developers, and contractors, advising them on general business matters and representing them in litigation, arbitration and mediation. Bob is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia University School of Law. Bob teaches at the Architecture schools of both Columbia University and the Pratt Institute. Bob is also the lead author of Law for Architects: What You Need to Know published by W.W. Norton.
1.5 Learning Units. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP early – registration will close on May 7th at noon.

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April
Apr 10, 2025 • AIA Brooklyn
Heat Pumps and Electrification: An Architect’s Guide
6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Ephoca Showroom, 106 West 56th Street
Join us for a compelling presentation on state-of-the-art heat pump technology and its impact on decarbonization, Local Law 97 compliance, and sustainable design solutions. Tailored for architects, engineers, building owners, and consultants, this event, presented by Howard Schlesinger AIA, will highlight how innovative technologies, together with ventilation, clean air, and domestic hot water soutions can reduce carbon footprints and enhance health and wellness of our built environment.
Wine and Cheese will be served and there will be a raffle for wine from the Wine County in Northern Italy where EPHOCA is manufactured.
This is an opportunity to engage with industry experts and be inspired to lead the way to improve the quality of our built environment.
Space is limited so register early.
1 HSW

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Apr 24, 2025 • AIA Brooklyn
Designing Against Deflection
6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Location: Floor & Decor Showroom
850 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11232
Attention: Principals, project architects and designers! Come-one-come-all for this important presentation and live demonstration hosted by AIA Brooklyn sponsor Floor & Decor.
We all know that structures are designed with a degree of deflection in mind. If you have been working with venerable Brooklyn brownstones or other vintage structures, you know that these beloved buildings are sturdy but often too flexible to support tile floors, especially during this moment when large format porcelain floors are so popular. The “old school” mud-bed-and-cleavage-membrane detail that many of us grew up with is often too thick and cumbersome and too time-consuming for contemporary aesthetics, budgets and schedules.
Floor & Decor is hosting this presentation with Schluter-Systems to educate us about structural deflection and the wide array of thin, contemporary systems that allow us to deliver the finishes our clients want hassle-free and crack-free.
At 31st Street and Third Avenue near Industry City, Floor & Decor is closer than you think — only an 8-minute walk from the 36th Street D-N-R Station. There is also a big free parking lot. Light fare will be served and you’ll earn one HSW learning unit.

RSVP
Add to calendar:
Google iCal / Outlook
May
May 8, 2025 • AIA Brooklyn
Owners vs. Architects: Key Strategies for Contract Negotiation
6:00 pm–8:30 pm
FX Collaborative
8th Floor
235 Duffield Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Attention principals, partners, and those of you who would like to be…
Running a firm? Think you might like to someday? Then this presentation is for you.
A solid agreement between owner and architect resides at the center of every successful project.
Our work with owners constitutes the ultimate merger in physical form: we all want to see the building or project to get built, but owners and architects typically have different agendas. In order to secure financing and investors, owners need a firm understanding of costs upfront with an obvious goal to hold those numbers to a minimum, whereas architects want to ensure that their contract allows for a degree of artistic freedom and innovation alongside the requisite technical precision and municipal approvals.
This presentation by Robert Herman and Hope Plasha, both veteran attorneys in this field, will provide you with strategies for these critical negotiations. Topics for discussion will include fee structures and schedules, owner’s and architect’s obligations, staffing and consultants, responsibilities and liabilities, intellectual property and construction administration.
The presentation will be followed by a lively Q & A, so bring your questions.
Hope Plasha has a broad-based national law practice covering all aspects of real estate law, including acquisitions and sales, construction and design contracts, development and leasing, and all manners of complex real estate financing. She also serves as an outside general council for real estate for a large multinational corporation, and she has supported the real estate goals of numerous not-for-profit institutions in the cultural, educational and medical sectors. She has received numerous awards within the legal and real estate fields. Hope is an alumna of Columbia University, she earned her j.d. from Yale, and she also holds a degree from the University of Oxford.
Robert Herrmann Chairs Offit Kurman’s New York Construction Law Practice. He represents design professionals, and other construction-related firms and privately held businesses. He acts as general counsel to a number of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, lighting designers, engineers, owners, developers, and contractors, advising them on general business matters and representing them in litigation, arbitration and mediation. Bob is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia University School of Law. Bob teaches at the Architecture schools of both Columbia University and the Pratt Institute. Bob is also the lead author of Law for Architects: What You Need to Know published by W.W. Norton.
1.5 Learning Units. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP early – registration will close on May 7th at noon.

RSVP
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6:30 pm AIA Brooklyn COTE Committee Meeting

12:00 pm On the Menu: Aerial Innovation: Capturing the Impossible 6:00 pm AIA Brooklyn CRAN Meeting

6:30 pm Heat Pumps and Electrification: An Architect's Guide

6:30 pm Designing Against Deflection

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