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German songwriter, musician and producer Andrew Applepie’s new song “Fantasy Prison” includes tinges of countless genres—from jazz to electronic and beyond—resulting in a slow-burning and beautiful work. Experimental and charming, the track also has……

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Business is booming for American architecture firms, who say staff salaries are going up as workloads increase and the country’s economy makes progress, following a report released by the AIA.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2017 Compensation Report found that the average salary for architectural staff is now $84,000 ($65,000) per year, up about 2.8 per cent from early 2015.

Over the same time period, average annual earnings for senior team members increased from $103,400 (£80,000) to $111,000 (£86,000), while professionals on their way to licensure receive $53,100 (£41,000) – a jump from $48,900 (£38,000).

The heads of several small- to medium-sized studios corroborated the findings from the survey, which took data from 39 different architecture firm positions in 26 states, 25 metro areas and 17 cities.

“We have had an increase in business volume over the past year, but more importantly, we are working on more significant projects with more substantial fees,” Jeff Jordan, founder of his eponymous New Jersey studio, told Dezeen. “As a result, our salaries continue to go up.”

The architect attributes the rises to a booming real-estate market, which has led to an increase in both the volume and scale of his firm’s projects.

“The housing market is strong, especially in the New York Metro area, and that has given our clients the confidence to take on bigger projects,” said Jordan.

Kirsten R Murray, owner and principal of Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig, said that overall confidence in the US economy was a factor behind higher salaries.

“Our salaries are growing both to reflect the growing capabilities and value of each individual staff member,” she said. “As well, one can expect salaries to increase at least proportionally to the increase in the general economy.”

Murray Legge, who runs his own studio in Austin, also backed up the report but gave a slightly less optimistic outlook for the future.

“We’ve seen an increase in salaries over the past year, although the market seems to be levelling off a bit,” he said. “After the recession there was a flood of new projects, so we’re seeing demand for design services levelling off to a more typical level.”

Legge added that he thinks that the data might be skewed by the inclusion of larger architecture offices, who generally pay their staff more.

“We’re a small design-oriented firm, so we do not do a lot of new hiring like larger corporate firms,” said the architect. “I think the pay in a lot of the large corporate offices has increased pulling up general pay expectations.”

The AIA released the biannual report earlier this month, along with an updated version of its Salary Calculator. The online tools allows professionals to work out how much they should expect to be paid based on their level, location, and size of the firm they are working for.

The post US architects see salaries rise as economy strengthens appeared first on Dezeen.

We’ve spent the past few weeks determining which records we have and how long we need to keep them. We’ve eliminated records we don’t need and scanned those we want to convert to electronic format. Now we’re ready to file what is left.

Unclutterer Jeri wrote a great article about creating a personalized filing system. She asks some great questions about where you want to keep your files, as well as what types and colours of file folders you prefer.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about active and inactive records. I suggest you keep your active files close to where you need to process your paperwork. For example, you might get charitable donation receipts you can claim on your income taxes throughout the year. Your “current year” income tax file should be handy so you can place the receipts in the folder easily. Once you’ve filed your income tax, you still need to keep the receipts but you no longer need to process them so you can place the entire folder in another location — perhaps in a filing box in your attic.

Filing paper records

Your filing system should be easy to use. Jeri wrote some great advice for making filing easier. Unclutterer Dave has put together a list of criteria for buying a filing cabinet and Jeri provides even more advice and includes alternatives to the traditional filing cabinet.

For those of you that may not have space for a typical filing cabinet, Erin answered a reader’s question about filing cabinets that can double as end-tables or ottomans. A seagrass filing box is also an alternative for people who may be willing to sacrifice some sturdiness for appearance. For those of you who need something rugged and transportable, I suggest these plastic filing boxes. They are expensive but we’ve had ours for over 15 years. They’re water and insect resistant and they’ve endured six military moves (two of which have been overseas) and they still look and function as good as new.

Filing electronic records

I always suggest that people create a folder structure on their computer similar to their paper filing cabinet. Such as the one shown below.

The default listing of folders is alphabetical order. If this doesn’t work for you, adjust the names of the folders. For example, you could use the names Finance-Banking and Finance-Investment to list these two similar categories together. Some people might choose to create another folder called Finance and put both Banking and Investment as sub-folders. This is an adequate alternative however, too many sub-folders may make it difficult to find files or result in the same file being stored in multiple places. It’s best to keep the folder structure as simple as possible.

Vital Records

You may wish to store your vital records and other hard to replace documents in a fireproof and waterproof box in your home to protect them in case of disaster. Although heavy, this box would be easy enough to transport if you had to quickly evacuate your home. Some people prefer to keep their vital records in a safety deposit box at a bank or other financial institution. This is a good alternative as well.

Having an electronic copy of your hard to replace documents is a good idea. If your documents are ever lost, stolen, or damaged, you’ll have a copy of the original information (registration numbers, certificate numbers, etc.) and authorities can better assist you. From time to time you may be required to submit a copy of your passport or other ID to confirm your identity to authorities. Having an electronic copy will save you from digging out the original — especially important if you have to drive all the way to your bank.

NOTE: The electronic copies of vital records need to be kept secure as they are as valuable as the originals to identity thieves. Use encrypted cloud storage and password protect files and folders to keep these copies safe.

For those of you who are comparing our records management program to the S.P.A.C.E. model of organizing, we have just completed our “containerizing” step. Congratulations! You now have an organized and functional records management system. Next week is our final installment, how to maintain our system so it runs smoothly.

Also in this series:

• RIM: Part one, Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles
• RIM: Part two, record types and records inventory
• RIM: Part three, retention schedule
• RIM: Part four, disposition of paper and electronic records
• RIM: Part five, scanning paper records

Post written by Jacki Hollywood Brown

Ford and Domino’s have collaborated on the Self-Driving Delivery Vehicle, an autonomous hybrid Fusion that will deliver pizzas to customers in a trial in Ann Arbor in the next few weeks. What’s different about this, compared to other autonomous vehicle trials, is that the tests are meant to see how people outside the vehicles react.

“As part of the testing, researchers from both companies will investigate customer reactions to interacting with a self-driving vehicle as a part of their delivery experience,” Ford writes in a press release. “This research is important as both companies begin to examine and understand customers’ perspectives around the future of food delivery with self-driving vehicles.”

While I can see why both companies would want to undertake such a trial, I think that from the perspective of the end user, pizza delivery is a poor application for an autonomous car, and a far better job for a drone. Here’s why.

1. People are lazy.

The whole reason you order a pizza is because you don’t want to get up off your lazy ass and go to the store. I think this sloth will extend to people not wanting to go outside into their driveways and press buttons on a tablet mounted to the car in order to get the correct pizza to come out of the window. Also, think about if it’s raining outside: If the customer has a choice between selecting delivery via autonomous vehicle or by a deliveryperson who will ring the doorbell, which will they choose?

2. Pizzas are relatively small.

If you want to go autonomous, it doesn’t really make sense, from an energy perspective, to put a 3,615-pound vehicle on the road to deliver a half-dozen pizzas. Even though the vehicle is a cleaner-burning hybrid, it’s still going to require maintenance, storage, electricity, etc. While there are a number of regulatory hurdles to clear, pizza-delivering drones would make more sense from a carbon footprint perspective.

For their part, Domino’s is aware of the challenge of getting someone to leave their house. “The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience,” says Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA. “For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food? We need to make sure the interface is clear and simple. We need to understand if a customer’s experience is different if the car is parked in the driveway versus next to the curb.”