The American Institute of Building Design (AIBD) is a professional association that promotes the highest standards of excellence in residential building design.
AIBD offers a variety of resources to its members, including continuing education, networking opportunities, and marketing assistance.
AIBD is a valuable resource for anyone interested in a career in residential building design. If you want to improve your skills, network with other professionals, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends, AIBD is the perfect organization for you.
Share
Is the Price-Per-Square-Foot Model Dead? [Monday MINUTE]
Published about 11 hours ago • 5 min read
June 22, 2026, Edition
#CreatingWherePeopleLive
This weekly newsletter
is created by and for those designing homes in North America.
Its editorial staff is the American Institute of Building Design, Inc., the premier association of residential design professionals.
Here's what you get:
Field Notes
Nuts & Bolts
Highlights
Workshops & Gatherings
What We're Up To
Amazing sponsors who help keep this newsletter free for the industry.
Let's dive in.
Email servers may truncate this newsletter because it is too long. Read the complete Monday Minute at AIBD.org/mondayminute.
If you received this as a forward, become one of our many delighted subscribers. Get insider access by signing up!
Please support our sponsor:
Why it's great to partner with Provia:
Their philosophy, often referred to as The Professional Way, emphasizes accountability and integrity, ensuring that the products you specify are delivered with the same care you put into your drawings.
Field Notes
The Annual Conference room block is filling up quickly
Hotel room block closes July 8.
Dates & Location:
July 29 - August 1
Cleveland, OH
The standard room block at the Metropolitan at The 9 for the AIBD Annual Design & Build Conference is now sold out.
We have secured a small secondary block of King Suites. Before booking, there's one critical thing you need to know to avoid paying standard retail rates.
Fast-Track Permitting: Innovation or Existential Threat?
Cities nationwide are targeting the permitting process to solve the housing affordability crisis. Claremore, Oklahoma, now offers developers 29 free, pre-approved housing plans, cutting approval times from months to a single day.
While faster permitting is a win for local inventory, a growing reliance on free, municipal-sponsored "off-the-shelf" designs directly intercepts the traditional client pipeline for custom residential designers. Is this a trend that will squeeze out independent firms, or an opportunity to pivot toward master-plan consulting for local governments?
Is Your Next Kitchen Design Missing This 800% Trend?
"Moveable kitchen islands" have skyrocketed with an astounding 838% increase in search growth. Homeowners are demanding spatial optimization, flexibility, and features like appliance garages (+452%) and hidden utilities (+193%) to make their homes work harder.
The latest federal data is out, and the headlines look brutal at first glance—housing starts just took a 15.4% dive month-over-month. But before you panic about your pipeline, you need to look at the numbers that actually dictate your business.
Despite a steep drop in overall housing starts, single-family building permits ticked up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 886,000—proving that individual residential clients are still pulling the trigger.
The $1M "Starter" Home? It’s Reality in 242 Cities.
The pandemic permanently reset the baseline cost of homeownership, turning what used to be a luxury price point into the minimum buy-in for nearly 250 U.S. markets.
Whether you need to pivot your design strategies for high-end "entry-level" clients or tap into the construction boom in more affordable markets, this data maps out exactly where the industry is heading.
Green Builder Media just released a suite of new resources unpacking the VPSF methodology
If you’re still relying on the traditional price-per-square-foot metric to explain the worth of your residential designs, you might be leaving massive value on the table—and missing a crucial tool to persuade budget-conscious clients.
A major shift is happening right now. Forward-thinking designers are moving toward a new framework: Value Per Square Foot (VPSF). Instead of focusing strictly on the upfront purchase price, this model factors in long-term operating costs, structural resilience, health, and water efficiency.
Our smooth, quiet, and dependable door and window automation systems are preferred by leading architects, designers, builders, and installers globally.
Traditional Building Conference - November 3-4, 2026 - Charleston, SC
What We're Up to
The Backbone of Excellence: Join the Certification Council
July 29, 2026 Annual Meeting
Operating an industry-wide certification program is a massive undertaking. To align with international standards, it requires more than just an exam—it demands significant financial investment and specialized man-hours to manage, audit, and promote the integrity of our credentials.
The American Institute of Building Design relies on volunteers to power the committees that keep our certification engine running. We are now seeking leaders to step into the role of Council Members.
The American Residential Design Awards are moving into their next phase. You have the opportunity to review and vote on incredible residential design entries. All industry professionals are eligible to participate, so don't miss your chance to help recognize design excellence and decide who takes home the honors this year.
Mark your calendars and get ready to cast your vote starting July 1!
AIBD, Eastern Shore Chapter, May 20, 2026 Presentation
Drew Betz, director of sales and marketing, educates us on Nitterhouse Concrete's "NiCore" hollow-core concrete planks, which can be used in place of poured concrete floors. This allows maximum use of space beneath garage or porch slabs in an economical fashion, with long spans available to provide for large open spaces below. We'll also discuss other methods for creating usable space beneath slabs and the pros and cons of doing so.
The American Institute of Building Design (AIBD) is a professional association that promotes the highest standards of excellence in residential building design.
AIBD offers a variety of resources to its members, including continuing education, networking opportunities, and marketing assistance.
AIBD is a valuable resource for anyone interested in a career in residential building design. If you want to improve your skills, network with other professionals, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends, AIBD is the perfect organization for you.
Read more from American Institute of Building Design (AIBD)
If you haven’t booked your room for the AIBD Annual Design & Build Conference yet, this is your sign to act immediately. Because we are staying at the stunning Metropolitan at The 9—a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of downtown Cleveland—overall room availability is incredibly limited. In fact, our original block of standard king and double standard rooms ($219/night) has officially sold out. To make sure our community is taken care of, we’ve secured a small, secondary block of King Suites...
The smarter way to find your next career move My Account | Job Search | Manage Resumes | Job Alerts When you're ready for your next career move, the question isn't just what job to pursue — it's where to look. Generic job boards flood you with irrelevant postings, leaving you to do the filtering yourself. The AIBD Career Center is different: every opportunity posted here comes from employers who specifically seek candidates connected to the AIBD Career Center and the professional standards we...
Hello Reader, Congrats on surviving Monday and crushing Tuesday. Now, Wednesday beckons you to take a break and step into a pattern of discovery. Welcome to the Midweek Meander. Did someone forward this to you? Please consider subscribing. This past week, I had the chance to sit down with John Jones of SoftPlan Architectural Systems—one of those conversations where you expect to talk shop, and we did. He has some very interesting perspectives on AI and where it's headed in architecture. But I...
