I recommend the following:
1. Have a staff meeting. Require attendance by the Specification Writer, Construction Contract Administrator(s), "designers", senior project managers/architects, project managers/architects, job captains, and drafters.
2. Discuss the importance of preparing a Project Manual, which includes the Specifications, and coordinating the Project Manual documents and sections with the Drawings, and AIA Document G612 "Owner's Instructions to the Architect Regarding the Construction Contract" [http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab098548.pdf] and the Owner/Architect Agreement. State that Courts and Lawyers generally refer to the Project Manual/Specifications - rather than the Drawings - during legal proceedings. Specification Writer and Construction Contract Administrator(s) should freely participate in the discussion, if not actually lead the discussion.
2. Emphatically state that the selection of materials, products, colors and textures is as important a task as designing the floor plans and elevations (both interior and exterior), as well as the siting/orientation, of a building. State that schools/colleges of architecture make a serious mistake in not emphasizing the importance of this task, and the subsequent preparation of a Project Manual. Also, state that researching materials and products, including options, is an essential task if details are to be designed - emphasize that preparing details is also a very important design task - to be "constructible"
3. Discuss who should be responsible for researching and selecting materials, products, colors and materials. (I believe this task, including the assembling of data into files for future reference, should be preformed by the "designer" and Specifications Writer during the Design Development phase of services. Too often in my experience, this task is allowed to be performed during the CD phase, thereby limiting the time budgeted for preparing and coordinating the Drawings and Specifications.)
4. Review recent RFIs and Change Orders for a project to make it clear to the staff that inadequate preparation and coordination of the Project Manual with the Drawings has legal and financial consequences. State that the fewer problems a project has during construction means more profit for the firm which translates to salary increases and bonuses.
5. And, state that all employees are expected to continue their education - on their own time and at their expense or during lunch hours when the firm hosts a lunch and learn presentation by a manufacturer's representative.
I also recommend the firm contact the Construction Specification Chapter in Burlington, and request it make a presentation about the CDT, CCS and CCCA certifications. See the following websites for more information:
http://new.csinet.org/csi_services/chapterinfo.aspx?chapcode=103 http://www.csinet.org/Main-Menu-Category/Certification.aspx http://www.ncarb.org/Experience-Through-Internships/IDP2-Experience-Settings/IDP2-Supplemental-Experience-Core/Certificate-Programs.aspx Another website that may be of interest to the staff is
http://www.constructionspecifier.com/. Note that the latest issue of The Construction Specifier magazine can be read on this site.
The firm can also purchase Practice Guides, Workbooks, and PowerPoint presentations from CSI which can be made available to the staff as reference materials. [https://portal.csinet.org/Sales/Cart/ProductSearch.aspx?selmenid=men6]
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Larry Alan Whitlock AIA
Independent Architectural Specifications Consultant
Larry Alan Whitlock
Pflugerville TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-06-2015 08:11
From: Michael Clark
Subject: The big unknown of specs
John,
I used to work in a multi-office firm. On one project, one office did the foundations, my office did the rest of the building. a spec writer from another office did the specs. You can imagine the problems we had during construction.
Specs and drawings go together. You need knowledge of one to do the other. The best success I have seen is the person responsible for the production of the drawings should do the specs. If necessary, have the spec writer clean them up and provide a check. In many instances, specs may modify or add details; plus doing the specs acts as a double check for what you have drawn. Specs will take 8-16 hours, but it is well worth the time.
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Michael Clark AIA
Director Of Design
H&H Design-Build
New Albany IN
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-02-2015 17:51
From: John Thompson
Subject: The big unknown of specs
I work in a decent sized firm with two offices and around 30 people in production. A lot of our staff is young and focused on Revit. One of my gripes (besides staff not consulting the code book) us them being in the dark about specifications. We have a full time spec writer, and have had for some time - so usually there's no direct need to have our Job Captains or Revit staff actively engaged in writing specs. Generally that's a good thing since you need just the right person with the right skills to do that, but it leaves most of our staff pretty much in the dark about what's in the specs, what they need to know, what they need to tell the spec writer, etc. Some couldn't probably tell me off the top of their heads which division much less section a fixed metal ladder would be, or wood blocking.
In the interest of having everyone better rounded and more familiar with specs, we're looking for ideas on what other firms are doing to involve staff in specs - so they at least have to have SOME familiarity with them. Lunch and Learn type meetings won't do it. Since they're too reliant on the spec writer to handle it all, they probably won't take the initiative outside of a lunch and learn to pick up a manual and start reading a section. We've attempted to give tests before as part of Continuing Ed. and got quite an angry response from staff (mostly out of fear - "If I fail, am I fired?"). I'm not afraid of that, but I'd rather do something that has buy-in rather than forcing something down their throats.
One idea put forth was to create assignments for staff to be responsible for continually verifying product data for different divisions - by having them call mfr's every 6 to 12 months to check on products, check the specs for accuracy, etc. Staff would rotate from division to division on some interval. Another could be to have them meet with the reps who come in and put together a briefing for staff on product changes and provide some education about products. Generally though, the desire isn't to have them be the librarian, but to learn the project manual. Another idea put forth was to give each person one or two hard copy sections from our spec template, and tell them to research it and redline it for product coordination, drawing coordination, etc., and to seek out advice from other coworkers if they have to. I have some doubts about staff being able to do that and get them done on a reasonable time frame - and some are just too complicated.
Do other firms out there have ideas to share?
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John Thompson Assoc. AIA
Production Coordinator
Dore & Whittier Architects, Inc.
Burlington VT
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