Specology

A Spec Writer Looks at Revit

2016-08-31T21:00:00.000-05:00

After flirting with BIM for years, our office is now committed to doing most new projects in Autodesk Revit.

I’m glad about this because BIM is clearly the future of design and construction. It’s a smarter way to approach construction documents and building design.

So I’m now getting the opportunity to become familiar with Revit as I use the Revit viewer to survey in-progress models for information needed to edit specs for projects. Our office has not switched to one of the specification writing add-ons that assist in coordinating Revit models with specs. I want to look at that again soon, but my impression is that our use of nomenclature and annotations, as well as Revit families and variations thereof in the models, will have to get way more sophisticated, rigorous and consistent before it makes sense to make the switch.

So far, there’s not much difference between how I approach information-gathering for spec writing on Revit projects versus Autocad projects. Or for that matter, just using hard copy in-progress drawings.

I look at the model and/or the drawings on screen, and edit as much as I can with that information. Then I talk to the project teams to iron out the issues.

I still find differences between the model and written documentation such as memos and my notes.

A project memo may indicate that the client wants ceiling-hung toilet partitions; the model shows floor-supported partitions.

I still find nomenclature which doesn’t conform to industry standard lingo.

A Room Finish Schedule may indicate “acoustical tile” when the product shown on reflected ceiling plans and the model property box is “acoustical panel’.

I still occasionally find inapplicable details, mainly “drafted” details dropped into the model, or maybe just left there because they’re part of a project template of some sort. Or awaiting editing and refinement?

Ceramic floor tile edge details on a project that has no ceramic tile flooring scheduled in the finish schedule.

I occasionally find things in the models that are either erroneous or just suspicious. The main problem seems to be that objects are chosen because their geometry comes close to the object that’s required, but they’re just not quite right. A few examples:.

An opening assembly in an exterior wall may say “interior” in its property box.
A wall assembly may have a stated R-value in its property box that’s markedly different from what an experienced designer can ballpark using known insulation r-values for that type of insulation.
Some things still show up as generic, such as “filled region - Sealant” or “rigid insulation”. More information than that is needed in order to edit specifications.
An opening schedule may indicate that a particular opening has a flush door with no glazing, while an interior elevation in which the door appears shows it as having a vertical glazed lite.
The property box for a roofing assembly may refer to EPDM roofing, even though annotations in the model, and the specs, specify TPO roofing.
The property box for a coiling steel door may describe a rated assembly, while the Opening Schedule has the door as unrated.

The cure for all of these situations, it seems to me, is twofold:

Patiently navigating the Revit learning curve, steadily building the skills to make the families and objects more accurate and reliable.
Conversation and coordination with the rest of the project design teams. Lots of questions to clarify intent and careful editing, both model and spec, are necessary to create a unified, consistent, reliable package of information.

I’m not complaining about these things, mind you. I’m just pointing out that BIM is not a panacea for either architects or spec writers. I’m grateful to finally have the chance to become familiar with BIM.

But just in case someone out there thinks that using BIM means that spec writing is now completely automated thanks to Revit, and that the model writes the specs: Not quite yet.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S LAURENT HOUSE IN ROCKFORD

2014-07-12T07:20:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to serve as a docent at the Laurent House, a serene and gracefulFrank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Rockford, Illinois.

I’m writing today for two reasons: 1) to help spread the word that a very nice FLW building is now a museum and open for tours after sixty years as a private residence, and 2) to encourage anyone who gets an opportunity to be a docent to take that opportunity. You’ll be glad you did.

A little about the Laurents and their house:

The Laurents were married in 1941. Mr. Laurent served in WWII, and later had a spinal cord tumor that left him a paraplegic in 1946. Mr. Laurent was frustrated by the barriers (stairways, narrow doorways, etc) in conventional buildings which prevented him from being independent. Mrs Laurent saw an article in House Beautiful Magazine about Wright’s Pope house in Virginia, and thought that Wright’s open plan style would suit the needs of her wheelchair-bound husband. They approached Wright in 1948, and asked him to design a house for a wheelchair bound person. The Laurents lIved in, and raised two children, in this house from 1952 to 2012. They were very aware of the importance of this house as a work of art, took good care of it, and wanted it preserved.

The House is about 2600 square feet on a single level, and sits on a beautiful 1.3 acre wooded lot. It’s one of Wright’s Usonian houses with lots of built-in furniture to reduce the clutter of daily life. The house has an open plan and many features to accommodate the wheelchair-bound Mr. Laurent. The original two-bedroom one-bathroom house was completed in 1952. An additional bedroom, bathroom, and dining room, also designed by Wright and his staff, were completed by about 1960. Everything is custom in this house. It’s totally unlike conventional houses of the period. Furnishings are the Laurent’s furnishings, mostly designed by Wright.

Want to learn more about the Laurent House? Interested in traveling to Rockford to see it? Go to www.laurenthouse.com. Here’s a screen shot of the Laurent House website.

PLEASE DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD

2014-02-23T20:22:00.000-06:00

A colleague this week related a conversation he’d had with a client about how hard it is sometimes for architects and engineers to communicate with non-design professionals.

He took out a piece of paper and proceeded to draw a doodle of random lines. The result had no words, and was not a graphic representation of anything recognizable. It was just a doodle.

“This is how we (i.e. many lay people) see architectural and engineering drawings” the client had told him. In other words, many people simply do not understand the drawings we so carefully craft. They don’t understand the graphics. They don’t understand the contractual implications, either.

Something similar is going on with construction specifications.

Good, experienced, contractors and their estimators know how to read, understand, and put a price tag on, specifications. They know where we say the things that matter to them in the process of bidding on and building a project.

They get the lingo of architecture and construction.

They know, for example that although aluminum storefront extrusions are hollow and that aluminum is a metal, aluminum storefronts are NOT hollow metal.

They know that although cold formed metal framing may be used structurally in a building, and that it is steel, it is NOT structural steel.

But non-design professionals have a much harder time understanding construction drawings and specifications. When you add in a few delightful english language oddities like dual meanings for certain words (water table can refer to level of water in the ground or to a decorative stone band in a wall; elevation can refer to a straight-on view of a building or a height above a datum), it’s no wonder that some folks think we might as well be talking to them in Aramaic or Klingon.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, as Yul Brynner’s character said in The King and I.

Our profession is hardly unique of course. Legal and medical professionals have this problem, too.

The cure: I wish I knew. The only thing I can think of to spend more time explaining the purpose and effect of drawings and specs to clients.

SITE/CIVIL DESIGNERS AREN'T ALL USING CSI MASTERFORMAT FOR THEIR SPECIFICATIONS

2013-12-08T11:45:00.000-06:00

Civil engineers and landscape designers, at least here in northern Illinois, rarely use MasterFormat Divisions 31 - Earthwork, 32 - Exterior Improvements, and 33 - Utilties for their specifications for the site/civil portions of building projects.

Instead they usually write specifications as notes on their drawings using an almost pure form of reference standard specifying. They refer to item descriptions in the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction. They specify their work on building projects the way they do it for prime site/civil projects, minus of course the unit-price style bidding.

which way? Image by TACLUDA

They only resort to MasterFormat specs when it’s required by clients, and even then they often strip out AASHTO and ASTM standards for products and processes from master specs, and insert references to the IDOT Standard Specifications.

Why is this? Why has CSI’s MasterFormat not been adopted by many site/civil designers?

One reason is that many site/civil and landscape consultants work on both prime site/civil projects and the site/civil portions of building projects, and they’re thus much more familiar with the IDOT frame of reference.
Ditto for site contractors.
Another reason is that the IDOT specs are geared to the soil conditions and available products in Illinois.
Specifying by reference to IDOT is actually a pretty good system, yielding clear and concise specifications and it doesn’t require the site/civil designer to have to read end edit anything besides their standard drawing notes.
There’s also tradition, always a powerful factor.

What does it mean for construction document consistency and quality?

Specifiers must:

Resist the project team’s temptation to regard site/civil construction docs as a standalone package. Site/civil is an integral part of most of our construction document packages even though, at my firm, it’s always done by outside consultants.
Read site/civil drawing notes and help the project team to resolve gaps and overlaps between site/civil specs and architectural/structural specs.

How can a specifier link to this type of site/civil spec in a Project Manual? In the Project Manual Table of Contents, I usually include a note “See Civil Drawings” under Divisions 31, 32, and 33.

Orphans: Whether for contractual reasons, or just because they don’t feel confident venturing beyond their traditional turf, site/civil designers often balk at getting involved with some of the following topics. So as the generalist spec writer, I get to write specs for things like:

Ornamental fences and gates,
Monument signs,
Patio decks, especially anything with special concrete finish or unit pavers,
Wood framed decks and railings.
Soil compaction under the building as opposed to that of the remainder of the project site.
Security fences and gates, turnstiles, prefabricated canopies.
Exterior site components of access control and video surveillance systems.

I don’t see this situation changing any time soon.

What’s your experience with site/civil specs?

Why You Should Read "The Hidden White House"

2013-12-01T13:38:00.000-06:00

I spent my leisure hours last weekend reading Robert Klara’s new book “The Hidden White House - Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence”.

I highly recommend this book. Most people in architecture, engineering and construction will find it a fascinating story. Robert Klara paints a vivid picture of Harry Truman, mid-twentieth-century politics, and the grand but dilapidated old White House.

The White House suffered from poor construction, including sinking foundations under its interior walls, hasty and poorly documented repairs over the years, utility installations that seriously compromised important structural members, and inadequate maintenance.

By the time Harry Truman and his family moved into the mansion after Franklin Roosevelt’s death in 1945, the place was a barely habitable wreck and growing more unsafe by the day. By 1948, the building was deteriorating at such an alarming rate that the Trumans had to move across the street to Blair House.

The public sees the outer walls of the original late eighteenth-century building and has the impression that the old building was “restored” from 1948 to 1952. Not so. From the book jacket: “America’s most famous historic home was basically demolished, giving birth to today’s White House.” And only a fraction of the old building’s interior fittings eventually made it into the rebuilt White House.

Lessons we should learn from this story? Build well in the first place. Document what you build and how you modify it so future generations know what they’re dealing with. And finally, take good care of buildings.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Spec Writing Isn't Just a Living. It's Entertainment.

2013-11-25T12:10:00.002-06:00

Spec writing isn't just a living. It's entertainment. For me, at least.

image by freeimageslive.co.uk - gratuit

I’m sure there are other roles in the AEC industry that provide professional fulfillment, satisfaction and entertainment. Structural engineers, for example, may get to design unusual, one-of-a-kind structures or modifications to existing buildings, and the satisfaction of having designed an ingenious, structurally efficient, solution. HVAC engineers, especially with today’s emphasis on energy efficiency, are in a unique position to have a positive impact on the future by reforming the way we use energy in buildings. Ditto plumbing engineers and the use of scarce water resources. And electrical engineers and their potential influence on better and more efficient lighting. And technology designers with smart systems for buildings. Etc., etc.

Back to spec writing. I think I’m very lucky to be a spec writer at this point in AEC history. Not only do I get to work on projects both large and small, easy and tricky, fast-paced and slow-paced, I get to do this at a time when the very form of contract documents is about to experience profound change. A change from paper-based documents you can hold in your hands, to electronic file-based documents stored in the cloud and accessible to a wide-ranging team of project designers, builders, and the ownership team. And as a spec writer, I get to help build the bridge from the old way of doing things to the new way.

Our local Northern Illinois Public Radio station, WNIJ - DeKalb Rockford, has as its motto “Where you learn something new every day”.

That’s what spec writing is for me. Learning something new every day. Or several somethings.

If you want to be a meaningful part of the AEC business, consider looking for opportunities to get into spec writing, either full time or as an adjunct to another role. Don’t worry about little things like memorizing those pesky CSI format numbers. Repeated use of the system will sear most of the numbers into your memory anyway.

To be a spec writer, you do have to be a good, detail-oriented, critical reader, as well as a careful writer, and a ruthless editor. But fear not. You’ll find that most CSI members are almost pathologically eager to help and mentor you.

ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME?

2013-07-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while some clueless social media newbie types a message in all caps. Someone inevitably takes the newbie to task, explaining that in social-media-land, writing in all caps means you're shouting.

Why are we still writing drawing general notes in all capital letters?

Are we shouting the message of the note because we think it's so important?

Or is it just traditional?

Writing in all caps seems archaic to me. It's a practice we can't seem to let go of, like doric columns, or divided-lite windows, or fake plastic shutters flanking windows, or wood grain texture embossed into vinyl siding. It's a relic of the era when text on drawings was hand or template lettered, and drawings were produced with parallel rules or t-squares, triangles, and lead holders.

When everything is capitalized, nothing is emphasized. Punctuation becomes less prominent, like road signs obscured by overgrown roadside trees. The text is much harder to read. The directions to the contractor blur together and seem to recede in importance, making it easy for the lazy to dismiss the notes as mere “boilerplate”.

When everything is in caps, it's much harder to grasp the very real, and usually very important, directions we're trying to give the contractor in the general notes.

It’s my opinion that drawing general notes, and maybe all drawing notes, should be written in sentence case, i.e upper/lower.

Take a look at this snippet from a recent project's electrical general notes. I don't mean to pick on electrical engineers. All disciplines have the same issue.

All caps, exacerbated by inadequate line spacing, render this an illegible mess. I think it would be much clearer in sentence case.

Imagine the reaction if we wrote specifications in all upper case text.

What do you think?

THE "OTHER" SPEC CURMUDGEON

2012-12-04T19:41:00.000-06:00

From the archives...

This is from an article I wrote for the Northern Illinois CSI LINK newsletter in 2004.

Let me be the first to admit that the AEC business's finest curmudgeon is Sheldon Wolfe, who writes about architects, the built environment, and CSI, with unusual clarity and vision, and one of whose series of articles is called, I think, "Curmudgeon's Corner". Visit his blogs at swconstructivethoughts.blogspot.com and swspecificthoughts.blogspot.com.

But before Sheldon defined curmudgeonliness as a brand, yours truly tried to have a little fun with the word.

Every once in a while, NPR's morning show features Sports Illustrated's Frank DeFord as the Sports Curmudgeon, a gravelly voiced, more irascible version of Andy Rooney. The Sports Curmudgeon rants in the third person about things that irritate him in the world of sports. I couldn't resist the temptation to create and assume the persona of the Spec Curmudgeon.

PROJECT MANUAL SIZE: The Spec Curmudgeon is fed up with people in the construction industry who whine that Project Manuals are too big. Too many pages, they say. Nobody will ever read it all, they say. The bidders will be scared away from the job by the thick spec book. Bids won't be competitive because we're too bureaucratic, we specify too much detail, and we're asking contractors for too many submittals. Smart aleck critics convey their opinions about the usefulness of specifications to the Spec Curmudgeon by trotting out a tenth-generation photocopy of that time-worn cartoon showing a construction site outhouse with the words "Damn, we're out of specs" in a speech balloon over the outhouse.

To this, the Spec Curmudgeon respectfully says: HORSEFEATHERS! When, during construction of a project, the drawings are found to be hopelessly inconsistent and don't agree with the spec, the Spec Curmudgeon is asked: "Hey, where did you spec that provision about the greatest quantity or highest quality of products in the event of a contradiction in the construction documents?" When jobsite workmanship is questionable, the Spec Curmudgeon is asked to comb the Project Manual and dredge

up relevant industry standards to which the contractor may be held. To paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen's remark about budgets: "A word here, a provision there, and pretty soon you're talking a pretty big book." The Spec Curmudgeon thinks that a construction project is a crapshoot and you never know when you're going to need a particular combination of words. The Spec Curmudgeon says: "Better safe than sorry when editing the Project Manual."

THE LACK OF A CONSISTENT FORMAT FOR CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS: It's hard to get the specs right when every AE firm (and sometimes every architect within a firm) organizes drawings differently.

The Spec Curmudgeon thinks this problem is the bane of the architectural business, causing many mistakes and hurting AE firm profitability. Specifiers have to interface their specifications with the work of outside consultants of all types, tenant architects, associated firms, and corporate clients, among others. When trying to coordinate with another firm's drawings, you never know whether they're going to show some particular type of information on elevations, or schedules, or abbreviations, or in notes of some sort. What the Spec Curmudgeon finds even worse is the use of so-called "keyed notes". This method serially numbers products or finishes and shows the numbers on an elevation or plan. The Spec Curmudgeon's problem is that the numbers usually bear no relation to the objects or actions they describe. What's even worse, some firms use separate lists for each drawing in a project, so that for example Keynote 15 on a floor plan may refer to a dock seal, while on a sheet of interior elevations, Keynote 15 may be a dishwasher.

This lack of drawing consistency has to be as big a problem for construction contractors and subcontractors as it is for specifiers. Cost estimators in particular must be driven to distraction by the lack of consistency in organization of construction drawings. The Spec Curmudgeon thinks the solution to this sorry state of affairs is for everybody in the design professions to finally get on the bandwagon and use the National CAD Standard and other drawing formats promoted by CSI. Specifications long ago benefited from wide acceptance and use of CSI organizational formats. It's time for people who produce drawings to adopt the same degree of self-discipline and use the industry's common standards.

OBSOLETE MANUFACTURERS AND PRODUCTS: Construction product manufacturers never tell the Spec Curmudgeon or other specifiers when they're going out of business, and rarely tell us when they're discontinuing a product line. They just abandon their obsolete catalogs, leaving them to mislead our professional staff and clutter our already overcrowded library shelves. The Spec Curmudgeon thinks that the industry's magazines should include in every issue a corporate obituary page to alert the industry to the passing of obsolete manufacturers and brands.

OTHER ISSUES: With any encouragement at all, the Spec Curmudgeon may at some time in the future rant about other irritants such as the abominable state of the news industry's coverage of construction issues, or the tendency of architectural magazines to focus on the most impractical designs and to use trendy, twitchy, hard-to read graphic styles.

BORROWING TROUBLE

2012-12-01T21:08:00.000-06:00

Maybe I'm just borrowing trouble but I can't help wondering whether the data portions of BIM deliverables will present yet another opportunity for contradictions to sneak into contract documents. That is, will it be possible for data in the model or links to contradict information in specifications or drawings?

It's already a significant challenge to coordinate drawings and specifications.

When AE deliverables include things like COBie data, will there be new opportunities to inadvertently introduce contradictions?

I recognize that BIM, and BIM/spec integration, are inevitable. I'm even convinced it's a good thing.

It's just been my experience that every solution carries with it the seed of a new problem.

CHANNELING ANDY ROONEY

2012-08-19T18:48:00.001-05:00

As an occasional watcher of the CBS TV news magazine 60 Minutes, I always enjoyed listening to Andy Rooney’s commentaries. Andy would grumble about something or other that irked him at the end of the show in A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney.

As a wordsmith specializing in construction documents, I see things that annoy me in the writing I review and edit. Here are a few of my pet peeves:

Using the word luminaries (plural of luminary) when you mean luminaires (plural of luminaire). People mistake “luminaries” for the plural form of the word “luminaire”. When writing about lighting in the built environment, you need to use “luminaire” and “luminaires”, defined by Merriam-Webster as “a complete lighting unit.” By contrast, a “luminary”, Merriam-Webster says, is “a person of prominence or brilliant achievement, or a body that gives light; especially : one of the celestial bodies.”

Leaving parentheses in text makes it look as though the text hasn't been edited or is still tentative. As in:

“This Addendum consists of (2) pages (plus materials itemized herein).”
“Provide (3) hard copies and (1) PDF copy.”

text in all lower case: i see this a lot in blog posts and in comments to blog posts or news articles on the internet. i get the impression that the author feels it’s so critically important to get the ideas out of his head and into pixels that he just doesn’t have time to press the shift key to capitalize a word. i suppose this worked for e. e. cummings’ poetry. i never understood poetry, anyway. but it doesn’t cut the mustard for me. see what i mean?

Cross-referenced specification sections that don’t exist in the project. Seek these references out and kill them. All they do is confuse everybody.

“Do not use explosives”. A provision occasionally left in project earthwork specifications. I’ve taken this out of our office master specifications. It’s totally unnecessary to say it, because almost no building projects have circumstances where anyone would even consider using explosives. Leaving this requirement in a project specification is like admitting “I really didn’t read this spec, much less edit it.” Kablooie!

WATER TABLES

2012-08-12T20:51:00.000-05:00

Architectural lingo is full of wonderfully colorful terms.

One of these is water table, which, if you recall, can have two completely different meanings.

If you’re talking about a water table in the sense of ground water, Wikipedia says:

The water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure (where gauge pressure = 0). It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as surface tension holds water in some pores below atmospheric pressure. Individual points on the water table are typically measured as the elevation that the water rises to in a well screened in the shallow groundwater.

If you’re talking about a water table as an architectural element, Wikipedia says:

A water table is a masonry architectural feature that consists of a projecting course that deflects water running down the face of a building away from lower courses or the foundation. A water table may be found near the base of a wall or at a transition between materials, such as from stone to brick.

I love the english language. And architecture. And specification writing. No other profession offers entertainment like this without having to pay for it.

USE GOOGLE EARTH TO HELP EDIT SITE CLEARING SPECIFICATIONS

2012-08-05T22:18:00.000-05:00

Time schedules for production of construction documents seem to be getting less generous with each passing year. It’s often necessary to start project specifications before the rest of the design team has resolved the design, let alone committed the design to paper. Or to pixels.

A prime example of the challenges a spec writer faces in writing about things that haven’t been drawn yet is specifying site clearing (Section 31 10 00 - SITE CLEARING).

Since site clearing, as a work result, is just the absence of site improvements that formerly occupied the building site, even a pretty decent set of site drawings of the new site improvement construction may not show all of what has to be cleared from the site.

Talk to the project design team, you say. Well, sometimes team members are available to help scope out what’s required to be cleared from the site. But not always. They take vacations or spend hours in high-level do-not-interrupt meetings. Or they may not know much about the existing site, especially if the client isn’t conscientious about keeping multiple design consultants fully informed about project requirements.

So what to do?

Google Earth may be of some assistance. Type in the project address and Google Earth will fly you to your site.

On a recent project, I got some assistance in editing Section 31 10 00 by viewing images of the site on Google Earth. Here’s part of what I found:

The existing site has trees that are in the footprint of the new building and must be removed. There are no existing trees outside of the new building footprint. So I don’t have to specify tree protection during building construction.
There are existing sidewalks and asphalt paving which must be removed because they’re in the footprint of the new building.
Ditto for an existing monument sign and parking lot lighting.

Google Earth isn’t perfect. Buildings, trees, and vehicles are weirdly flattened in the aerial view, and sometimes the aerial view doesn’t agree with the associated street view. But it’s one more tool spec writers can use to determine what to specify.

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BUILD GOOD BUILDINGS...

2012-07-29T16:29:00.000-05:00

If you really want to build good buildings, you owe it to yourself to get involved with both Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and United States Green Building Council (USGBC). (Full disclosure: I belong to both Northern Illinois CSI and the Rockford/Northern Illinois Branch of USGBC-Illinois.)

Why both organizations? Because there are at least two critical aspects of conceiving good buildings:

Knowing what a good building is - the case for USGBC membership. Good building goes way beyond the minimum requirements of building codes and regulations. A really good building is a high performance building. USGBC with its LEED Green Building Rating System is the most important player in the constantly evolving ideal of high performance buildings.
Creating good, biddable, buildable, change order-resistant construction documents for that building - the case for CSI membership. CSI’s four C’s (clear, concise, correct, and complete) aren’t just a cliche. The four C’s pervade every aspect of CSI’s educational and certification efforts. As a CSI member, you’ll benefit enormously from CSI’s educational programs about construction documentation, their professional certification programs, and the camaraderie of contract-document geeks. If you’re in the AEC business,and you’re an i-dotting and t-crossing kind of person, CSI is the place for you.

What you’ll find at CSI and USGBC: Committed, opinionated, talented, AEC participants who live and breathe the building design and construction business. They’re generous with their time and advice. They’re compulsive communicators, especially the CSI blogging and tweeting community. Want to be plugged in to what’s happening in this business? Get involved with CSI and USGBC. Then start blogging and tweeting about your particular part of the AEC industry and you’ll get all the communication and involvement you can handle.

What you won’t find at CSI and USGBC: Easy answers. Nothing’s ever simple in building design and construction, and if you ask a question of a CSI member and/or a USGBC member, you’re likely to get a complicated, nuanced answer that requires you to think pretty hard about how to apply the advice. But that’s why you got involved in this business after all, isn’t it? You want to use your head.

Here’s an upcoming opportunity to see both organizations at work, and meet practitioners from both organizations. Put GREENER BY DESIGN Conference and EXPO on your calendar:

Who: Sponsored by CSI Chicago and USGBC-Illinois.

What: Continuing education seminars, product show, all the networking and benchmarking you can handle, and a happy hour.

If you’re a construction product rep, you can exhibit your products.

If you’re a designer or builder of the built environment, you can learn about the latest products, and get continuing education credits.

When: October 4, 2012, 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM.

Where: Northwest suburbs of Chicago, at the Carpenter Training Center in Elk Grove Village, IL.

Why: Because you will benefit from the education and networking. And because the other attendees will benefit from your participation at the event.

Registration: http://www.greener-by-design.org/

WHERE TO SPECIFY CONSTRUCTORS' CONTRIBUTION TO COBie DELIVERABLES?

2012-07-14T12:38:00.000-05:00

The other day I was indulging my Internet addiction when I came across a link to a new document about a topic I’ve been ignoring for years, COBie.

COBie is an acronym for Construction Operations Building information exchange.

The new document, a draft of The COBie Guide, 2012-06-07 is available for download at http://www.wbdg.org/news/news.php?a=cobie-guide-released. It’s free, so naturally I couldn’t resist it.

For those of you who have ignored COBie as I had, the document’s executive summary characterizes COBie as “...the United States standard for the exchange of information related to manage (should be managing, I think) building assets.” They also say “COBie and this Guide may be thought of as a performance-based specification for the delivery of building information.”
COBie data spreadsheet files, after being fleshed out with detailed product information developed during the design and construction process, become information deliverables to the proud owner of the new building. COBie data files start out as spreadsheets of project information in the early phases of design, then progress through Design Development, Construction Documents, then to what the report calls Beneficial Occupancy, culminating in what the report calls As-Built files. Spec writers have long since deep-sixed "As-Built" and switched to the term "Field Record" to describe the final annotated specs and drawings.

So these COBie "deliverables" are sort of like electronic field record documents combined with O&M data files, I guess.

I figured I’d have to learn about this subject sooner or later, so I might as well delve into it now.

Since I’m a spec writer, the first question that occurred to me was “Where do I specify COBie deliverables?” I figured the Specorati had already worked it out and I could just look up the answer.

So I looked in my usual places:

MasterFormat 2011 Update: No mention of COBie; it's not even listed in the key word index.
CSI Practice Guide Glossary of Terms: Ditto.
AIA MasterSpec: I did a word search for COBie in what seemed to me to be the most likely places, Sections 017823 - OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE DATA, and 017839 - PROJECT RECORD DOCUMENTS. No luck.
Then I looked at similar Division 01 spec sections in the Unified Facilities Guide Spec (UFGS) on WBDG.org, figuring that since the GSA is in the forefront of BIM, BIM-related standards, and interoperability in general, I’d find something there. Same result.

I guess specifying COBie deliverables is such a new topic that the Specorati haven’t had a chance to formalize a niche in MasterFormat yet.

My money’s on Section 017823 - OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE DATA. Your thoughts?

In any case, I recommend you download and read The COBie Guide. COBie is part of your future in the AEC industry.
PS: Since my firm has had some difficulty getting contractors to be diligent about other non-traditional but still contractual tasks such as LEED submittals, I’d suggest requiring an up-to-date log of the contractor's COBie data with each month’s pay request.

Now I think I’ll review The COBie Guide and send the authors my comments.

BIM, THE BIG PICTURE

2012-07-09T20:49:00.000-05:00

If you're still unclear about the big-picture value of BIM, its value as a planning tool, and its attractiveness to building owners, you owe it to yourself to check out some of Kimon Onuma's crystal-clear, fast-paced presentations on BIMStorm.com.

Here's a particularly good one: http://vimeo.com/album/1482178/video/21787645 It's about 90 minutes long, so settle in with an open mind and a cool drink of some sort, and be prepared to learn something.

Then, just for fun, as sort of an intellectual dessert, click on this video , accessible from the blog on BIMStorm.com, of views of the earth from the International Space Station.

Now if I could just figure out how construction specifications fit into the big picture....

SPECKS?

2012-07-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

In architecture, engineering, and construction, “spec” is a slangy, informal word that is completely understandable in spoken language, but sometimes muddles meaning when used in business writing.

In a construction project context such as a meeting or a phone call, it’s easily understood when you say “I’ll spec a coiling steel door”, or “Include an allowance for face brick in the spec”.

In the first case, it’s clear that spec means specify. In the second case, it’s clear that spec means specifications.

But things get clumsy when you try to use “spec”, and variations of it, in writing.

When you write “specs” in a sentence, the reader may have to pause to figure out whether the intended meaning is “specifies” or the plural of “specifications”.

And it gets even odder with the use of past tense. Instead of saying “specified” writers will sometimes resort to “specd”, “spec’d”, “speced”, or funniest of all “specked.” In each case, the reader has to pause to figure out what the writer means.

Do yourself and your readers a favor: In written communication, use the full words “specify” and “specifications.”

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THAT DOOR WEDGE...

2012-06-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

Motivated by the indisputable importance of properly functioning (self-closing and latching) fire doors in slowing and compartmenting fires in buildings, I have begun a sneaky little campaign to remove door wedges from propped-open fire doors. Read a few posts on Lori Greene’s superb blog “I Dig Hardware - I Hate Hardware” if you’re not convinced this is important. Here’s a good one: http://idighardware.com/2011/05/yet-another-apartment-fire/

I consider door wedge removal a public service. It’s my own guerilla war against the reckless endangerment of building occupants by the door-wedgers. It’s my little contribution toward making the buildings I enter safer for all.

So the first couple of times I find a door wedged open, I usually kick the wedge behind the door and leave it there. If the door wedging behavior continues, I’m likely to pick the wedge up and throw it away somewhere.

ARCHITECTURE, SPECS, AND THE LAW OF THE INSTRUMENT

2012-06-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

The other day I heard someone on the radio repeat the saying “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

I googled the saying and it’s been defined by Wikipedia as “an over-reliance on a familiar tool.” And, lo and behold, it’s been dubbed “the law of the instrument.”

Applications of this to architecture and spec writing popped into my head.

The recession has thrown thousands of architects, engineers, construction workers, and more than a few spec writers out of work, and depressed the larger economy by depriving it of their purchasing power. Since our main skills are designing, documenting, and building the built environment, the solution to the recession looks to me like lots of new construction projects.

I don’t think this is “over-reliance on a familiar tool,” though.

I think it’s just common sense to ramp up our design and construction industry to its full capacity.

CSI ISN'T JUST FOR SPEC WRITERS #JoinCSI

2012-06-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) is offering a membership bargain for a very short time!

If you don’t yet belong to CSI, read on for a great incentive to join the organization that’s the premier forum for those of us who work every day with construction contract documents. Not just specifications, but all aspects of construction contract documents.

I can imagine your response. “But I’m not a spec writer. I’m a - select one of the following : [project architect] [architectural designer] [interior designer] [MEP engineer] [structural engineer] [civil engineer] [landspape designer] [construction contract administrator] [manufacturer’s product rep] [contractor] [subcontractor] [building owner] [construction manager] [construction attorney] [specialty consultant] [building manager] [code official] [Union trade instructor] [architecture professor] [etc, etc, etc]. ”

Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be a spec writer to get a lot of value from CSI membership!

Do you want to network and benchmark with experienced AEC practitioners? Are you an emerging professional? I’ve met lots of interesting people through CSI, and many of them are world-class experts in their fields. They gravitate to CSI because, as I said, it’s the premier forum for the multi-faceted dialog about construction and construction documents. They’ll give you the lowdown on who’s doing what in the AEC business. They’re almost always eager to share their knowledge and advice.

Are you interested in Green Building? USGBC did a great thing in developing the consensus that lead to the LEED Green Building Rating System. But if you want to transform LEED’s idealistic objectives into successful buildings, you need to know how to write enforceable construction specifications. You can enhance your ability to do this by tuning in to CSI’s free monthly “Sustainability Practice Group” webinars, with CSI education, and by achieving CSI’s CDT, CCS, CCCA, and CCPR certifications.

Are you interested in the incredible possibilities of Building Information Modeling (BIM)? CSI is in the midst of the dialog about the transformation of construction contract documents from “drawings and specs” to building information modeling. Tune in to CSI’s free monthly lunchtime “BIM Practice Group” (Motto: Putting the “I” in BIM) webinars. The integration of specs and BIM is in its infancy, There’s lots for us all to learn about, and CSI is a player.

Are you passionate about improving the quality of construction contract documents? CSI chapters all over the country have an incredible variety of programs to help you do a better job of producing, using, or enforcing construction contract documents. One example I’m familiar with is my very own Northern Illinois Chapter’s Lunchtime Specification Roundtables. Some Roundtables focus in on a product type or detailing topic. Others deal with professional practice issues or the nitty-gritty of producing specifications. CSI also has free monthly “Specifications Practice Group” and “Product Representation Practice Group” webinars.

Are you fascinated with the very real usefulness of social media? There’s an enthusiastic and growing community of CSI social media users, assisted by strong mentorship from Joy Davis, CSI’s Director of Web Communication. I’ve become very fond of Twitter and I get, and disseminate, lots of AEC news and information through Twitter. Check it out. Connect with Joy Davis at @CSIConstruction. Connect with the Northern Illinois CSI chapter Twitter account at @CSINorthernIL, and with me at @Specologist.

Are you just tired of all that worthless crap on TV? If you’re looking for something useful to do in the evenings, consider getting active in CSI. There’s lots to do. There’s lots to learn. You can make a difference in the world through CSI.

So are you interested? Join CSI online between Wednesday, June 13, and Wednesday, June 20, and pay only $192 -- a 20% savings -- for your membership. Use promo code “12spring20” when you join at www.csinet.org/joincsi.This promotion is only available to new members joining at the professional level. Chapter dues are not included in this promotion. To join:

Visit www.csinet.org/join
Select "Join Now", and then click "Sign Up as a New Member"
Enter Promotion Code 12spring20 when prompted
Click the "Add Discount" button.

Questions about CSI? Just ask. If I can’t answer your question, I’ll find someone who can.

HELP PRESERVE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S LAURENT HOUSE!

2012-05-23T22:30:00.001-05:00

If you're in Rockford, Illinois on June 1, consider attending this event which will benefit the effort to preserve Frank Lloyd Wright's 1949 Laurent house, which was occupied by the Laurent family from it's construction until just recently. The home and it's Wright-designed furnishings are said to be in original condition.

I live about a mile from the Laurent house and I've viewed it from the street many times.

Help preserve this great work of art in Rockford, and mellow out with a glass of wine.

I'll see you there.

THANKS TO JOY DAVIS AND THE CSI SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY!

2012-05-18T13:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening, May 17, 2012, Joy Davis and a panel of CSI social media users across the country presented SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS by webinar to our Northern Illinois CSI Chapter meeting in Glen Ellyn, IL.

Thanks to Joy Davis and the panelists for generously sharing your time, and your experiences with social media, with us in the Northern Illinois Chapter.

We had 21 people at the actual chapter meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and at least one member who tuned in to the webinar from his home.

Your efforts made a difference in persuading several people to try social media. Here's a little feedback:

Dewain Peterson and I followed the accompanying Tweetchat #SMarchitect. Looking out at the audience, I saw several people working their smartphones from time to time, presumably following the Tweetchat. (I hope they weren't just idly surfing the web or checking email.)
Several people approached me after the presentation, and told me that they were going to try Twitter, and/or expand their current activity on Twitter, now that they can see it's not just a way for teenagers to convey personal messages.
This morning, I got an email from an experienced product rep who attended the meeting in person last night. He indicated that he, too, was going to try Twitter out, and that he may be contacting me for help occasionally. If he asks a question I can't answer, I know I can call on the CSI social media community for help.
We didn't convince everybody, though. After the meeting, one person, obviously agitated, told me that social media "just delivered too much information", and that he was concerned that he couldn't keep up with the flow. I tried to reassure him that he didn't need to read everything that he gathered in a social media feed, and tried to draw an analogy between reading a newspaper and using a social media feed. He didn't buy it.

Personally, I'm just using Twitter and Linkedin currently. As I get more proficient, I'll probably expand to use more social media platforms.

MASS NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS - NICSI FREE WEBINAR

2012-04-10T14:23:00.000-05:00

I'm writing today to let you know about an informative, FREE, Northern Illinois CSI Lunchtime Roundtable Webinar on Wednesday, April 25, 2012.

The topic is Mass Notification Systems, and it's being presented by Greg Small, Director of Technology at Larson & Darby Group in Rockford, Illinois. The webinar will cover the following:

Overview of the basic fire alarm system.
Overview of a basic audio paging system.
Explore utilization of a fire alarm system with integrated mass notification to address emergency alerts for fire plus tornado, chemical spill, workplace violence, and other scenarios.
Examine compliance requirements to NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code - 2010 regarding amplification of first responder signals within a facility.

Disclosure: Greg is a colleague of mine at Larson & Darby, and does technology design for many of our building projects, as well as prime technology projects for other clients.

The event is free, and you can join the webinar from wherever you and your internet device happen to be.

Here's the event flyer on the Northern Illinois CSI website.

Just contact NICSI Roundtable Chair Ken Moore at usconsulting@earthlink.com or 815 498-1260 for details on how to register for the webinar.

GLIMPSING THE FUTURE OF BIM?

2012-02-27T21:58:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading Finith Jernigan’s new book Makers of the Environment: Building Resilience Into Our World One Model At A Time. I borrowed a copy from the public library, but it’s so thought-provoking that I intend to buy a copy for myself. You can read more about it here.

Don’t be put off by the unwieldy title. This book gives us a big-picture glimpse into the rich and fascinating potential of information modeling in general, not just building information modeling. It’s not a software manual. It’s a prediction of what information modeling will be able to do for everyone who deals with the built environment, not just those of us in the AEC business, in the very near future.

The author explains BIM’s future capabilities by the literary device of a “fictional case study” set a few years in the future, of a community’s response to twin disasters: a terrorist attack and a very destructive hurricane.

Makers of the Environment is not an easy read, but I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the future of the AEC industry.

Next, I'm going to read Mr. Jernigan's previous book BIG BIM little bim.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

2012-02-19T11:04:00.000-06:00

A question from one of my students about how products and work results are categorized in CSI’s MASTERFORMAT got me to thinking about one particular number/title that seems to me to be an anomaly.

MASTERFORMAT has a great keyword index, and is indispensible in my efforts to organize and package construction information. And what I do all day, every working day as a spec writer, is package construction information for my firm’s projects.

What the Dewey Decimal System or the Library of Congress System do for librarians, CSI MASTERFORMAT does for spec writers.

(Before you read the next few paragraphs, I need to apologize to all those public-spirited volunteers who participate in the consensus processes that generate and update CSI’s MASTERFORMAT. I really appreciate what you do. I really do. I use MASTERFORMAT every day of my professional life. I was just too busy - doing what I can’t remember right now - to participate in the last review of MASTERFORMAT. I don’t mean to criticize your work. I promise I’ll make time to comment on the next update of MASTERFORMAT.)

So here’s the anomaly I’m thinking about: Unframed mirrors.

MASTERFORMAT puts unframed mirrors in Section 08 83 00 - MIRRORS, subordinate to Section 08 80 00 - GLAZING. This is in Division 08 - OPENINGS. So the question that occurs to people, me included, is: In what sense is an unframed mirror an opening? Unframed mirrors are only fixtures for reflecting images. They’re for grooming or decor purposes, and don’t open in any sense. Nothing passes through a mirror, not people, not air, not even light. I know, I know. We’re supposed to be talking about work results, not products, and in a sense glazed mirrors are glazing because most of them are made of glass, and maybe installed by the glazing trade. But they’re still not openings.

Framed mirrors - at least the ones in bathrooms and toilet rooms - don’t open either, except for mirror-door residential medicine cabinets which are definitely in Division 10.

It seems logical to at least consider putting unframed mirrors in Division 09 - FINISHES. Some mirrors are used as wall finish, decor if you will. You can see such applications of mirrors in restaurants and sometimes in retail situations.

Maybe the authors of MASTERFORMAT put unframed mirrors in Division 08 - OPENINGS because of a wistful hope that mirrors will one day work as openings to another world, like the mirror in Lewis Carroll’s ThroughThe Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There?

MICROSOFT TAGS AND FINITH JERNIGAN’S NEW BIM BOOK

2012-02-04T11:30:00.000-06:00

This week I started reading Finith Jernigan’s new book Makers of the Environment - Building Resilience into the Environment One Model at a Time .

I’m not far enough into the book yet to say much about it’s premise, but the book already introduced me to something new: Microsoft Tags. Tags printed in the book are part of the author’s goal to “...make this book an information model itself...”

Surprisingly none of my friends, online or offline, had heard of Microsoft Tags either.

Finith Jernigan says that Microsoft Tags “...establish direct links to more information and let one embed information into a printed book. Think of them as a glossary on steroids.”

Microsoft Tags seem to act like the QR codes that are now appearing frequently in print ads for construction products. Once you download the free Microsoft Tags app, you can use your smartphone to access the links in the book. Once in the Microsoft Tags app, you simply point your camera phone at the tag. The app takes you directly to the link.

Check out the website for the book at http://4sitesystems.com/iofthestorm/

If you’re an Android phone user, go to the Android Market to download the free app for your phone. The Apple App Store has it too.