In this issue

 

Newsletter

Print
August 2012  

President's Report

Dear Members,

Summertime has really flown by and now it’s time to head into Fall… Fall represents new beginnings, whether you are a parent getting your children ready for a new school year or a business owner starting your new fiscal year, it’s now time to throw off the slow days of summer and prepare for the upcoming year. In that regard, Fall is a new beginning for our Chapter, it’s a time to introduce new leaders, new ideas, and new plans for our future.

We have a wonderful group of members this year who have graciously volunteered their time and efforts to make our Chapter successful in our community and a valuable asset to you as a member. We have new ideas in the works for educational and certification programs, academic outreach to our local universities and colleges, publications, membership activities, and programs. I am very excited and encouraged by the eagerness and dedication our volunteering members have brought to our new committees and I know they will all do a wonderful job. I also want to extend the invitation to any member that has an idea or an opportunity for the Chapter to contact me; I am always open to anything you would like to present.

I would like to introduce you to our Board Members for the year, some our new to the board and others have been volunteering their time for several years now. These are the people that make our chapter happen and I thank them for all their hard work.

President Elect – Todd Gunther from Orepac Building Products

Vice President – Janet Quinn from Dow Building Solutions, Knight Wall Systems and USG Securock.

Vice President – Richard Baxter from FFKR Architects

Treasurer – Jake Alder from Alders Sales Corporation

Secretary – Jim Huntsman from The Garland Company

Director – Jim Sheltmire from D7 Weather Protection Systems.

Director  - Jake Riddle for Creative West.

Publications Director – Shane Severson from The Comex Group.

There is a wonderful milestone the Salt Lake City CSI Chapter is reaching this upcoming year; our Chapter will be 50 years old in 2013! What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our Chapter’s history! We will be having a Celebration Gala in June 2013. To that end, I need all of your help, If you have any mementos, photos, newsletters, awards, stories, etc. that you would like to share with us and display at the Gala, please let me know. I am also looking for a chapter historian to research and write a history of our chapter to be presented at the Gala, if this position interests you please contact me.

Our next Chapter meeting will be on September 26, 2012, CSI President Greg Markling, FCSI, CCS, CCCA will be our guest speaker and will be presenting a wonderful program on Building Codes and Construction Documents. We will also be introducing some of our new programs and activities to you. I hope you will all make an effort to attend.

With all that said, I would like to finish with a thank you to everyone who participated in and helped plan our Chapter’s events the last year. We have had some wonderful programs that I personally think were some of the best we have ever had. They were all really well attended and complemented. We also had a very successful Symposium, with a record number of exhibitors participating. I think the previous year’s success have really shown the effort that has been put into making our Chapter a valuable asset to all our members.

Let’s all keep up the good work and have the greatest year ever!!!

Tonya Dodge, CSI, CCS

CSI SLC Chapter President

Back to top

Next Month's Meeting

Gregory Markling:   FCSI, SCIP, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP BD+C

Greg Markling is an Architect with more than 35 years’ experience in the practice of architecture with emphasis on project delivery process, construction documentation, specifications, and construction contract administration. 

Greg recently launched a new firm, iBIMsolutions, llc, which provides building information management consulting services to design professionals, ownership groups, and contractors.  He is current President of The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), a Fellow of CSI, a Certified Construction Specifier (CCS), and a Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA).

Session Title:

Building Codes and Construction Documents

Course Abstract:

Learning Objectives:  The attendee will learn:

1.       Critical aspects of code compliance research and implementation during each phase of project development.
2.       The importance of concisely and completely documenting code compliance in the construction documents.
3.       Important code compliance content that should be included in the Drawings and the Specifications
4.       The status and inclusion of special inspection and testing requirements in the construction documents.

Session Description:

This session will address the management of code compliance in the design process, from schematic design through construction documents, and beyond.  The session will also address the importance of code compliance documentation in the construction documents package, and will introduce specific examples of how code compliance should be documented in both the Drawings and in the Project Manual (specifications).  We will also look at the fundamentally important issue of special inspection and testing by the Owner as it relates to code compliance and quality control in the construction process.

There will be AIA and DOPL Credits available.

Back to top

Membership News

SLC Chapter Members

Non-Member - 2 group members (these members are expired but are still active)
Professional Emeritus - 1 group member
Professional Retired  - 1 group member
Professional - 71 group members
Student - 1 group member
Unaffiliated Professional - 3 group members
Unaffiliated Student - 5 group members
Total of 84 members

Back to top

Curmudgeon's Corner

23 JULY 2012

What happened to the architect?

We started this series of articles with a question - What happened to the master builder? - and went on to talk about how the architect no longer is the master builder of old, for a couple of reasons. First, the continual increase in construction products, methods, and computer technology makes it virtually impossible for any one person to know all there is to know about construction, or even a significant part of it, and, more important, there was a conscious effort to divorce architects from hands-on experience and technical knowledge. Finally, as we will see, architects themselves have, through contract documents, reduced their importance, at the same time increasing the importance of the contractor. 

Today, no one expects a single person to know all about construction today, but a semblance of a master builder can be found in the collective knowledge of an architectural firm and its consultants. However, because of the lasting impact of the design-bid-build process, there remains a schism between the design and construction activities of architecture. 

Which, of course, means that an architect, in the original meaning of the word, no longer exists, or at least is rare. 
In case you forgot from the earlier article, the word comes from the Greek arkhitekton, meaning "master builder, director of works," from arkhi- "chief" plus tekton "builder, carpenter". Notice that design is not part of the definition, though it can be inferred from the meaning. In that context, it's easier to see the architect-master builder being a contractor who knows how to design, than a designer who knows how to build. Despite the derivation of the word, we now think of an architect as one who designs buildings, but is not directly involved in construction. In fact, by today's standards, an architect is expected to know only about design.

It's been that way for a long time, so what's the big deal? If you don’t care who is in charge, it doesn't make much difference, but architects seem to care. Let's look at some of the ways buildings get built, and the role of the architect in each. 

The simplest case is an owner with its own in-house design and construction departments. The owner decides what is needed, designs it, and builds it. The designers and builders work for the owner, and while there may be some interdepartmental differences of opinion, they do what they're told. End of story. The designers and the builders are approximately equal in status, though the owner - as is always the case - may care more about cost than aesthetics, and the functional design is usually of paramount importance.

The design-build process, a rough equivalent of how things were done by the Master Builder of old, is similar. The owner hires a single entity, which provides both design and construction services, and answers to the owner for everything. Again, design and construction work together toward a common goal. Again, at least in theory, design and construction have similar status. In practice, the leading entity - usually a contractor - has more clout. 

With design-bid-build, the owner hires one or more firms to design the building, and one or more contractors to build it. The owner is still the boss, but historically relies on the architect to more or less run the project. Many owners have no choice, as they don't have knowledgeable staff capable of managing the entire process. Because of this relationship, the design professional appears to be the most important entity, and the owner expects the contractor to build what's in the documents. At least, that's the way it has worked until recently; contractors now often have much greater influence than in the past. In many cases, contractors drive decisions, and the architect makes changes to accommodate the contractor's recommendations to the owner. 

One of the strange things about design-bid-build is that we accept it as normal, as the way things should be done. In fact, it is a recent innovation, supplanting hundreds or thousands of years of construction led by the Master Builder. Some will argue it is superior to other delivery methods, and at one time, I agreed. I now believe that objections to design-build - most of which are based on the assumption that the design team knows more about what's going on than the contractor, and that the design team is more concerned about the owner - can be addressed in the same way owners like to choose architects and contractors, i.e., by careful selection, based on past performance. Choosing a design-builder by low bid makes no more sense than selecting either an architect or a contractor solely on the basis of cost.

For whatever reason, design-bid-build is the way we've been doing things in the US for a long time, and it seems most architects believe things are just fine the way they are, with an architect-led design team firmly in charge, and the construction team faithfully doing what they're told. However, unless you've been sleeping, you may have noticed that the contractor's role and importance have been increasing. I've been seeing more negotiated contracts, more construction management projects, and more design-build projects with our private sector clients; it seems only government agencies are holding fast to design-bid-build, and even they are looking at other options. 

How did we get to this point? Next time, we'll look at important changes in contract documents that have affected the relative importance of architect and contractor.

© 2012, Sheldon Wolfe, RA, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, CSC

Follow me at http://swconstructivethoughts.blogspot.com/,http://swspecificthoughts.blogspot.com/,
http://twitter.com/swolfearch
Back to top