THE "OTHER" SPEC CURMUDGEON

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

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

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

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

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...

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?

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

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?

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...

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

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

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:

1. Visit www.csinet.org/join
2. Select "Join Now", and then click "Sign Up as a New Member"
3. Enter Promotion Code 12spring20 when prompted
4. 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!

 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!

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

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?

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

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

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.

STAY INFORMED BY FOLLOWING CSI BLOGGERS

A few years ago the predominant way for CSI members and others in the AEC industry to express themselves in writing professionally, and reach a national audience, was to write articles for industry magazines and newsletters. It wasn’t easy to get published in magazines.  Your message had to fit into the magazine’s overall editorial focus. And it took months for an article to progress from the draft stage all the way to its appearance in a hard-copy magazine.

All that’s changed now. The Internet has eliminated the magazine monopoly on expression by making it easy to get one’s message directly out to the industry by establishing and writing a blog. Lots of interesting, experienced, well-informed AEC industry specialists have jumped into blogging.

Here are just a few CSI member blogs. Some write about CSI governance and the CSI experience; others write about their areas of consulting or construction expertise.

Some write frequently; others only occasionally. 

Some appeal mainly to CSI members; others have achieved a much wider audience.

All accommodate, and usually publish and respond to, reader comments, enabling great dialog. If you haven’t already discovered their blogs, I urge you to check them out.  

• Charles Hendricks, CSI, CDT (@thegainesgroup): http://harrisonburgarchitect.wordpress.com/
• Liz O'Sullivan, CSI, CCS, CCCA(@LizOSullivanAIA): http://lizosullivanaia.wordpress.com/
• David Stutzman, CSI, CCS & Randal Reifsnider, CSI, CDT (@dstutzman @conspectusinc @rreifsnider): http://www.conspectusinc.com/blog/
• Michael Chusid, FCSI, CCS (@MichaelChusid ) : http://www.buildingproductmarketing.com/
• Eric Lussier, CSI, CDT (@EricDLussier): http://ericdlussier.wordpress.com
• Neal Turner, CSI, CCPR (@draperinc):  http://blog.draperinc.com/about-the-authors/neal-turner/
• Ron Geren, CSI, CCS, CCCA (@specsandcodes): http://specsandcodes.typepad.com
• Robert Dye, FCSI, CCS, CCCA (@robert_dye): http://www.robertdye.us
• Mitch Miller, CSI, CCS (@m2architek): http://m2architek.wordpress.com
• Sheldon Wolfe, FCSI, CCS, CCCA (@swolfearch): http://swconstructivethoughts.blogspot.com
• John Guill, CSI, CCS, CCCA (@specmonkeynorth): http://specmonkeynorth.posterous.com
• Lori Greene, CSI, CCPR (@LoriGreeneAHC): www.idighardware.com
• Tara Imani, CSI (@Parthenon1): http://www.indigoarchitect.com/
• Marvin Kemp, CSI, CDT (@BaltoCSI): http://felttips.blogspot.com

Come to think of it, why not share your expertise with the AEC industry by starting a blog?

Tap into your inner writer and join the club. Your fellow bloggers will engage with you, and help you promote your message by spreading links to your blog around the Internet like the proverbial Johnny Appleseed.