Specifiers often struggle to come up with ways to make specifying simpler, to eliminate unwanted language, and to make specifications more correct.  At this year's CONSTRUCT AEC Education and Expo, Beth Stroshane posited that the way we write..

In my recent post, When Specifiers Engage in Magical Thinking, I described what happens when aspecifier believes that putting more instructions into a specification willmake for a better outcome.  Never mindwhether or not those instructions were..

This paper was first presented by Louis Medcalf, FCSI, CCS, SCIP and David Stutzman, AIA, CSI, CCS, SCIP at the National Institute of Building Sciences BEST 5 triennial national conference in Philadelphia, PA April 16, 2018.

Architects and specifiers alike face significant and continuous challenges when it comes to identifying and validating reliable information about construction products.  Using an incorrect product for an application can lead to significant failure, and..

Imagine you're a project architect and you're nearing completion of CD's.  For half a year, you've been neck-deep in the project meetings, made myriad decisions large and small, and are intimately knowledgeable of the design intention and you know all of..

Coordination, coordination, coordination! The better construction documents are coordinated, the better the outcome for the owner - not to mention the design and construction teams. Imagine the perfect set of construction documents: no bidder's..

When does quality assurance begin during the design process for a construction project? Often formal document review may be planned for those last few weeks before the construction documents are completed. Sometimes reviews are planned before each design..

What statements below do you believe to be true?

It's a process, not just technical requirements. During design-assist, the architect of record, asks the contractor (usually a specialty subcontractor) to help develop system details and confirm system performance to meet project requirements. Typically..