In early 2017 David Stutzman met Jason Urquhart of the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada at Construction Specifications Canada national conference in Kalowna, BC, and a new friendship was established with our neighbor to the north. Jason is a..

In the children's story of "The Big Bad Wolf", he huffs and puffs and blows each house down, except for the brick house. The other houses were built of other materials which were destroyed. However, what if the little pigs worked with a specifier..

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..

Recently, Conspectus participated in two conferences: Construction Owners Association of America (COAA) and Lean Construction Institute's Lean in Design Forum. Both groups are searching for a means to improve construction project delivery with some..

When starting a new design project, what is actually known? Very little. The relevant design decisions must be made as the project progresses. So how can projects be effectively documented before all decisions are made? UniFormat™!

Successful construction projects rely on complete, accurate, timely, and understandable communication; maximizing all of these reduces the likelihood for disputes to arise.  Unfortunately, many project teams fall short of proper communication, and that's..

First published at Young Architects Forum Connection 16.01.

Specifiers may be one of the best kept secrets on the design team. Specifiers, especially independent specifiers, typically interact with the architectural team, only. Even then, the interaction may be limited to project architects and project managers...

Have you made the connection yourself? Connecting data to make it available and useable for each team will improve efficiency and reduce risk for every construction project. The focus has been on inserting data into BIM to describe the objects the design..

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..