I have been asked to present a seminar in May on keys to preparing Division 01. I am wondering is some of you wise folks on this forum might be willing to share a bit of your wisdom with me. I am especially looking for:
Preparing Division 01 on projects for Owners who have their own General Conditions, or have many Supplementary Conditions to standard contracts, can be totally different from preparing Division 01 for other projects.
There’s a lot more to coordinate.
Wayne:
Since it is in May, you have a little bit of time to do some reading, which I highly recommend before you even begin writing your presentation.
The two most worthwhile resources are:
CSI Construction Specifications Practice Guide
and
Construction Specification Writing: Principles and Procedures by Mark Kalin, Robert S. Weygant, Harold J. Rosen, and John R. Regener.
If you remain in this field, you will want to have these books on your desk all the time - at least until you think you know enough to write a book of your own, which is a fool’s errand I don’t recommend. Most of what is worth reading on the topic is in these two fine books.
Also, AIA A201 General Conditions and the abbreviated version contained in A015 and A107 are must reading. Familiarity with these documents will make preparing and delivering your presentation much easier.
If you send me your e-mail address, I would be happy to share some other resources with you, but this is plenty to keep you busy for at least a month. My e-mail addresses are djwyattspecifier@hotmail.com and dwyatt@tcarchitects.com.
All good wishes to you.
Use the “wheel diagram” in the Practice Guide that David mentioned. It’s been around for ages and illustrates the relationship of the General Requirements to the rest of the documents. Actually, I am not sure if the wheel is in the Specifications or the Project Delivery guide these days.
Liz alluded to one of my pet peeves about the way many architects approach Division 01 - it’s NOT boilerplate, it changes for every job. Certainly the owner’s requirements are a major impact, but even for the same owner, each individual project will have its own quirky requirements that will impact Division 01.
To me, the most misunderstood thing about Division 01 is that, while all three main parties -owner, contractor, and architect/engineer - have important input into its development, not all its sections are equally important to each of the three parties. For example, “Temporary Facilities” is of little importance to the a/e, of prime importance to the contractor, and of varying importance to the owner, depending on the project. Some specifiers take the position that since the contractor is required to provide everything necessary to achieve the end result, writing an overly prescriptive temporary facilities section can cross the line into means and methods, and safety responsibilities.
Too many architects want to assume responsibility for producing all of Division 01, when in fact relatively little of it is driven by the architect. I was usually concerned about the procedural things that my firm would do during CA - substitutions, contract modifications, and product requirements, to name three. I was also concerned about those items that governed the Division 02 through 49 sections - quality requirements, submittals, and execution requirements, to name three more. In addition to temporary facilites, I was less concerned about things like allowances and alternates, project management, and owner requirements. Those things are more important to the owner and the contractor.
Finally, I really like the symmetry of how Division 01s organizational structure mirrors the three parts of a section. I would always point that out to students in any presentation of General Requirements.
If you are interested in seeing a copy of a Division 01 powerpoint from my class, I would be happy to share. george.everding@allegion.com