The Code Corner No. 32 (Summer 2010) - Fire Safety and Evacuation Plans

A Chinese proverb states, “When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.” That proverb should be modified to “when planning for saving life,” when it comes to fire safety and evacuation planning, since the best way to avoid injury or loss of life in an emergency is to “train and educate people” who occupy a facility. But before you can train and educate, you must plan.
Unfortunately, many people do not take the time to accomplish the simple process of planning for an emergency—whether in the home or in the workplace. In the workplace, if you were to ask your employers about an emergency and fire plan, it is likely that they either tell you they do not have a plan or, if one exists, they could not tell you where a copy of the plan is located. For either response, the implication is that the employer is probably in noncompliance with federal, state, or local laws.

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OmniClass 2010 Update: Applying the new Tables - BIM PG Meeting #22

With the recent activity involving updates to many of the OmniClass Tables, this meetings focus was on reviewing the tables and talking about how they are being implemented with a few examples. A goal stated by PG leader Robert Weygant, CSI, CDT, SCIP “is to start to capture in a white paper or series of reports, how various tables are being implemented.” Per Weygant, “OmniClass tables let you break things down into a number of uses but I’m not sure what to do with all of the tables so want to hear from the community on how/if they are being applied.”  (Miss this meeting? A recording will be available until Sept. 23.)

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Integrating BIM and Specifications Using an Available Spec Authoring Application - Notes from the BIM PG June Meeting

The June 2010 meeting of the CSI BIM Practice Group was the group’s 21st meeting. Recently meetings have been exploring the theme of knowledge management as a new role for the specifier. Continuing with that theme but from a different perspective, this month’s meeting looked at a tool that might be used to manage the information needed to document requirements. To that end, the meeting featured a presentation by Rob Dean, AIA, CSI, CCS and President of Building Systems Design (BSD) on BSD Strategy for connecting BIM and Specifications through linking specification sections with objects (Families in Revit) with a BIM model. Rob was joined by Susan McClendon, CCS, principal at BSD charge of content.

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Can You Still Use the PRM to Teach the CDT Course?

For those of you who teach the CDT course at universities or colleges, here is some information on the transition in teaching materials due to the Project Resource Manual (PRM) being phased out and separate guides being created.

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Collecting Project Spec Data - What Works?

CSI's Specifying Practice Group discussed what works and what doesn't in collecting data for specifications during their July meeting.

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Product Reps: Work that CSI Certification!

Thousands of people earn CSI’s Construction Documents Technology (CDT) certificate and the Certified Construction Product Representative (CCPR) certification every year. The subject discussed by CSI’s Product Representation Practice Group this month was what you do with those letters once you have them after your name.

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Preliminary Project Descriptions: Deliverable & Design Tool

CSI’s Specifying Practice Group again took up the topic of Preliminary Project Descriptions and their uses this month.

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The Code Corner No. 31 (Spring 2010) - Portable Fire Extinguishers

Portable fire extinguishers are a fire protection feature often overlooked by architects.  When a building design does include portable fire extinguishers, the number provided and the locations where they are indicated usually do not meet the requirements of the building and fire codes. The location and number of portable fire extinguishers provided need to be clearly indicated in the construction documents to eliminate costly and possibly unsightly field modifications.

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CSI BIM and Sustainability Practice Groups meet up at CONSTRUCT

The BIM and Sustainability Practice Groups had a joint education session/meeting on May 13 at CONSTRUCT 2010 in Philadelphia. The session which served as the BIM group’s May meetings was led by Mark Kalin, FAIA, FCSI, CCS, SCIP; Robert Weygant, CSI, CDT, SCIP and Roger Grant, CSI, CDT and had over 80 attendees. Weygant and Kalin reviewed the goals of the BIM and Sustainability PGs and what they had covered and accomplished for the year. The crowd made up of a mix of designers, product representatives and contractors were mostly not members (at least yet) of either practice group. They sat mostly quietly as the PG leaders reviewed their groups work.

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Self-Certification and Third Party Plan Reviews

In response to budget and staff reductions, many jurisdictions responsible for building regulation are seeking alternative methods to the standard plan review process. In my locale, the City of Phoenix has introduced two new programs that shift some of the plan review responsibility to people and organizations other than the city itself. However, there may be some repercussions for participating in programs of these types.

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Why Hire a Certified Construction Specifier?

 
People hire certified, licensed, and registered professionals all the time. The doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, contractors, etc. that we hire, either as employees or for services, require some level of competence as determined by an authoritative organization responsible for that specialty. However, when it comes to preparing specifications, many design professionals don’t see the need to hire an in-house specifier or a specifications consultant, let alone a certified specifier.

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CSI Members Invited to USGBC Reception during CONSTRUCT

USGBC is extending an invitation to all CSI members who are at CONSTRUCT to attend their Member Circle Reception. Details and a link to register are below. There will be a short presentation on the Green Building Products Coalition meeting being held on Tuesday May 11 during the reception. It should be a nice event and a good opportunity to network with others interested in making buildings more sustainable. See you there!
USGBC Member Circle Event
USGBC and CSI national and chapter members are invited to join us for a free networking event. 
Date: Thursday, May 13, 2010
Time: 5:00-6:30pm
Location: Center for Architecture - Philadelphia, PA
Featuring: Roger Grant, CSI's Professional & Technical Services Director
Concurrent Conference: Construct 2010
RSVP Today!

The Job of Building Information MANAGEMENT

The April meeting focused on the practice of building information management with a look at the job requirements of a BIM knowledge manager, the data organization structures available for organizing in the updated OmniClass and developing practice guidelines for Information Management.  Roger Grant, CSI, CDT noted that “this session pulls together many of the concepts that the Practice Group has explored over the last year and starts to apply them to how to practice BIManagement more effectively.”

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Dilbert and GreenFormat

What do Dilbert and GreenFormat have in common? Not much you might speculate but CSI GreenFormat Task Team member Michael Fuller, AIA, CSI, CDT, NCARB thinks otherwise. A lot of reducing environmental impact and improving sustainability has to do with the products we purchase and use. This is the focus of GreenFormat - how to make the right choice based on a complete assessment of a product.

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Green Building Products Coalition Organizing Meeting May 11 – Join Us

On May 11 CSI, EPA and GreenBlue are hosting an organizing meeting for a potential new coalition to bring together organizations across the supply chain that source, manufacture, install, sell, distribute, reuse, recycle and dispose of building products.  We are being joined in putting the meeting together by the Department of Commerce and the USGBC.

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BIM, Specs and Knowledge Management - BIM PG Meeting 18

CSI’s BIM Practice Group discussed how information management might affect the way specifiers practice in the future during their March meeting. “A single person or point of responsibility is very beneficial when working with BIM data,” Practice Group Chair Robert Weygant, CSI, CDT, SCIP, said. “This is the focal point of today’s discussion.”

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Have Trade Shows Gone the Way of the Circus

CSI Product Representation Practice Group Alana Griffith spotted this article in Exhibitor magazine online, and wanted to share it!

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Outline Specs - Useful or Not?

Based on the feedback of CSI’s Specifying Practice Group, outline specs are going the way of the dinosaur. They’re being replaced by Preliminary Project Descriptions (PPDs) and other more efficient ways to record project information early in the design phase of a building.

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Green Building and Your Career

Here are the notes from the February meeting of the Emerging Professionals Practice Group.

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Are Trade Show Dynamics Changing?

Are trade shows dying or not? CSI’s Product Representation Practice Group took up this question in a recent meeting. Their answer seemed to be, “maybe.” Trade shows will fail if they don’t adjust to today’s audience and leverage the thing they do best: face-to-face contact with a rep and a product.

Practice group members agreed that there’s no shortage of trade shows right now, so they choose their venues carefully. “We could attend a trade show just about every day,” said Practice Group leader Alana Grifith, FCSI, Lifetime Member, CCPR.

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