Maintaining Office Master Guide Specifications

Almost all architectural firms and specifications consultants maintain full sets of office master guide specifications, which, among their many benefits, serve to streamline the development of project specifications.  Development and maintenance of..

Specifications - A QA Process

Who is best to write project construction specifications - the project architect or a dedicated specifier? Arguments will go both ways, depending on point of view. Both answers have merit. So let's take a closer look at specifications as a Quality..

Benefit of Master Guide Specifications

Master guide specifications are a valuable resource for the design team. The company investment in developing and maintaining masters can be substantial representing hundreds, possibly even thousands of hours, devoted to their development to document the..

Just What Are We Specifying?

Products delivered to the site

Specification Work Flow

It's linear - just like design! Start at the beginning and finish at the end. Straight line. No sidesteps. No circling back. No changed minds. Smooth sailing start to finish.

Communication - The Heart of Specifications

Just who are specifications written for? The Architect? The Owner? Neither! In order of importance, I profess that specifications are written for the benefit of:

Why are Specs So Long?

It seems a relatively simple building. There are only 50 drawings. So why are the specifications 800 pages? It does seem absurd. Let's take a critical look to see if there is a better way.

Ensuring Specifications Consistency & Quality

How can architects ensure their specifications are consistent from one project to the next or one project architect to the next? How can architects ensure that their specifications will deliver the intended quality for every project?

It's just like the last one, except...

In my career, I have heard this phrase many times. Architects begin to describe a new project in terms of a previous project. It may be an attempt:

Editing Master Specifications - Part 2

Practice Group Co-host Louis Medcalf contributed this description of the last group meeting

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