Predefined review categories enable our team to calibrate the focus of our efforts to match exactly what your project requires. While many project’s proceed with comprehensive reviews which includes a combination of most of these categories, other projects are better served with a more targeted, or limited review approach.
Building Codes are the minimum standard for structural safety, fire and life safety, materials standards, basic ADA accessibility standards, “green” design and “healthy” buildings for human occupancy. Accessibility and life-safety reviews focus on compliance concerns regarding the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as the California Building Code, Chapter 11A. Furthermore, we investigate required egress & life-safety mandates as determined by IBC, CBC, or any other local AHJ (authority having jurisdiction).
Conflicts tend to occur based on poor coordination between disciplines – architectural, civil, landscape, structural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, telecom, equipment, and other specialty consultants. The first phase of our coordination reviews involves overlaying all discipline drawings into the architectural series on independently controlled layers. This approach enables our review team to quickly identify inconsistencies, conflicts, and missing scope between the different drawing packages. Coordination conflicts account for approximately 60% of errors and omissions that lead to change orders and schedule delays.
The focus of a constructability review is on the completeness of the plans and detailing, the logic of detailing for scheduling of trades, the logic of construction phasing, and general bid-ability and build-ability. Our team reviews the project assemblies, particularly related to the exterior envelope, to ensure the prevention of water leaks & air infiltration. Furthermore the staging, storage, and construction phasing is considered with the review of material compatibility and proper usage.
A reference review of all technical project specifications, including bidding and contract forms, in accordance with the format of the Construction Specification Institute (CSI) to ensure proper coordination between drawing documents and written specs. Additionally, a detailed review of the construction documents general notes. As it is common for specifications to be compiled independently of the drawing production team, there is often conflicting content or extraneous spec sections that do not accurately reflect the design intent.
Any custom scope outside of the defined review categories above is considered specialty scope. An example of specialty scope could be a custom checklist provided by the client, or a brand standards cross-reference review. Any specialty review scope must be shared with our team during the proposal development stage and our team will work with you to determine if we feel we can include the scope while defining a clear objective deliverable.
