Division 01 Ownership

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Author Message Richard L Matteo, AIA, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 681 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 12:11 pm:    There may be an older thread out there, but I don't know where it is. In any event, the old question of who has the responsibility for writing Division 01 has come up again. I have a Building Management Team (BMT) that wants to write the Division 01 documents for a Project. Where is it definitively written that Div. 01 belongs to the Architect? Or is it? Thanks, Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: michael_chusid Post Number: 283 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 01:36 pm:    It is not definitive anywhere. Read the terms of your contract. Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS www.chusid.com www.buildingproduct.guru 818-219-4937 J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 964 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 01:43 pm:    As with most questions, the most correct answer is "It depends." In the standard AIA agreement, the requirements generally are that the Architect is responsible for the Specifications and the Architect is to assist the Owner in preparation of the Procurement and Contracting requirements. Since Division 01 is defined as part of the Specifications, this makes the General Requirements the Architect's responsibility. Since Division 01 contains many provisions that have to do with the way the Architect does construction contract administration, it makes sense that the Architect should prepare those Sections. However, many times an institutional Owner or a government body will want CA to be done a certain way (with their own forms), it makes sense for them to have a "standard" Division 01. They may also have a standard set of Division 01 guide specifications for the Architect to modify. In this case, the Architect still prepares Division 01, they just have to use the Owner's stuff. Owners may not do a good job of updating their content. I still see requirements for "sepias" and Diazo prints sprinkled through the sections. I have recently worked on projects where the PM/CM prepares this stuff for the Owner and is clearly not qualified to do so. In some cases they will prepare General and Supplementary (and sometimes "Special Supplementary") Conditions which contradict the standard contract conditions that the Owner is required to use on all construction projects. J. Peter Jordan, FCSI, AIA, CCS, LEED AP, SCIP Richard Baxter, AIA, CSI, CDT Senior Member Username: rbaxter Post Number: 127 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 01:55 pm:    General and Supplemental Conditions indicate everything the owner contractually expects from the architect and the contractor, and visa versa. In AIA A201, specs and drawings are indicated as "Instruments of Service" provided by the architect and the architect's consultants. If the owner wants to establish different requirements, it has to be indicated in the General and Supplemental Conditions agreed upon by the Owner, Architect, and Contractor. Division 01 specs, on the other hand, only state what the Architect generally expects from the contractor during construction. The owner would be wise to review them and make sure there are no surprises or undesired costs, but the Owner should not assume control over them unless the Owner has explicitly stated in their General or Supplemental Conditions that the Owner will perform the contract administration work. Mark Gilligan SE, Senior Member Username: mark_gilligan Post Number: 817 Registered: 10-2007 Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 01:56 pm:    If it is not against the law the architects options are to work with the Client of to disassociate himself from the project. You will need to communicate your concerns to the client. Richard L Matteo, AIA, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 682 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 03:27 pm:    Thanks All for your responses. Guest (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 08:13 pm:    Too many times I've encountered an owner's general, supplemental, AND "special" conditions documents that also often address (obvious to us here) Div 01 General Requirements, e.g., detailed submittal procedures/requirements. Conversely, I've encountered owner Div 01 documents that have clearly addressed contractual obligations having nothing to do with construction administrative processes...or worse yet, lack of specificity of some of Architect's administrative obligations/responsibilities. I have yet to read/see any owner-contractor agreement/contract form; I wonder...and fear what those documents dictate...that might conflict with anything in general, supplemental, "special" conditions, and Div 01 documents. I exclude any coordination with owner's or any other "front-end" documents that are not consistent with A201...and qualify any such condition upon additional fees. Richard L Matteo, AIA, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 683 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - 11:14 am:    Unfortunately, most of our client's are school district's whose General Conditions do not necessarily follow A201. Instead, they are written by the District's attorney, or worse, copied from another District. As much as we try and request, getting those documents is difficult at best, and when we do, they are so terribly written it's difficult to match them up with our related documents. David J. Wyatt, CDT Senior Member Username: david_j_wyatt_cdt Post Number: 187 Registered: 03-2011 Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017 - 08:49 am:    Before writing the Sections for Division 01, the design team must know what the Conditions of the Contract are going to be. The public entities I write specs for (HUD project, State of Ohio, and local political subdivisions) now have such thorough General and Supplementary Conditions that my Division 01 Sections tend to address only a handful of issues - such as site-specific items related to access, parking, storage, client-furnished items, and use of power and water. I like to provide the sections that address quality (Quality Assurance, mock-ups, common product requirements and common execution requirements) but if I read the General and Supplementary Conditions carefully I usually find those provisions are addressed fairly well. Division 01 should add to the Conditions of the Contract, but too often we re-iterate and unwittingly modify requirements that already serve their purposes well. Guest (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017 - 11:15 am:    David - It's what called coordination...and do you "coordinate" any Div 01 cross-references in your technical sections? David J. Wyatt, CDT Senior Member Username: david_j_wyatt_cdt Post Number: 188 Registered: 03-2011 Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017 - 03:33 pm:    Guest: I used to make specific references to General Conditions provisions and Division 01 Sections in my so-called technical sections. It was against the advice of older and wiser people, but it seemed to me to be a good way to get tradespeople to follow requirements they were responsible for but might ignore. I am now one of those older and wiser people who realize that saying something loudly and more slowly and repeatedly will not aid comprehension. It is the GC's or CM's job to make sure everyone gets a copy of the rules, not mine. Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 968 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Friday, May 26, 2017 - 01:26 am:    Funny how that happens, David. George A. Everding, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, AIA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 854 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Friday, May 26, 2017 - 12:58 pm:    For reference, here are the older threads related to this topic: http://discus.4specs.com/discus/messages/5371/3120.html http://discus.4specs.com/discus/messages/7463/5161.html http://discus.4specs.com/discus/messages/7868/7126.html