Tag Archives: architect

New NC Laws for Engineers, Architects, & other Construction Professionals (Tue Tip)

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NC flag

Today’s Tip is a big one….. a turkey-sized offering in advance of Thanksgiving.   At least 19 new North Carolina laws that effect construction professionals were passed this legislative season.  They run the gamut, including public project bidding requirements, building permits, code issues, and the use of design-build building methods.  For a complete listing of each bill that may effect your practice, check out this Legislative Spreadsheet prepared by Harry Lancaster of Lancaster, Craig & Associates, a North Carolina-based government relations firm based in Raleigh.

Of particular note to Design Professionals:

Senate Bill 708/Session Law 2011-269 reconciles certain rules adopted by the Building Council relating to the January 1, 2012 effective date of certain portions of the 2012 Energy Conservation Code and the 2012 NC Residential Code.

House Bill 616/Session Law 2011-304, which modifies regulations for Engineers and Land Surveyors, including general requirements for licensure.

Check out the spreadsheet for the other construction laws.  You can go directly to the language of the laws from links on the spreadsheet.  Happy reading!

Photo:  Mr. T in DC via Flicker/CC. 

Pick Up the Phone! (Tues Tip)

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phoneToday’s Tip is a simple one: Pick up the phone to ensure good communications on the construction project.  Too many of us naturally default to email or text message when communicating on the fly.  Without the tone of voice, however, many times things get misconstrued or taken out of context. 

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of emailing someone, and later learning they are mad or offended at something you said.  You thought the comment was innocuous.  They took it the wrong way.  Apologies were necessary; feelings were hurt.

While telephoning the other party can take more time, it keeps things on an even keel.  Tones can be “read” and misunderstandings can be cleared up right away. 

The next time you need to have a substantive communication with the Owner or Contractor, try the telephone.  You know, that email-checking/text-enabling device that is always with you?  It can telephone folks too.  Try it.

This post was in no way inspired by any misunderstood emails involving the author.  (Am I serious, or kidding? Hard to tell, isn’t it?).

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Photo:  (c) Victor Manuel via Creative Commons license.

 

 

Construction, er make that CONTRACT, Administration services: a primer (law note)

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[Update 12:42 pm ET, 11/3/11– CA is for Construction Contract Administration, or “Contract Administration” for short- thanks Liz O’Sullivan]

 One of the Architect’s responsibilities on a construction project is that of construction contract administration (“CA”).  While not every contract contemplates the architect performing a CA role, most commercial construction projects do.  What, exactly, should be included in the CA role?  The CA role can be whatever the parties agree upon.  In fact, the AIA A201 form contract documents anticipate that the architect’s role will be defined in an exhibit. 

Construction Construction Contract Administration
§ 4.2.10 If the Owner and Architect agree, the Architect will provide one or more project representatives to assist in carrying out the Architect’s responsibilities at the site. The duties, responsibilities and limitations of authority of such project representatives shall be as set forth in an exhibit to be incorporated in the Contract Documents.
What, then, should be included in the CA role assigned to the architect?  The nature of the construction administration role is project specific.  Some projects require a full-time on-site architect, a clerk of the works, or a weekly or bi-weekly site visit.  Because the nature of the CA role cannot be adequately described in a form document, it is especially critical that you take care to describe the specific CA duties assigned to the architectural team in detail.
site observation by architect
 
One of the main CA roles for the design team is that of site observation. Consider:
  • What frequency is contemplated for visits?
  • How long should those visits last? 
  • What is your role during such site visits?
I see many disputes that arise over a misunderstanding as to how often the architect should be on-site, and what his role is in observing the contractor’s work once he is there.  Again, being specific will only help you to avoid misunderstandings, possible litigation, or even extra liability later on.
 
Perhaps the most important concept to remember for your CA role on a construction project: never agree to “inspect” the contractor’s work.  Your role should be observation to see that the work is in general conformance with your design.  You cannot guarantee the contractor’s work (nor would such be insurable).  Therefore, be careful to use the word “observation” and not the word “inspect” in your CA description.
 
What have been your construction observation experiences? Drop me a line and tell me your story.  (And thanks to my many new readers to the blog this week!).
 
 
 
 Photo (c) Mark Hogan via CC.
 
 

 

Standard of Care for Engineers- the Jury Instruction (law note)

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Not perfection I’ve previously talked about the standard of care for design professionals on construction projects. 

As you should be aware, the standard is reasonableness, not perfection.  To illustrate the point, consider a standard North Carolina jury instruction on the standard of care for engineers:

 “Under our law, a professional engineer is required to exercise that degree of care which a professional engineer of ordinary skill and prudence would exercise under the same or similar circumstances, and if the engineer fails to exercise such degree of ordinary skill and prudence under the same or similar circumstances, the engineer’s conduct would be negligence.”

For an architect, just substitute the word “architect” for “engineer” in the jury instruction above.    Sometimes it can be challenging to meet a client’s expectations, and some clients believe that plans should (and can) be perfect.  In your discussions about the project with the client, be sure the client has reasonable expectations.  It is not reasonable to expect perfection in design plans.  Unforeseen conditions, changing criteria, and differing code inspector interpretations are all to be expected.  Educate your client about typical errors & omissions at the start of the construction project.
 
Do you have a question about the standard of care?  Drop me an email at [email protected].  Be sure to sign up for email delivery of blog posts directly to your inbox so you never miss a post!
 

Online Marketing Primer for Architects & Engineers (Tue Tip Guest Post)

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 Today’s Tip is a guest post by Andy Durban, who manages Inspired Builder Marketing Solutions in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Inspired has been providing marketing services to the building industry of North Carolina for nearly ten years.  Andy has been involved in marketing and media since the late 80s and currently specializes in online marketing strategies.  The back link referenced in this article belongs to Inspired client Cirrus Construction.

There are still a few industries that benefit from a yellow page ad, if you are reading this blog you’re probably not in one. The internet search has been in popular use for quite some time and that’s not going to change anytime soon. No doubt you have been exposed to the hype surrounding social media, but no one is ‘Facebooking’ Architect, they ‘Google’ Architect. You may have great website which in itself has value but if doesn’t rank well then it will only be available to those already aware of your business. There are businesses looking for you and they use Google (and sometimes Yahoo or even Bing). And as you know from searching yourself they rarely go beyond the first ten results.

open phone book

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Every business with a website at some point has asked the question “how do we increase our rankings?” Let’s start with a somewhat simplistic view of the process.  The search engine’s job is to find the most qualified results for your search and they normally do a pretty good job. The way the search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) do this is somewhat simple. Let’s use Widget manufacturers to demonstrate. Widget manufacturer ‘A’ has 100 employees; they have a full marketing staff including a copy writer, a technical writer, a PR writer, a webmaster and a team of engineers. Widget manufacturer ‘B’ works out of his garage and has himself a part time helper and sometimes his wife. Why does manufacturer A have an advantage?

Google (and the others) use two basic parameters to determine rankings, ‘content’ and ‘back linking’. A back link is a hyperlink on one site pointing to another. Metal Building Greensboro is a valuable back link to a local commercial builder. Google sees this as vote of confidence of that site and gives the builder ‘brownie points’. Content is simply the number of times key words are used legitimately on a website. Those key words will be found in the URL, the page file name, the page’s title tag, page copy, and alt attributes (used to identify images and graphics). Widget manufacturer A is adding keyphrase rich content to their site at very high rate, articles, case studies, news, instructions, FAQs, etc., even the engineers are helping by blogging technical information. Some of that content will warrant back links from other websites like the Widget Manufactures Association, Widget Digest and the Widget Buyers Guide. Widget manufacturer B is exhausted at the end of the day and barely has time respond to his email. His website is the same as it was five years ago.  Widget manufacturer A will likely rank top 5 in the top three search engines while Widget manufacturer B will not likely appear even on the first few pages and as stated searchers rarely check beyond the first page (ten results per page).

I have had clients express concerns about too much content on their websites– people don’t have time to read anymore! Well I agree to an extent: the website on its surface is a brochure. When we design a brochure for a client we do keep it brief and to the point. Your website is a brochure but potentially so much more; embedded links provide the opportunity for further investigation on a particular subject. So you are serving different personality types by providing more information. A marketing Director visiting the site may browse critical bullet points, while an engineer wants to gain as much information as possible before making a decision.

It’s that simple but of course not that easy; it takes effort. First, know what are your most valuable search terms. Then make a concerted effort to impact your website in a significant way on a daily basis with the intent of serving your client base. Eventually your site will rank top ten for your most valuable search terms. Once you get to this point, an analysis of your site’s stats will reveal opportunities that you never considered before. There’s gold in those ranking!

Comments or questions about your online marketing efforts? Share with Andy and me in the comments section, below.

Photo (c) How Can I Recycle This via CC.