Safe Building Materials. The technical specifications provided by the architect should be continually updated to eliminate any materials that are potential health hazards to occupants or construction workers, such as materials that give off gas within the occupied spaces. In addition, requirements in local, national, and international building codes to reduce fire and smoke hazards should be met. Occupational Health and Safety Issues. As discussed in the preceding, architects should exercise professional care in design and specification of all architectural and building systems to create a state-of-the-art building offering a safe, healthy environment for all occupants, visitors, and users. Recycled Materials. In todays environment, architects should understand that their designs must consider the impact on the ecological health of our society. With this in mind, architects should work together with the client to develop policies and innovative solutions that will reduce waste and promote the recycling of materials. During development of a project the client normally looks to the architect for construction cost estimates. It is advisable to provide a probable cost of construction at completion of the schematic design, design development, and construction document phases. A design contingency is usually carried in cost estimates. It can be reduced as the documents are further developed. At completion of the construction documents, the architect prepares, or has a consultant prepare, a final and most accurate estimate of construction cost, which can be used for comparison with the bids submitted to perform the work. Value engineering may be performed by consultants and construction managers during the development of the construction documents. (This is a misnomer for cost-reduction engineering, since value engineering should occur before a design has been finalized and construction documents have started. To be effective, value engineering should be undertaken prior to design of any building system. Value engineering should address operating and maintenance costs as well as first costs, to provide true life-cycle cost estimates for comparative analysis. This can be accomplished as early as the conceptual design phase of the project and should use the expertise of cost consultants, if such service is not offered directly by the architect or engineer. Cost analysis should be performed concurrently with technical evaluation of the systems proposed by the architects or engineers, to provide the client with proper information to make an informed decision. The architect and engineer should address cost without compromising the building program, building safety, or desired design and performance of the facility and respond to the client in a professional manner regarding cost estimating and value engineering. Specifications for a building project are written descriptions, and the drawings are a diagrammatic presentation of the construction work required for that project. The drawings and specifications are complementary. Specifications are addressed to the prime contractor. Presenting a written description of the project in an orderly and logical manner, they are organized into divisions and sections representing, in the opinion of the specification writer, the trades that will be involved in construction. Proper organization of the specifications facilitates cost estimating and aids in preparation of bids. The architect should coordinate the specification terminology with that shown on the drawings. 2.17.1 Content of Specifications It is not practical for an architect or engineer to include sufficient notes on the drawings to describe in complete detail all of the products and methods required of a construction project. Detailed descriptions should be incorporated in specifications. For example, workmanship required should be stated in the specifications. Contractors study specifications to determine details or materials required, sequence of work, quality of workmanship, and appearance of the end product. From this information, contractors can estimate costs of the various skills and labor re- quired. If workmanship is not determined properly, unrealistic costs will result and quality will suffer. Good specifications expand or clarify drawing notes, define quality of materials and workmanship, establish the scope of the work, and describe the responsibilities of the contractor. The terms of the contract documents should obligate each contractor to guarantee to the client and the architect or engineer that all labor and materials furnished and the work performed are in accordance with the requirements of the contract documents. In addition, a guarantee should also provide that if any defects develop from use of inferior materials, equipment, or workmanship during the guarantee period (1 year or more from the date of final completion of the contract or final occupancy of the building by the client, whichever is earlier), the contractor must, as required by the contract, restore all unsatisfactory work to a satisfactory condition or replace it with acceptable materials. Also, the contractor should repair or replace any damage resulting from the inferior work and should restore any work or equipment or contents disturbed in fulfilling the guarantee. Difficult and time-consuming to prepare, technical specifications supply a written description of the project, lacking only a portrayal of its physical shape and its dimensions. The specifications describe in detail the material, whether concealed or exposed, in the project and fixed equipment needed for the normal functioning of the project. If they are properly prepared, well-organized, comprehensive, and indexed, the applicable requirements for any type of work, kind of material, or piece of equipment in a project can be easily located. The technical specifications cover the major types of workarchitectural, civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical. Each of these types is further divided and subdivided in the technical specifications and given a general title that describes work performed by specific building trades or technicians, such as plasterers, tile setters, plumbers, carpenters, masons, and sheet-metal workers, to name a few. The prime contractor has the responsibility to perform all work, to furnish all materials, and to complete the project within a schedule. The contractor, therefore, has the right to select subcontractors or perform the work with the contractors own forces. In recognition of this, each specification should contain a statement either in the General Conditions or in the Special Conditions, that, regardless of the subdivision of the technical specifications, the contractor shall be responsible for allocation of the work to avoid delays due to conflict with local customs, rules, and union jurisdictional regulations and decisions. Standard forms for technical specifications can be obtained from the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). The CSI publishes a Master List of Section Titles and Numbers, which is the generally accepted industry standard. In it, technical specifications are organized into 16 divisions, each with titles that identify a major class of work. Each division contains basic units of work, called sections, related to the work described by the division title. Following is the division format developed

Seismic Design Category. The Seismic Design Category is based on the seismic group and the design spectral response acceleration coefficients, SDS and SD1, which will be explained later. The Seismic Design Category for a structure can be determined in accordance with Tables 5.10 and 5.11. Seismic Design Categories are used to determine the permissible structural systems, the limitations on height and irregularity of the structural components that must be designed for seismic resistance and the types of lateral force analysis that must be performed. Seismic Use Groups I and II structures located on sites with mapped maximum considered earthquake spectral response acceleration at 1-second period S1, equal to or greater than 0.75g, shall be assigned to Seismic Design Category E. Seismic Use Group III structures located on such sites shall be assigned to Seismic Design Category F. A structure assigned to Seismic Design Category E or F shall not be sited where there is the potential for an active fault to cause rupture of the ground surface at the structure. Building Irregularity. Building with irregular shapes, changes in mass from floor to floor, variable stiffness with height, and unusual setbacks do not perform well during earthquakes. Thus, for each type of these irregularities, additional design requirements shall be followed to maintain seismic-resisting capacity. IBC 2000 requires that all buildings be classified as regular or irregular based on the plan and vertical configuration. See Tables 5.12 and 5.13 for classification and corresponding

[1  (Kl / r)2 /2C2]F c y F  (7.5) a FS where FS is the safety factor, which varies from 1.67 when Kl/ r  0 to 1.92 when Kl/ r  Cc. FIGURE 7.28 Allowable stresses for axial compression. 5 3Kl / r (Kl / r)3 FS   (7.6) 3 8C 8C3 c c When Kl/ r is greater than Cc: F  (7.7) a 23(Kl / r)2 (Kl / r)2 This is the Euler column formula for elastic buckling with a constant safety factor of 1.92 applied. Increased stresses are permitted for bracing and secondary members with l / r greater than 120. (K is taken as unity.) For such members, the allowable compressive stress is FF  a (7.8) as 1.6  l /200r where Fa is given by Eq. (7.5) or (7.6). The higher stress is justified by the relative FIGURE 7.29 Maximum width-thickness ratios for allowable stress design of compression members. FIGURE 7.29 Maximum width-thickness ratios for allowable stress design of compression members. (Continued ) unimportance of these members and the greater restraint likely at their end connections. The full unbraced length should always be used for l. Tables giving allowable stresses for the entire range of Kl/ r appear in the AISC ASD Manual of Steel Construction. Approximate values may be obtained from Fig. 7.28. Allowable stresses are based on certain minimum sizes of structural members and their elements that make possible full development of strength before premature buckling occurs. The higher the allowable stresses the more stringent must be the dimensional restrictions to preclude buckling or excessive deflections. The AISC ASD specification for structural steel buildings limits the effective slenderness ratio Kl/ r to 200 for columns, struts, and truss members, where K is the ratio of effective length to actual unbraced length l, and r is the least radius of