This morning, my architect-client on a school project forwarded some questions from bidders on the project. 

None of the questions was a surprise.  In fact, I’d asked some of the same questions weeks ago, but the design team hadn’t gotten answers back from the Owner.  (See my post below about how Owners need to respond to questions in a timely manner.)

All members of a team on a construction project look at the drawings differently.  The Owner, the architect, the engineers, the spec writer, the contractor are all looking for different things; we’re all extracting different information from these documents.  The specifications writer looks at the drawings in a way that’s a bit different from the architect’s way, and a bit like the contractor’s way.  (But I don’t do any take-offs or estimating!  Phew!)

So, Owners and architects, take a look at those questions from the spec writer.  Answer those questions before CD’s go out, or you may find bidders asking those same questions a few weeks later!