Following their respective conventions in May, representatives of the AIA and Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) continue to align Draft 4 of the proposed MasterFormat expansion with the interests of architects and constructors and with the next generation of AIA documents.

Just posted for review and comment on the CSI Web site is an outline of Draft 4 of the significantly revised MasterFormat, the design-profession and construction-industry standard for organizing specifications for nonresidential construction. The complete text of Draft 4 will be published in late August.

At a meeting May 7 in San Diego, MasterFormat Expansion Task Team Chair Dennis J. Hall, FCSI, AIA, addressed issues raised by AIA Documents Committee Chair Barbara Heller, FAIA, and David Altenhofen, AIA. Altenhofen has been serving since December 2002 as the AIA representative in negotiations with CSI concerning the MasterFormat expansion. Also in attendance were AIA Documents Managing Director Suzanne Harness, AIA, Esq.; AIA Knowledge Resources Managing Director Richard Hayes, AIA; and Edward (Ted) Smith, FAIA, president of ARCOM, publishers of the AIA specifications tool, MASTERSPEC.

CSI is undertaking the most comprehensive rewrite of MasterFormat in the product’s nearly 40-year history. With building systems developing rapidly, Hall pointed out, various groups within the design professions and construction industry have been adding their own “Division 17” to the current 16-division master specifications format. Moreover, he said, room within the existing format for subcategories was running out.

The new edition will address existing topics more fully, add new topics, and expand coverage to heavy civil-engineering projects (such as roads and bridges) and industrial construction. Draft 4 has 50 division numbers, some of which are reserved for future growth. The draft includes the current MasterFormat basic structure for the traditional architectural divisions and adds separate divisions for mechanical, fire suppression, electrical, communications, safety and security, and integrated building systems. Another feature giving Draft 4 significant room for future growth is a proposed six-digit numbering system for the sections within divisions.

The CSI/CSC MasterFormat Expansion Task Team work, which has been ongoing for about three years, includes representation from affiliated organizations, hundreds of presentations, and regular articles in Construction Specifier, the CSI monthly magazine, and numerous other professional and industry publications, Hall said.

Nonetheless, various groups have voiced alarm in recent months at the proposed pace of the rollover to a new specifications master format. The task team initially planned to complete work on Draft 4 in April 2003, have the draft available for commentary through June, produce a final manuscript in July, and deliver to the publisher by October 2003. CSI has altered that schedule to accommodate substantial alterations in Draft 4 and in response to requests from affiliated groups such as the AIA and Associated General Contractors. The commentary period is now open until November 7. The task team plans to have a completed document on December 19, 2003, with production and industry education taking up the bulk of 2004. Pre-sales of the new document are scheduled for this spring, with delivery expected in September to December 2004. CSI will begin education programs in July 2004. CSI is considering joint sales and education alliances with other professional and trade organizations, Hall said. He projected that those firms that adopt the new format will be making that conversion in 2005, with January 2006 to be the final conversion date set by CSI.

But why?
Heller raised the issue at the May 7 meeting that the typical practitioners will spend a substantial amount of time implementing this change in their work and would want CSI to help users understand the potential long-term benefits. Will this facilitate coordination with object-oriented CAD programs? Is it integrated with the OmniClass Construction Classification System (OCCS)? She understands, she said, that entities such as McGraw-Hill and ARCOM are in need of larger classification systems to accommodate the entire universe of building products in their databases, but most architecture firms don’t face the same situation. The Library of Congress may be running out of numbers, she added as an analogy, but the branch libraries aren’t, yet they are still being forced to revise their entire card catalogue and renumber all their books to adapt to the new system.

This isn’t just a small-firm issue; large firms are raising the same questions, interjected Altenhofen, who works in the Kling Philadelphia office, which alone has about 500 employees.

Hall answered with an analogy of his own. This effort is looking ahead to a time in the near future when building-project information flow is going to be so massive and fast that automation-and, therefore, a strict organization of data-will be absolutely necessary. Everybody thought CAD was burdensome when it first came into architecture 20 years ago. Now it’s necessary and mostly intuitive. The new MasterFormat is no different, he said.

Another issue Altenhofen raised is the apparent redundancy in materials references. Hall agreed. Piping for a handrail may be identical to piping for a fire-suppression system, but it is specified in different sections, Hall concurred. MasterFormat is an organizational tool for work results, not for specific products or services, he explained. For a universal organizing tool for products and services, one can turn to systems such as OCCS, he said.

The meeting broke up with concurrence that the AIA and CSI MasterFormat Expansion Task Team will continue the dialogue begun last December and continued in May. Chief among the agreements reached during the meeting was that Hall will work with the AIA Documents Committee to establish a consensus between definition of terms used in both the MasterFormat Draft 4 and future revisions to the AIA contract documents, which the committee is just beginning for such keystone documents as the A201 owner/contractor agreement and B141 owner/architect agreement. The last revision to those documents was in 1997, and the 2007 editions should be ready soon after CSI predicts the industry conversion to the newly expanded MasterFormat.

—Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA

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