I Love Research!

Look familiar?

I was never a great student. I didn't have good study habits. I was a poor test taker and I struggled paying attention during class. I was a day-dreamer. But, I did put in the effort. I did care and I tried. That was enough for some teachers to give me a B or C grade. I was average in primary school all the way through college. I do, however, remember being able to spell certain words in pre-school ahead of other kids, an ability that my mother attributes to watching Sesame Street and the Electric Company. And I did graduate college with a Bachelor of Architecture. Those two accomplishments are pretty much the highlights-- bookends to twenty-something years spent in lectures and labs. In between those two points in time, however, one more highlight comes to mind. In the summer between eighth and ninth grades, I learned how to research and track down information. I learned how to be resourceful--and I was pretty good at it.

It was my older sister, Tracy, already in high school and active in Debate--and who, by the way, was a good student and possessed traits I never enjoyed, who convinced me to sign up for a summer Debate Camp at Illinois State Universtiy, located in Normal, Illinois, where we lived. It may have been a one week endeavor though I have such fond memories, I want to say it may have been two weeks long. Looking back, it was a pretty nerdy thing to do I suppose but it turned into a great experience for me. I met good friends, had much fun, made life-long memories. Above all, I gained confidence in a task that I really enjoyed-- visiting the library and sifting through the musty card catalog in search of sources of knowledge on some random topic. Truly, I miss the card catalog!

Not surprisingly, however, I was average at Debating too--something I continued to do through some of my high school years. But though I may not have been particularly good at turning all of the research into convincing arguments, I did learn how to use the library--and it became a place I enjoyed spending time. I loved research. And while the card catalog is long gone, the research tools and information available on the internet is astounding. The library today is hardly contained by four walls and a roof.

It turns out that being good at research and tracking down information is quite useful to the architect. When designing, there are all sorts of materials, systems, codes and industry standards that we need to know. If you're working on a project inside a municipality, there's also ordinances to understand. There are layers upon layers of information available and necessary to know. Adding to this, we are awash in new products and technologies that enter the construction industry on a regular basis--always providing the designer something different with which to experiment.

So enter what architects call specifications, or "specs" for short. These are the technical requirements of any project. While the architectural drawings indicate the "where" of something, specifications describe the "what" and "how". They spell out the performance standards of materials, the expectations in regards to material delivery and installation. Without them, how is the contractor or subcontractors supposed to know what is expected? As crucially, how are you, the owner, the one paying for the project, protecting your investment, if this important information is missing?

The act of building today is a complex and expensive activity. That remains true for both residential and commercial construction. The architect is the one professional that is trained and experienced at orchestrating the entire process, from discussing and exploring early possibilites from sketching to stamping a completed set of drawings and specifications that complement each other in describing the entire project to the general contractor and team of subcontractors and suppliers. Those drawings and specifications then become an integral part of the legal and binding contractural agreement between a project's owner and their general contractor. For anyone considering spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, why would you not insist on a well designed and well researched and written set of specifications?

You absolutely should!