Welcome to 2015.  ArCH’s agenda is sort of like the Led Zepplin CD: The Song Remains the Same.  There are significant programs begun in 2014 and before and those are continuing and expanding:

MEMBERSHIP: Ken Parel-Sewell, ArCH, became our Membership Manager in 2014.  ArCH grew by about 1/3 in 2014 and we look forward to even better expansion in 2015.

ArCHforms & ArCHstore: These were both implemented in 2014 and we now have electronic products available.  ArCH members receive substantial discounts.

ONLINE ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS: ArCH now has PayPal online payment capability.

ArCHspec: We are hoping to have this available on the ArCHstore perhaps in February 2015.  Concise, 2015 code-references built in, 40 years of residential architectural knowledge, focused data entry sections with bulk of sections on auto-pilot, Time honored historic CSI 0-16 Division headings (+1 for low voltage).  To the point.  Special energy value declaration sections, structural load sections and much, much more. ArCHspec actually makes it less time consuming and more enjoyable to prepare specs for your residential projects.  And help your Clients and improve your projects while keeping you out of trouble. ArCH member price will be substantially discounted.

ArCHdes (Design Excellence Selection): Created to recognize the quality designs of ArCH members.  The ArCHdes will have unheard of categories of awards for not only architectural beauty, but also for effectiveness of solution, various residential styles, quality of CDs, quality of details, and other categories awarding ArCH member residential designs.

ArCHmag: ArCH is launching an electronic magazine in 2015, tied to the ArCHdes.  Through the efforts of Ken Parel-Sewell, ArCH, Leigh Hebert, ArCH, and James Spencer, ArCH, a new website linked to the ArCH website is intended to have an e-magazine format, with ArCH member projects, advertising from manufacturers and others, and articles of interest to residential Architects and their Clients.  A new edition every quarter is presently planned.  Each previous edition will be automatically archived on the new e-mag website.  Projects features by ArCH members will be considered for the ArCHdes awards program.  This is a great way for ArCH members to gain global exposure for their projects.

CRAfts:  The ArCH Certified Residential Architects focus team system is being created.  Rand Soellner, ArCH, Rodney Kazenske, ArCH and Craig Isaac, ArCH have created the massive outline for this ambitious program.  The idea is to convey knowledge earned through hard knocks and life experiences of seasoned residential Architects through a focused battery of CEUs and testing, culminating in the earning of the first and only global Certification of a Residential Architect. Practicing residential architecture is the most complex type of architecture in which we can engage.  Finally, recognizing this, ArCH is creating the only program in the world to package critical knowledge packets into Continuing Education Units that will not only provide you with information you need to do a better job, but to also obtain your yearly learning credits for licensure.  CRAfts is only available to licensed Architects.  ArCH member price will be substantially discounted.

ArCHceu:  Craig Isaac, ArCH and Rodney Kazenske, ArCH are working to obtain national certification for ArCH for various Continuing Education Unit programs.  This has a relationship to the CRAfts program, although the ArCHceu effort is more oriented to manufacturer’s educational modules.  ArCHceu is presently planned as being free to ArCH members.

ArCHvid: John Hrivank, ArCH, is preparing a script for a new ArCH video: VALUE OF A HOME ARCHITECT.  It is hoped that this first video will be produced in 2015.  PR information for public exposure through the ArCH website, social media links and wherever we can obtain a channel.  We want the public to understand what licensed Architects do that results in improved residential architecture and how this is a value to any homeowner.  The hope is that more people will hire more licensed Architects to design their homes, resulting in better SFR (Single Family Residential) housing nationwide and an improved marketplace in which we can all practice our craft.

ArCHnote: ArCH Numbered Notation System: Rand Soellner, ArCH is almost ready to release this system of numbered notes for CDs (Construction Documents).  Strongly linked to the ArCHspec, using historic CSI prefix note numbers, the ArCHnote helps us all to code each note on our drawings by construction trade, assisting each Subcontractor to understand what work applies to them, and helping the GC (General Contractor) to precode the notes on drawings (and specifications) so that their subs understand their scopes of work.  This type of system began in the 1980s for commercial projects and multi-family projects and is finally being brought into the SFR realm.  The main benefits: less clutter on your drawings, better coordination between specs, notes and drawings and better Contractor coordination.

Code of Hammurabi (1754 BC): laws created by the 6th Babylonian King, Hammurabi, to create order in the world. One of these laws severely punishes a builder whose house they have constructed for another collapses.

ArCH-RASoC2014: ArCH added this to the ArCH website in 2014.  It is the ONLY architectural Standard of Care presently active, of which we know in the world, since Hammurabi’s time (1754 BC).  And this Standard of Care is the Residential Architecture Standard of Care, 2014 edition.  For the first time, anywhere, there is a SoC that names what minimum requirements there must be for an agreed-to level of care for residential architects.  This SoC is electronically linked to the ArCH-AOA2015 (Architect-Owner Agreement), which defines the SoC we all must take on our projects.  Not only this, but it also prevents Attorneys for Clients and other parties from inventing standards of care to which none of us have agreed to, in legal situations.  Finally: a SoC for residential architecture.  Makes you wonder why other architectural organizations haven’t created a SoC for commercial projects, doesn’t it?

RESIDENTIAL BUILDING CODES: In 2014, ArCH began a current latest published edition listing of residential codes:
https://www.archomes.org/residential-building-codes

ArCH ExComm:  The ArCH Executive Committee meets on Skype nearly every Wednesday night at 8:30PM EDT. Any ArCH member in good standing is presently welcome to join the ExComm and receive assignments to handle important issues for our organization. We can make this offer up until we reach 9 or 10 people, then Skype breaks. We typically have from 3 to 6 these days, so you are welcome to join. Become part of the leadership committee running this vital professional organization.

In only a few weeks, the long-awaited RESIDENTIAL SPECIFICATIONS by ArCH will be published and made available to everyone.  Suggested MSRP: $2,750 for non-ArCH people, $1,500 for ArCH members.  Nowhere in the universe, at present, do professional residential construction specifications exist for Licensed Architects to use.  Sure, you can always start with a more expensive and gigantic commercial project specification system,  then try to pare that down to what your practice typically needs to have in its residential project specs, but what a huge chore!

ArCHspec (C) Copyright 2014, ArCH: Architects Creating Homes, LLC, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Why not obtain your copy of ArCHspec?  The only specifications written by Licensed Residential Architects for Licensed Residential Architects, from the only professional organization in the USA representing Licensed Architects who practice Residential Architecture.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

ArCHspec is prepared in AutoCad2015LT, set up for publishing with your sheet borders for 24″x36″ plotting.  If you use different size sheets, you can easily copy, paste and move the modular ArCHspec Divisions and Sections and paragraphs to be relocated however you want: your choice.  Once you buy ArCHspec; it’s yours.  You are licensed to use it however you wish for your projects, understanding that you are responsible for what you include in your project documents.

This ArCHspec screen capture illustrates the never-before systematization of Roof & Wall Load definitions. This partial view also illustrates the one-of-a-kind “Code References” (in italics cyan), relating to the latest version of the IRC, which makes the chore of your code checking a snap. Also, relationships between PSF pressure and wind MPH are indicated (for review by your Structural Engineer), and the Live Load + Dead Load formula for the Total Load are indicated, making this process swift and simple.

Why is ArCHspec in AutoCad rather than a book (8-1/2″x11″) format?  If you want to do that, you may do so.  However, ArCH’s membership has typically experienced that if the specifications for residential projects are not included on the same size sheets and in the drawing bound set, that Contractors, Subcontractors and material providers are much less likely to find them, if at all.  ArCH’s philosophy is to keep the specs with the drawings so no Contractor can say: “What specs?”  Also, having the specifications included within a single, large AutoCad file creates a workflow where project Architects and staff can easily zoom around the project documents to coordinate the drawings and specifications, to a level never experienced before.  You’ll experience better coordination between your specifications, drawings and numbered notes with the ArCHspec system.

Ever seen an Energy code/ insulation spec section look like this before? Here you can easily and swiftly determine and declare your project’s Climate Zone by sliding the selector arrows and selection boxes right or left for zone and moistness. Also, there is a never-before seen “Code vrs. Architect standards” discussion area where the IECC code sections are declared, along with the Architect’s higher standards (for increased energy performance), as desired, then a Conclusion section for each area of energy consideration, such as FENESTRATION, or ROOF/CEILINGS and the others as defined in the IECC. This unique approach gives you, as the Architect, the unparalleled ability to not only state the Code, but to allow you to declare specifically where you choose to exceed Code and with what level of insulation or other factors you are requiring the Contractor to comply. And this is just a small part of the Energy section in the ArCHspec. Graphic. Easy to understand. Code research built in to IECC.

Some ArCH members are working on copying some of the ArCHspec numbered paragraphs and Numbered Notes into AutoDesk Revit, as reference notes for your drawings.  This process is being developed and will likely not be available when ArCHspec is first released.

ArCHspec seriously considered various Division organization schemes, but ultimately determined that an old-school CSI Division 1-16, plus a Division 17 Low Voltage, plus a Division 0 Project Scope/Bid Forms handled everything nicely.  The current 48+ CSI Division sections was deemed too complex for most people  working on the job to remember.  However, most construction and design personnel seem to have not much difficulty remembering the ArCHspec Division 0-17 Divisions, mainly due to its adherence to decades of familiarity in the industry.  This also helps trades understand the numbered paragraphs used in ArCH spec and how they and other Numbered Notes relate to various areas of the project.

ArCHspec also has many cameo details built into the specs, right next to the spec text discussing the condition.  There has been wide differences of opinion about specifications being only words and drawings being mainly graphics, but today’s complex projects demand an approach that is the most direct possible.  And if your project Master Details haven’t yet addressed all of these conditions, you’ll feel relieved to know that the details included in ArCHspec were created by Licensed Architects who have been detailing, specifying and designing homes (and large commercial projects) for over 33 years.

You may have noticed discussion about Numbered Notes.  It is being debated right now, whether to include the ArCHnotes in the same file as the ArCHspec.  The committee is leaning toward including the ArCHnotes.  The ArCHnotes allow you, as the Architect, to conveniently use specification paragraph numbers and other ArCHspec System organic notes (that are all very similar to the traditional CSI numbering system) right on your drawings.  This creates a never-before seen level of coordination between your Drawings, Numbered Notes and Specifications.  Tired of messy drawings with wall-to-wall text notes making it hard to read the graphics?  Get ArCHspec: the only specification system with numbered paragraphs and the ArCHnotes Numbered Notation system.  For true unification of specs and drawings.  The unified field theory (UFT) for architectural documentation.

Does this sound like something that shouldn’t stop with residential architecture?  Should this also be applied to commercial architecture?  Of course.  If you run a company that creates both commercial architecture and residential projects, you may want to buy ArCHspec just to obtain the numbering system(s) to help you organize your overall practice.  Know that this numbering system began with architectural documentation on large Airport, Educational, Multi-Family, Theme Park, Industrial, Mercantile, Office, Governmental, Military and other project types, where the amount of notes on a sheet couldn’t be tolerated as pure text, and where the various trades needed to understand what notes applied to each of them.  This system has been fine-tuned for custom residential projects.

So the next time you are concerned that your lack of specifications (or quality thereof) for your residential projects could result in some big problems for you, your Client, the Contractor, Subcontractors and material providers, you might want to do your practice and your projects a huge favor and get ArCHspec.  What you see is what you get: no complicated database programs to master, no tricky software.  Just text, AutoCad graphics and JPGs on an AutoCad file.  What could be simpler?  And everything is editable.  Want to change something? Go right ahead.

Soon to be on the ArCHstore, purchase available with your favorite credit card through PayPal.

Yeah; sure.  But the results aren’t the same:

This funny image from  Lee Martin, Architect in Ft. Lauderdale:

Lee says he’s going to share this with his clients that say they know someone who can design their house cheaper.  The operative word here: “cheaper” in all senses of the word.

I just completed working with an Attorney who used an agreement (from another major architectural society who will remain nameless) for the contract between one of my Clients and the GC (General Contractor).  I was aghast at what that contract software compelled my Client’s Attorney to do.  It mandated that he provide an affidavit complete with all of the text that was changed, in strikeout font, that he and I and our Client needed to have amended from the stock agreement, and it added this affidavit after the main agreement, itself.  In other words, several additional, confusing pages were added to this contract, after the contract itself.  To what purpose?  This makes no sense, and would only confuse both Client and Contractor. In contracts, ArCH has a main method: brevity, wherever possible. So, this other agreement from another organization wasn’t abiding by that philosophy.

I asked the Attorney to remove this silly and anal listing of all the text that was changed in the agreement.  Who needs to see all that goobledegook?  The Contractor is a competent licensed GC, who comes highly recommended from both a local Structural Engineer and a local Architect (he built the Architect’s house).  He is an easy-going country guy and would wonder what the heck we were trying to pull, if we provided this version of the contract to him, complete with everything that was changed.  So, my firm has requested that the Attorney please provide us with a PDF of the agreement without all that “stuff” in it.  He has agreed to do so.

I guess ArCH is going to have to create its own Client- GC agreement so that such shenanigans are no longer perpetrated on residential Architects, their Clients and their Contractors.   Okay: it is on the ArCH agenda.

ArCH members Craig Isaac, ArCH and Rand Soellner, ArCH, were interviewed by Enoch Sears, ArCH, on Enoch’s Business of Architecture show recently and this has now been posted on the Business of Architecture website. Click here for the link:

ArCH Interview

ArCH encourages all ArCH members and especially other Architects who design homes, to listen to this interview to find out more about ArCH and why all Architects who design residential architecture might wish to consider becoming a member of ArCH.

ArCH membership can now be paid for through PayPal & your favorite credit card.  Soon the ArCHstore will be opened, offering ArCHforms and more.  But that’s a subject for other posts.

Hello ArCH Members,

Some of you may be wondering:

“How can I help spread the word about ArCH into the World at large?”
We don’t have a huge budget and certainly at the present time can’t afford paid ads anywhere.  So what can you do?

Well, check out this page on the ArCH website:

https://www.archomes.org/posting-arch-page-urls-to-social-media

That’s the page on our ArCH website that tells you how to post links to various ArCH website pages onto your social media accounts.  If you find certain pages on the ArCH website that speak to you, you might want to share those with the World.  Please do so!  And Thank You !

Hello ArCH members,

During the latest ArCH ExComm (Executive Committee) Skype video conference, Rand Soellner, ArCH and John Hrivnak, ArCH, were discussing the subject of As-Built drawings.  John mentioned that he had information from attorneys suggesting that Architects should  never call these drawings “As-Builts”, as that name implies that this is exactly how things were built.  John said that the attorneys suggested that Architects instead call them “Record Drawings.”  ArCH members are advised to do so and furthermore, to attach some disclaimer that states how the Record Drawing measurements were taken and that this includes some error and that the Record Documents are not intended as perfect or precise and that the Contractor will be required to verify and confirm the accuracy of the conditions established as a result of using the Record Documents.

Home Architects (Rand Soellner’s company) now uses this numbered drawing note in their A14 series Numbered Drawing Note sheets as well as directly on the Record Drawings:

“Any “Record Drawings” or “Record” information from the Architect or others are not perfect and are likely based on convenient and incomplete field measurement using tape measures and other imprecise means.  Contractor is required to verify any “record” documents, record dimensions, locations and conditions in the field and adjust proposed improvements to coordinate with the actual field conditions.”

Each of you may wish to adopt your own language that you feel works for your firm.