Introduction to Construction Administration

5m 41s




So now we're gonna take a look at the construction and administration exam. Remember that the NCARB 5.0 Exam is set up as two stand-alone exams, so practice management, which is all about kind of running a practice, getting insurance, dealing with employees, things like that, project management, which is the sort of overall idea of going from the beginning to the end so the contracts and getting a team together, all of those kinds of topics. And then the next four are sequential. They're chronological for a typical project.

How does a project work? So the first one of that, which would be Exam Number Three is all about programming. So it's gonna be about those early decisions that you make, kind of the beginning phases of getting a project and kind of what sort of sets the project off in the direction it's gonna go. And then the Fourth Exam would be planning. So that's that one where you're really getting into kind of schematic design, design development, kind of moving a project along from a real design standpoint.

So you've left from just programming ideas into actual designs. And then the Fifth Exam is the documentation exam, and so that's the exam that we really get into CD sets, that's where we started to talk about permitting, and kind of how do you explain a design? How do you talk about? How do you show it? What's the drawing, what's the project manual, all of that kind of work. And then the sixth one is the one we're talking about here, and that is, what's the role of the architect in the construction phase?

So in that four sequence, we've gone all the way from the beginning of a project all the way through to now it's under construction, what is the role of the architect to do in that point of the project? So one of the things to take away from that, just understanding that flow of how those exams are related to each other, is there's going to be a number of moments where things get repeated along the way, and there's a few moments where you have one topic that legitimately shows up in both exams, in two different exams.

So one example for that on this is the idea of putting together a bid set. In many ways, the bid set is really a discussion for Exam Five, it's sort of the end result of the documentation discussion, but it's also part of, and hard to separate from, the understanding of the role of the architect during the construction process. So the bid information will show up on Exam Five in very clear ways, but it will also show up in Exam Six in many ways.

So there'll be a number of different issues that show up on multiple exams, but what this exam is gonna be talking about, what we're really gonna be focusing on here is what's the role of the architect during the construction phase? So we'll be looking at the process of analyzing bids, we'll be talking about the idea of negotiating. So once you have bidders in the mix, now you're sort of at the stage where you're helping the client negotiate which is going to be the actual general contractor, how you're gonna make those decisions, how you're gonna evaluate the bids.

Then once the construction is moving along, now we're getting into construction observation. And when we talk about construction observation, we really have to be talking about the idea of communicating that observation, because it's not just that you're going and looking, you're actually going and looking for a purpose. You're going there to be the eyes of client, of the owner, to be able to tell them if things are sort of going along as planned, or if there's something that they should know about, there's deficiencies of some kind.

So a big part of that idea of going and doing site visits and things like that is really about the idea of communicating that information not only to the owner but potentially to funders, being in communication with the contractors. All of that stuff is sort of all about controlling all of that information and making sure everybody knows exactly what's going on during the construction process.

And then construction support, this is clearly the thing that takes most of the time of the architect during the construction phase. This is where you're reviewing shop drawings, looking at submittals, your part of the payout process, you're taking about substantial completion. All of those things that you have to do in order to keep a project rolling along. So there's lots of information that the contractors are going to need as the project rolls forward, but that just doesn't make it on for one reason or another onto the CD sets.

It's just not believable that every piece of information will make it into a project manual or into a drawing. But there will be pieces of information or things that come up or code officials will review things that will alter the way that we think about them. There's a whole series of things that will come up that have to be responded to so that the contractor has the ability to keep moving forward on the project. And your role is to be helpful for the client to be able to make sure they understand what's going on, but also to be sort of part of the team to keep the project going so that the contractor has all the information they need in order to be able to make the decisions they need in order to keep the project moving along.

So, there's a number of different points along the way that we have specific roles and then there's a number of points along the way where we have more intangible kind of consultant type roles both for the client and for the GC. But it's an important set of roles in order to keep a project going forward. So we're gonna take a look at all of those different issues and talk about the ones that really are likely to jump out on the exam.

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From the course:
ARE 5.0 Construction & Evaluation Exam Prep

Duration: 11h

Author: Mike Newman