ROSENWASSER / GROSSMAN CONSULTING ENGINEERS
RGCE HIGH-RISE CONCRETE ENGINEERING
CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS
The Design isn't finished when the calculations are finished.
A structural design ultimately has to be communicated to the people who are going to build it. At RGCE, construction document production is not simply the final step in the engineering process. It is part of the engineering process.
A good structural drawing must communicate an enormous amount of information clearly and efficiently. What is shown, where it is shown, how elements are identified, the hierarchy of information on the page, and even the size and placement of text all affect how easily a drawing can be understood.
Our approach to producing those drawings has been evolving for more than 70 years.
IT STARTED WITH A PENCIL
When RGCE was founded in 1954, construction documents were produced by hand by draftsmen formally trained in the craft of technical drafting.
Good drafting followed a methodology. There were conventions for how structural elements should be represented, where dimensions and notes should be placed, how information should be organized, and what to do when the ideal location for that information wasn't available. Text size, spacing, line weights and proximity were controlled deliberately.
And there was also a little artistry involved.
Those principles can still be seen in RGCE's archive of original hand-drafted structural drawings. They established a visual language for communicating structural design that became part of the firm's institutional knowledge.
THE TOOLS CHANGED. THE STANDARD DIDN'T.
When RGCE transitioned to AutoCAD in the 1990s, we didn't simply accept the drawings the software naturally produced. We developed office standards intended to translate the firm's established hand-drafting conventions into a digital environment.
Line weights, fonts, symbols, dimensions, leaders, notes and drawing organization were deliberately configured so that an RGCE AutoCAD drawing retained the clarity and character of the drawings that preceded it.
When RGCE began transitioning to Revit in 2010, we approached it the same way.
REVIT CAN PRODUCE A TERRIBLE DRAWING.
Revit is an extraordinarily powerful engineering and documentation tool. But powerful software does not automatically produce good construction documents.
Out of the box, a building information model can generate drawings that are technically correct yet cluttered, inconsistent or difficult to read. RGCE invested significant effort developing Revit families, templates, graphic standards and office procedures so that the software would conform to our standards—not the other way around.
The objective was never to make our drawings look like Revit drawings. The objective was to make Revit produce RGCE drawings.
IF IT'S IMPORTANT, PUT IT ON THE PLANS.
That's an old RGCE office motto, and it reflects a fundamental philosophy about construction documents.
Specifications, general notes and typical details are essential parts of a contract-document set. But we don't believe they should become substitutes for complete structural plans.
Important project-specific information buried in a specification can be missed during bidding. A typical detail may be open to interpretation when applied to an unusual condition. And when critical information isn't shown clearly on the plans, questions that could have been resolved during design are instead pushed downstream—to bidders, detailers, inspectors and ultimately the field.
Our objective is to resolve and communicate as much as possible before the drawings leave our office.
THE PLANS SHOULD STAND ON THEIR OWN.
RGCE structural plans are extensively dimensioned and coordinated. We don't simply refer the contractor to the architectural drawings for the location of structural elements. Dimensions and coordinates are incorporated into our own plans so that the structural documents provide an independent representation of the design.
That redundancy is intentional.
When the architectural and structural drawings independently document critical dimensions and coordinates, the two sets of documents provide a valuable backcheck. A discrepancy can be identified, questioned and resolved by the design team before it becomes someone else's problem.
If the structural drawings contain no dimensional information and simply refer to the architectural documents, that opportunity is lost.
Two coordinated sets of information provide a backcheck. One set and a reference does not.
SHOW THE OPENINGS.
RGCE endeavors to show all known penetrations and openings on our structural plans.
We do this for two reasons.
First, putting the openings on our drawings requires our engineers to consider them as part of the structural design. A penetration adjacent to a column, shear wall or other critical structural element isn't simply a coordination issue. It may affect reinforcing, punching shear, flexural capacity or the behavior of the structural system itself.
Second, showing the openings establishes a clear record of what has been reviewed and incorporated into the design. During detailing, inspection and construction, the structural plans provide a means of distinguishing between an opening that was anticipated and coordinated and one that was not.
If it's important enough to affect the structure, it's important enough to show on the structural plans.
GOOD DOCUMENTS MOVE WORK UPSTREAM.
Incomplete construction documents don't necessarily eliminate work. They move the work to a later—and usually more expensive—stage of the project.
Ambiguities become RFIs. Missing dimensions become coordination questions. Unclear typical details become shop-drawing comments. Uncoordinated penetrations become field issues. Scope that wasn't readily apparent during bidding can become a change-order discussion.
RGCE's philosophy is to resolve as much of that work as practical during design, when the architects, engineers and consultants are engaged and changes are comparatively easy to make.
The objective isn't to put more information on a drawing simply for the sake of having more information.
The objective is to produce structural construction documents that are accurate, coordinated, easy to read, easy to follow and readily translated into the field with fewer questions and fewer opportunities for mistakes.