IFT, that’s it!!! Except for Addendums!

[00:00:00] Issue for tender, what steps are you taking along with your firm to ensure that the set is the right set, it's on time, it's on budget, and that the extras don't follow through once that tender closes. We're going to dive into those details today, so stick around.

[00:00:19] Welcome to What the RFI, I'm Matt Brennan, and this is the podcast all about CA.

[00:00:24] Last week I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Ontario Association of Architects, they had a live webinar, and the webinar was titled IFT, That's It Except for Addendums.

[00:00:38] And what an honor to kind of do this live webinar and discuss the tactics, the strategies, basically to issue a proper set of tender documents.

[00:00:51] And we'll go into the presentation in a minute, but what was really slick about the presentation, how I felt that it came really strong across to the audience, is I talked a lot about at the beginning of the process.

[00:01:05] Because rather than kind of scrambling at the last minute and trying to capture everything, let's lay out the foundation work at the beginning.

[00:01:12] And that's kind of it, it's broken up into three phases, three agendas basically.

[00:01:16] Basically, basically pre-tender, the during the tender, and what can you do afterwards.

[00:01:20] And like I said, we've got to go step by step, we talk about the different phases, and that's it.

[00:01:26] So I'm going to leave it at that, I'm going to be at this point, I'm just going to pass it off, and I'm going to introduce you to this.

[00:01:32] And this is a live recording that came from the webinar itself, so check it out.

[00:01:37] Thank you, Felix, really appreciate the introduction.

[00:01:40] Yeah, my name is Matt Brennan, and today we're going to talk about the whole tender process.

[00:01:46] It's quite a, you know, it's definitely a marathon, and I definitely want to look at that.

[00:01:50] And I guess today's session, we're going to really kind of talk about how kind of basically building the foundations up to it, so we're not scrambling last minute.

[00:01:59] So enough with that, let's get right into it, as the slides will speak for themselves.

[00:02:04] Let me just share my screen here.

[00:02:08] There we go, and that should be coming nice and clear.

[00:02:12] So let's begin.

[00:02:14] So yeah, as Felix noted, IFT, that's it, except for a denim.

[00:02:18] So today's little learning objectives, kind of take note for your credits.

[00:02:24] Basically, we've kind of broken up into four learning objectives, basically the preparation, and just kind of the strategy, how we're getting there, being proactive,

[00:02:31] and basically just doing the right things, drawing checklists, you name it.

[00:02:36] And then, of course, the denim process, what can we expect, how to move forward with it, how to do it the right way, an efficient way.

[00:02:44] And then, of course, we'll wrap it up with basically construction and basically what that means going forward for the project.

[00:02:51] So just kind of getting into a little bit by myself.

[00:02:54] I've been in the industry for about 22 years now, going on 23.

[00:02:58] About 16 years of those have been dedicated to CA alone.

[00:03:01] So I've gone through a number of successful projects, taken it through that.

[00:03:06] For the last decade, probably about 12, 13 years, actually, I've been very involved in K-12, a lot of 21st learning, inclusive washroom designs,

[00:03:15] and basically taking that throughout Vancouver, BC, and developing a number of schools out there in respect to that.

[00:03:22] Also done a lot of high-rises, performing arts theatres, custom million-dollar homes, you name it.

[00:03:28] So I've been around the block, needless to say, throughout Vancouver and full of British Columbia.

[00:03:34] And, of course, if I'm not working, then you'll see me out back, you know, running, jogging, whatever, or in this case, now 4x4ing.

[00:03:42] So let's kind of paint the picture for everyone.

[00:03:44] Here's the scenario.

[00:03:46] Is we've got the project deadline approaching.

[00:03:49] Things are a little bit under pressure.

[00:03:51] It's definitely stressful.

[00:03:53] We might have some incomplete design information.

[00:03:55] We've got, you know, the reality of the coordination happening at the same time.

[00:04:00] And, you know, all throughout this, because deadlines don't necessarily change their dates, is the quality assurance.

[00:04:07] So how do we maintain that?

[00:04:09] How do we get to that point where we issue for tender and we do it well?

[00:04:14] We do it right and we minimize the extras.

[00:04:16] Okay.

[00:04:20] So, and really, I like to paint this really well.

[00:04:23] The simple is, the ultimate goal is we want to minimize the extras, like I said, and we just want to look like a rock star of your clients.

[00:04:29] It's one thing to win the job now, and that's an amazing task on its own.

[00:04:33] But you want to maintain those clients and you want to maintain the additional revenue that could come from that relationship with those clients.

[00:04:40] So if you go in with a bad tender set, lots of RFIs, lots of all that, a lot of extras, you may not get hired again.

[00:04:49] So I think that those are kind of the thing.

[00:04:51] So again, let's dive into it.

[00:04:53] How can we become this?

[00:04:56] So the agenda kind of saying earlier is we basically, we got a pretender, tender and constructions.

[00:05:03] We've kind of broken up in these three segments just to kind of digest it.

[00:05:06] We do have the QAA and open and everything.

[00:05:08] I'll kind of browse it from time to time.

[00:05:10] And, you know, again, I'll check back into it.

[00:05:12] So feel free to drop those questions in.

[00:05:13] And again, I'll take into minute breaks just to kind of check into it.

[00:05:18] So let's get into it.

[00:05:20] So preparing for IFT, let the fun begin.

[00:05:26] So one thing we would do at the very beginning of the project and kind of, again, kind of setting this stage up for this kind of phase one of the milestones is we've already won the job.

[00:05:37] We've met with the client.

[00:05:38] We've done some schematic designs.

[00:05:40] It's just been us, the architects and the clients.

[00:05:44] And that's it at this point.

[00:05:45] Okay.

[00:05:46] We've wrapped that up.

[00:05:47] We've got a schematic design, design developments complete.

[00:05:51] We're ready for the team.

[00:05:52] We're ready to really kick this off and start preparing this documentation.

[00:05:56] So right from day one, we would bring we do our initial consultant kickoff meeting.

[00:06:01] And during that meeting, one of the things that we would do and definitely note in our meeting notes agenda.

[00:06:08] Is we would work always backwards.

[00:06:11] So if let's just take a school, for example, we would look at when does the school need to be open?

[00:06:16] Okay.

[00:06:17] So it has to be opened up by September of, you know, 20,029.

[00:06:22] How long is it going to take to construct?

[00:06:24] Two years.

[00:06:25] Work backwards.

[00:06:26] How long is it going to need for us to do design?

[00:06:28] Work backwards.

[00:06:29] And now you've kind of we'd almost really make Gantt charts, you know, just to help plan and coordinate and keep this information at bay.

[00:06:37] And right from the first consultant kickoff meeting, we would actually note all these meetings.

[00:06:44] We'd all decide on a certain day.

[00:06:45] We lock all the days in the calendar and it was done.

[00:06:49] And the value of that from the team perspective is it there was no question when we went into the 60% meeting, it was I didn't realize this was 60%.

[00:06:59] No, you did.

[00:07:00] It's you had everything right from the get go.

[00:07:03] So you're preparing the team and laying out the groundwork for this basically this plan to be complete.

[00:07:09] And we're going to kind of dive into each of these little subsections in a minute here.

[00:07:14] But that was kind of one of the powerful things that we would do is we lay out those those deadlines, lay it out, make it really clear.

[00:07:22] And then, like I said, each kind of phase we're going to go into.

[00:07:28] So the 30% phase.

[00:07:29] So kind of like as I kind of alluded to the previous slide, we've already done the design development.

[00:07:35] We've worked with the client.

[00:07:36] All those initial kind of meetings have taken place and our base design is now complete.

[00:07:41] Right.

[00:07:41] We've got something to work with.

[00:07:43] The consultants can basically start, you know, reviewing, getting excited about.

[00:07:48] I would say at this point, the geotech has completed the work.

[00:07:52] They probably completed the work a year ago.

[00:07:53] Maybe they're doing some additional assessments because now we've actually located the physical project in the right location.

[00:07:58] So there may or may not be some geotechnical work being done.

[00:08:02] And of course, the owner is taking care of that and hiring them on their own terms.

[00:08:07] The consultants are in the room now.

[00:08:09] They can start to design.

[00:08:10] Right.

[00:08:11] They can start working it.

[00:08:12] They can start looking.

[00:08:13] The structural can look at the structural steel that's going into place.

[00:08:16] Electrical can start figuring out the lighting kind of layouts, lighting levels.

[00:08:19] Mechanical is going to start looking at thermos systems.

[00:08:21] We talk into structural, et cetera.

[00:08:23] And the process starts to begin.

[00:08:25] Right.

[00:08:25] It's good times.

[00:08:26] And one thing that we really did help and I found really valuable on a lot of these jobs was hiring a quantity surveyor to do a class D estimate.

[00:08:36] Right.

[00:08:36] And they stay along the job through these, you know, 30, 60, 90 percent rules.

[00:08:40] And they continue to reevaluate the project budget.

[00:08:44] And it's a good way of doing it because when we get to the end of this race, you're going to see that, hey, we're on budget because we've gone through this process.

[00:08:53] We've kind of been working together as a team.

[00:08:55] So highly recommended if you're not doing it right now.

[00:08:58] But definitely there's some good values with it.

[00:09:03] So I like to call this the fun stage.

[00:09:06] Everyone's happy.

[00:09:06] Everyone's good times.

[00:09:07] We're enjoying each other.

[00:09:09] We're all excited about the project and we're moving forward.

[00:09:12] But now the reality is we've got to start working on the C day stage, the construction document side.

[00:09:19] So that 60 percent phase stage happens.

[00:09:23] We've got the consultants working together.

[00:09:25] We'll say working together.

[00:09:26] They're fighting together.

[00:09:28] They're having a good time.

[00:09:30] You know, along amongst that's all happening.

[00:09:33] We've probably got some user group meetings happening.

[00:09:36] Right.

[00:09:36] So, again, speaking of a school, for example, you know, each and we might be meeting with individual teachers.

[00:09:42] Maybe we may be meeting with students.

[00:09:44] The same roles if you were doing a health care project.

[00:09:47] You've got user groups of different wards in different sectors.

[00:09:50] And everyone has their opinion.

[00:09:52] So, again, it's kind of that high level, kind of paring it down, peeling the onion back and working by bit.

[00:09:56] And a very important phase that's happening.

[00:10:00] And hopefully at this point you should be done because we can't really make any more changes to keep this schedule.

[00:10:06] An open house.

[00:10:07] This is something that's very popular, I find, with K to 12.

[00:10:10] The community really enjoys it.

[00:10:12] They thrive off it.

[00:10:13] Sometimes the media is even involved.

[00:10:14] And what I like and really enjoy from an open house is the reality that it pushes us to do even more.

[00:10:24] So, let me kind of explain.

[00:10:26] So, with the open house, we typically wouldn't just come in with a rendering.

[00:10:30] Right.

[00:10:30] That's the bare minimum.

[00:10:31] But one thing that we did at my previous practice there is we would do full-on, you know, cinematography films of our building.

[00:10:41] It was quite...

[00:10:41] It really showed it.

[00:10:42] And it did an amazing job.

[00:10:44] And I've got to talk on that on its own, too.

[00:10:46] But we would basically be using Revit, of course, to do all the modeling for the architecture.

[00:10:50] But then we would export it into Lumion.

[00:10:52] And then, eventually, we would compose those clips and everything and then take it into DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere and do, you know, all the music and tell a story.

[00:11:02] Like, again, you've built this.

[00:11:03] You've made this story.

[00:11:04] So, keep telling it.

[00:11:06] And so, what the open house really did with all these renderings that we did as we were flying through the building, it forced us to make some executive decisions.

[00:11:14] What are we doing for the ceiling here?

[00:11:16] Yeah, it's kind of bare.

[00:11:17] Let's model it in.

[00:11:18] We import it into the Lumion, right, for the rendering.

[00:11:21] Same thing.

[00:11:22] We move into the gym.

[00:11:24] This is really bare.

[00:11:25] What are we going to do for the ceiling?

[00:11:26] What are we going to do for the acoustics and everything?

[00:11:28] And same thing.

[00:11:28] These main entry areas.

[00:11:29] There's got to be more, right?

[00:11:30] So, it really kind of forced you to get a lot of those early decisions made versus trying to figure them out at the end.

[00:11:36] So, again, the more information you can kind of bring at the beginning for the consultants so they can work with that you can identify and coordinate and avoid clash and conflicts, the better.

[00:11:45] And that's why I enjoy that open house stage.

[00:11:47] It's a tough, it's a lot of work, but it gets you to that point.

[00:11:51] And then, of course, in saying that, there's all this coordination going on with the consultants working together, with you working together, and doing your standard meetings.

[00:12:00] You're coming together and probably having these one-off meetings with Mechanical just to, you know, by Zoom, just to basically, you know, remote in and talk about that.

[00:12:12] So, next stage, building permit.

[00:12:14] Fun, right?

[00:12:15] Can it be fun?

[00:12:17] Question is, one important thing I would say is suggest is, what is the lead time of a building permit in where you're applying?

[00:12:24] I did a lot of jobs in the city of Kelowna, BC, and it wasn't bad.

[00:12:28] It was, you know, it was a few months.

[00:12:30] It was pretty practical.

[00:12:32] But some districts, like the city of Kamloops, trying to get a high-rise tower, go through the ringer, it took us over a year, right?

[00:12:39] And it wasn't something that we were doing.

[00:12:42] It was just the way that the city operates, how busy they are and everything.

[00:12:45] And especially with, you know, always more building, more challenging times.

[00:12:48] And I don't think it's going to improve anyway.

[00:12:51] So, this issue for building permit phase, what are we expecting to kind of see at this point?

[00:12:56] Again, just continuing to build the foundation up for a great tender set.

[00:12:59] So, first of all, we know the site is complete.

[00:13:01] We know we've got the parking lot there done.

[00:13:04] The bylaws have been automatically engineered for that.

[00:13:07] Of course, there's definitely a code review of this building to make sure that we're all completed.

[00:13:11] Again, that all kind of ties into our parking lot design, making sure the fire hydrant is within so many meters of the entrance and so on.

[00:13:19] I would say at this point, draft specs should be started, right?

[00:13:23] You have enough information on the design where you can start bringing, you know, maybe your spec writer into this process.

[00:13:31] Maybe you've got an outside consultant and you're bringing them in in that respect to it, okay?

[00:13:38] Drawing checklists.

[00:13:39] And I think this is such a key thing.

[00:13:41] Even today, again, being doing this for over 20 years, I still have a simplified word checklist that I print off every time and I mark up and I go through it in that respect.

[00:13:52] We're going to dive into that detail more in depth in a moment here.

[00:13:57] And here we are.

[00:13:58] So drawing checklists, I cannot emphasize this enough, right?

[00:14:03] To our new individuals, to seniors, it doesn't matter.

[00:14:07] Anyone that's doing this, we're all human.

[00:14:09] We all make mistakes.

[00:14:11] And on this, I think it was like a seven, eight page checklist, you know, with all these bullet points.

[00:14:17] And I'm old school.

[00:14:18] I like to print off my drawings on basically a 24-inch roll and print off my physical checklist, grab my lovely red pen along with, you know, a fat Sharpie and go through it page by page.

[00:14:30] And when I'm at the BP stage, I'm definitely not going to, you know, judge it too, uh, Dracula.

[00:14:36] I'm not going to bleed over it too much because I understand what phase of the drawings that we're in.

[00:14:42] Now, what I'm very cautious about is I'm definitely going to be making sure our parking matches, right?

[00:14:47] Again, that's all tying to the bylaws that we were talking about.

[00:14:49] Make sure I've got, A, the right washroom accounts based off the code review.

[00:14:53] And two, are they accessible?

[00:14:55] Are they, are they working to that?

[00:14:57] You know, are you, if you're venturing into the, um, inclusive washroom style, do you have the right washroom counts based on that configuration?

[00:15:04] Have you talked to the city about how you're going to handle that?

[00:15:06] Because they do kind of vary and you do play that game of, you know, male, female, where you're more kind of algorithm into one kind of set number.

[00:15:14] So those little things, um, life safety, dead end corridors, right?

[00:15:18] That ties into alternate solutions.

[00:15:20] Do we need an alternate solution?

[00:15:21] Again, this would have been something to identify with this drawing checklist at the early stage.

[00:15:26] So you could have got that, um, equivalent engineer come in and basically write up a report.

[00:15:30] If you were providing an alternate solution, typically on the three story schools, we would always do kind of the two stories open as a mezzanine.

[00:15:37] And the upper would have an alternate solution with a water curtain, you know, glazing system to allow us to get us that three story height vault.

[00:15:44] So we always had to get that acquired to it.

[00:15:47] Um, elevations.

[00:15:48] Did you submit a development permit?

[00:15:50] If it did, are the elevations drastically changed or not?

[00:15:53] Some things you want to just kind of check and see how it's going to play with the city.

[00:15:56] So the list goes on with this.

[00:15:58] And like I said, just having this checklist is really, really important because it's just going to ensure that things are not being missed at such the early design stage.

[00:16:06] Like again, um, maybe your travel distance is off.

[00:16:10] It's really hard to change later and late game.

[00:16:13] So let's catch these errors at the beginning.

[00:16:15] We're all human.

[00:16:16] And again, no, uh, no shame in using a list.

[00:16:21] And AI is a hot topic today.

[00:16:23] I personally haven't used this program, but it definitely came across my desk and kind of very interesting into taking a look at it is a blue plan.

[00:16:31] AI.com.

[00:16:32] I have no affiliation, of course, with it, but very interesting.

[00:16:35] I don't know if it only kind of applies to the U S market and everything, but what they say is you upload your drawings and basically it'll do a code review.

[00:16:42] How?

[00:16:42] I don't know, but I guess what I'm getting at with this is maybe this is not applicable right now.

[00:16:48] It's not going to work, but it's going to work eventually, right?

[00:16:51] People are pushing, people are spending a lot of money, investing a lot of money in basically making this to do this point.

[00:16:57] And AI is a scary thing, you know, whether you want to do it, but I think you've got to accept it.

[00:17:02] It's the same thing from the AutoCAD to Revit revolution, you know, going from fax to, you know, phones and emails, you know, the reality is it's here.

[00:17:10] Right.

[00:17:10] And you have to either adopt it or not, but don't be left behind in that sense.

[00:17:16] And I think this is a good quote that, um, Dr. Neil Leach, uh, kind of mentioned at a previous webinar that I attended is AI won't replace humans, but three humans with AI will replace five humans without AI.

[00:17:29] And it is true because again, going back to the Revit day, I was at Reno, C. Negron Architects out in Vancouver there, and we were doing a lot of high rises.

[00:17:36] When we were doing high rises in AutoCAD, it took, it took about 10 people kind of run a set, right?

[00:17:43] The moment we moved over to Revit, that number dropped to about two people because of the efficiencies.

[00:17:49] We didn't need someone doing door hardware schedules.

[00:17:52] We didn't need someone doing sections or elevations because we could do it in a, you know, a fraction of a second.

[00:17:57] And I think that's the same thing with AI.

[00:17:59] I run a podcast and basically after my podcast, I let AI do my show notes for me and it does it pretty good.

[00:18:05] I always review it, but in saying that there's a lot of benefits through it and that's ultimately what it is.

[00:18:12] So I would say, I would really encourage you if you haven't explored AI in your practice at this point, definitely start doing it.

[00:18:18] And there's lots of options and that's a whole nother speaking session on its own.

[00:18:23] So let's talk about the building permit stage.

[00:18:25] What can we expect when we go through this?

[00:18:27] And again, it's all preparing for an issue for tender.

[00:18:31] So we've submitted the building permit and we've got the first follow-up.

[00:18:35] It's been a month.

[00:18:36] It's been two months.

[00:18:37] You know, how's it going, Jeff, at the building permit?

[00:18:40] How's the planning?

[00:18:41] Yeah, we're looking at it.

[00:18:43] Thanks for the reminder.

[00:18:44] You've got to be that squeaky wheel sometimes.

[00:18:46] Depends on your project.

[00:18:47] You've just got to do your gentle follow-ups in that sense.

[00:18:50] And then you'll give another call, you know, maybe a few weeks, a month later, and you might get, oh, we got the lost drawings.

[00:18:55] Again, true story from my point.

[00:18:58] It took them six months to tell us that.

[00:19:00] It was very frustrating, but it was what it is.

[00:19:02] Eventually, we're going to have the first round of comments.

[00:19:04] So finally, we're going to get some comments.

[00:19:05] We're going to do a formal response.

[00:19:07] We're going to take those comments, identify it, maybe make some revisions to the drawings, cloud it, resubmit those one or two sheets that follow those supporting comments.

[00:19:18] And then we've got a BP revision, right?

[00:19:21] So like I said, we issued that formal response.

[00:19:23] We get it to them.

[00:19:24] And we do some more waiting.

[00:19:26] Maybe there's some city meetings that are required for this.

[00:19:29] Maybe we've got to come together and just kind of, you know, talk about bylaws that are changing, you know, maybe OCP or whatever.

[00:19:35] These things are happening, right?

[00:19:37] And maybe they want a brand new set of drawings.

[00:19:39] Again, speaking of City of Kamloops, we did a high-rise.

[00:19:41] And because we submitted for a building permit at this point in the process and the BP hadn't been approved.

[00:19:51] And by the time we hit a year later when we're like, hey, where's the building permit?

[00:19:55] Because we're ready to rock and roll.

[00:19:56] We're ready to start excavating and get moving.

[00:19:58] And the city client, he said, can we have a brand new set?

[00:20:01] And it's like, well, why not?

[00:20:02] We're basically their IFC now, right?

[00:20:04] They're issued for construction.

[00:20:05] They're ready to go because we've basically been going along this journey while this is happening.

[00:20:10] And I think that's kind of an important thing is when you submit for building permit, I wouldn't stall it, right?

[00:20:15] I would just keep it going.

[00:20:16] Keep that momentum going.

[00:20:17] Again, you'll know this practice based on your original Gantt chart schedule that you set up at the beginning of the project.

[00:20:25] And of course, with the BP finally approved, we still have work to do.

[00:20:28] We really do.

[00:20:29] We still got all the details in this.

[00:20:31] This is the final round and the final push.

[00:20:34] So what's the next steps?

[00:20:36] So we're at the 90% stage at this point.

[00:20:39] So like I said, we're almost there.

[00:20:41] It's a marathon.

[00:20:42] I've done hair off marathons myself.

[00:20:44] And yeah, once you hit that like 17 kilometer, that last five kilometers is the hardest.

[00:20:48] And that's the same thing.

[00:20:49] You can't give up.

[00:20:50] You just got to keep pushing and keep moving.

[00:20:53] And kind of the four topics of mine at this point is your final drawing coordination, right?

[00:20:59] It is so critical.

[00:21:01] Try and look at this.

[00:21:03] Get your Revit models.

[00:21:04] Get your 3D models.

[00:21:05] Do your sections.

[00:21:06] Do everything.

[00:21:07] Coordinate that.

[00:21:08] Coordinate it.

[00:21:09] Coordinate it.

[00:21:10] Push the owner for changes, right?

[00:21:14] There's nothing worse about getting changes later because it's such an expensive and it's

[00:21:17] 10 times harder to do.

[00:21:19] Get those changes.

[00:21:20] And especially if you've got third party user groups, like say if there's, if you're doing

[00:21:25] a school and you had a daycare or whatever, or a rec center or something like that, you

[00:21:29] had a daycare component, chances are there's a user group that's part of that, you know,

[00:21:33] YMCA or a boys and girls club or whatever, that specific group that's going to run that

[00:21:37] portion of the project.

[00:21:40] Make sure that the owner is not gatekeeping you in that sense that they're actually letting

[00:21:46] you be involved with those conversations too.

[00:21:47] Because again, you don't want to get any surprises later down in construction because that's going

[00:21:51] to hurt you as well for extras, time, schedule.

[00:21:54] And again, you may not be physically able to provide what they want.

[00:21:58] So very important to keep that in mind.

[00:22:01] Your final spec should be pretty much there.

[00:22:04] We should be, our specs should be kind of at this point where they're good to go.

[00:22:07] They're ready to issue.

[00:22:08] This is the point where we're probably going to do a massive print.

[00:22:11] And again, old school red line versus going on the computer, or maybe you do that, whatever

[00:22:15] the work the case is.

[00:22:17] But again, the most critical stages, make sure this works out well.

[00:22:21] And we're going to get into specs and kind of just kind of tips and tricks in a minute.

[00:22:25] And as we've kind of talked at the earlier presentation, QS, a quantity servers here, they

[00:22:30] should be doing the bringing up everything budget.

[00:22:32] And now we've got a class A.

[00:22:34] This is, this should be a rock solid budget report for this project.

[00:22:39] We should know where we're going to, our tender's going to line.

[00:22:41] We've got some contingencies in playing.

[00:22:43] We've got a below items, below the line items.

[00:22:46] We know what to expect.

[00:22:47] And we have a good gauge of the industry, given the fares, where it's, where this location

[00:22:52] is to maybe it's outside.

[00:22:54] So we've taken that location factor.

[00:22:55] We have a good understanding of where this project is going to stand.

[00:23:01] Okay.

[00:23:02] Another thing to kind of consider as we're going and leading into this tender moment

[00:23:05] is pre-qualifications, right?

[00:23:08] It's not a bad idea.

[00:23:10] And again, this is a conversation to have with your owner and basically do a pre-qual list

[00:23:15] of GCs that can bid and work on this project.

[00:23:18] As architects, we have that same thing as well.

[00:23:21] We have pre-qualifications basically bid on for some of these school districts or these

[00:23:27] healthcare projects or anything in that sense.

[00:23:29] So do the same thing for the GC.

[00:23:32] You know, things to include is minimum years of experience, making sure that they meet the

[00:23:36] bill that you, they are going to, you know, build your 30 million, 50 million, $100 million

[00:23:40] school that they've got the qualifications with that.

[00:23:45] Make sure that they have a relevant portfolio.

[00:23:48] Maybe it's a GC that just does tilt-up construction.

[00:23:51] You don't want to be working on your high-end school that you've spent so much time designing and

[00:23:54] working towards.

[00:23:55] So that's probably not fitting the bill in that sense.

[00:23:58] You know, their license certification and of course their financial stability, all these

[00:24:01] things.

[00:24:02] So pre-qualifications, the positives is that you're going to capture, you're going to get

[00:24:07] the best of the best and then you get to basically vet it out when it goes to that actual tender

[00:24:10] stage.

[00:24:11] I guess the negatives is that, you know, if someone misses this stage, they can't bid on

[00:24:16] the job.

[00:24:16] And that's if I guess from a client owner, if they did want a certain GC, like they really

[00:24:21] valued the work.

[00:24:22] They were very impressed.

[00:24:23] They knew them, then of course reach out and give them a heads up that there's a pre-qualification

[00:24:27] out in that sense, you know, keeping the lines of the legality side of those well.

[00:24:31] But again, a good process.

[00:24:33] Again, we do see this through a lot of schools districts throughout the province of BC.

[00:24:38] So specifications, it's in the details.

[00:24:41] So a couple of things as we're preparing our specs here to go out for tender, what are some

[00:24:45] things that we should consider?

[00:24:47] One of the things is kind of a mandatory site meeting, right?

[00:24:50] So we've got that pre-qualification, whether we're doing it or not.

[00:24:54] And then we basically would pick a day at a time, the GCs would come out there, and they

[00:24:59] do a sign in, and then they go from that point, and they would be part of that.

[00:25:01] So do you want to include that mandatory site?

[00:25:03] I mean, we'll get into the details of this later.

[00:25:06] Penalty clauses, right?

[00:25:08] If you've got a real strict timeline of when this school needs to be open, or this project

[00:25:14] needs to be open, putting a $3,000 a day at penalty clause is not a bad idea.

[00:25:19] It gives you leverage.

[00:25:20] It gives you a big push.

[00:25:21] It gives the contractor to basically push his trades and say, look, we need to be on track

[00:25:26] because they're going to have to do an extensive thing.

[00:25:28] We've done this on a number of projects, and it's actually really helped.

[00:25:31] It's given us that power to ensure that the school is going to open up on time.

[00:25:35] We had a school up in Kelowna, and it was such an aggressive timeline.

[00:25:41] We knew it going into the job as well.

[00:25:43] So again, we've done everything we've kind of been talking about today, and they only

[00:25:50] had like 18 months to build a three-story middle school project.

[00:25:56] I think it was 1,500 students.

[00:25:57] It was a good size, right?

[00:25:59] And that really helped the GC drive his subtrades as well, and led a course himself.

[00:26:04] And they understood the legalities of it.

[00:26:07] They understood that it could hold true.

[00:26:08] At the end of the day, it's the owner's choice if he really wants to do it, but it's a card

[00:26:13] that he's got in his back pocket to push, and I've had jobs where we did need to push.

[00:26:18] Budgets.

[00:26:19] Do you have any cash allowances?

[00:26:21] Alternate prices.

[00:26:22] You know, I find Mechanical usually has a lot of cash allowances in their design scope of that.

[00:26:28] Alternate prices, which is good.

[00:26:31] This ties into the Valley Engineering.

[00:26:33] We'll talk about that in a second.

[00:26:36] Apprenticeship programs.

[00:26:37] Do you have any local programs going on?

[00:26:43] BC, you know, we have to hire so many indigenous trades in that sense.

[00:26:47] Again, that local trades, the apprenticeship program in regards to so much has to be, you

[00:26:53] know, kind of fresh apprentices out of school.

[00:26:55] Again, just all those things, take that and consider.

[00:26:57] Make sure that's part of your specs.

[00:26:59] Again, your owner is going to work with you on basically putting that into terms of the front

[00:27:03] end of the specifications.

[00:27:05] CA software.

[00:27:06] What are you using to manage this process when you get into CA, right?

[00:27:11] This is something really important because right now, and we'll tie it, we'll get into

[00:27:15] this later detail, is like contractors are pushing Procore, which is great.

[00:27:18] It's a phenomenal program.

[00:27:19] But for you as the architect, it's a real pain in the butt and it doesn't put you back in

[00:27:23] control.

[00:27:24] There is programs like Part 3 and other applications out there.

[00:27:28] So put those in your specs that the contractor who's bidding on this job has to use your practice,

[00:27:33] your software to basically manage the CA side.

[00:27:36] Again, very, very important.

[00:27:38] And then again, you've got that leverage just like that penalty clause we talked about earlier.

[00:27:45] So back pocket items, ace up the sleeve.

[00:27:48] So what is plan B, right?

[00:27:50] Just say we do tender this out and it comes over budget or anything like that.

[00:27:55] Let's talk about these things and try and foreshadow what's going to happen.

[00:27:59] So timelines.

[00:28:00] Typically, what do you want to put this tender out for?

[00:28:04] You know, again, a school, we'd kind of do 30 days, but we'd have the expectation that

[00:28:09] we'd probably push it another two weeks just because people don't look at things right at

[00:28:15] the beginning, right?

[00:28:16] It doesn't happen all the time.

[00:28:17] But have that plan in place.

[00:28:19] Know what you're going to tender it for and know what you're willing to extend it up to.

[00:28:22] You don't want to keep extending it, but keep that in mind.

[00:28:26] And credits.

[00:28:27] This is something I've had so many funny conversations over drinks and stuff like that with colleagues

[00:28:33] in the industry.

[00:28:34] And we've joked, but I think it's kind of there's some good value to it is put a random

[00:28:38] piece of steel or some kind of object in your building.

[00:28:41] And the first moment you start the construction, then you can delete it, you know, or maybe don't

[00:28:46] make it too obvious and get a value of it.

[00:28:49] So if it was a piece of steel, a member of steel, and you did delete this random member

[00:28:52] that was in the drawings, you basically got an idea of purling your feet of steel.

[00:28:57] And at this point, when you get into the job and you're like, oh, shoot, we did miss a

[00:29:02] member of steel.

[00:29:03] You kind of got unit rates based on it.

[00:29:05] And I think that's kind of there's some value with that same thing.

[00:29:09] Another example.

[00:29:11] And this was not intentional.

[00:29:12] We didn't kind of do this to the contractor, but we did delete a good portion of area of

[00:29:16] sod.

[00:29:16] So we got the unit rate of basically off that and we compared it and said it's a little

[00:29:19] bit low.

[00:29:20] But if that's what you're charging, that's fine.

[00:29:21] Well, of course, later down, you know, a few months later, we ended up adding sod in

[00:29:26] a whole different area.

[00:29:27] So we use that pricing that we when we deleted the sod, we said, well, look, we're only paying

[00:29:31] this because you gave us a credit of this like, and we'd get in.

[00:29:33] And eventually it was kind of push, push to shove, we ended up getting pretty close to

[00:29:37] it.

[00:29:37] But there is value of doing that.

[00:29:39] And I know it's a cheeky way as part of the drawings, but it's not a bad idea, right?

[00:29:44] Gives you an idea to keep everyone truthful and accountable to the pricing that they are

[00:29:48] submitting.

[00:29:50] And value engineering is kind of again, going back to the alternates.

[00:29:54] That's a good way like alternate pricing, where if you need to cut this down, that's why

[00:29:59] we would sometimes submit alternate prices and going from ACM to an AFL 13 product to maybe

[00:30:04] even Hardy.

[00:30:05] And you'd be surprised that sometimes those were came in higher than the ACM, which didn't

[00:30:10] make any sense, right?

[00:30:12] But just how I would say have probably a good like top 10 list of things that you could

[00:30:17] cut back that isn't going to drastically change the design.

[00:30:20] Maybe it's different roofing or like I said, the cladding is an easy one.

[00:30:24] Maybe if you're doing more developer side stuff, you know, going from your storefront curtain

[00:30:28] wall windows at some locations, maybe they're going to be vinyl clad.

[00:30:32] Again, it's not ideal.

[00:30:33] But having these back pocket items when you're ready, when you have to pull the trigger and

[00:30:38] basically keep the job moving forward, it's just what it is, right?

[00:30:41] We never expected glass going over 40% one evening, just because of again, the COVID and

[00:30:46] manufacture stuff.

[00:30:47] So having these back pocket items is very critical, and just basically ready to get going.

[00:30:55] Earthworks tender.

[00:30:56] So this is kind of a new one.

[00:30:58] We've done this on a few projects, and it's not a bad idea.

[00:31:01] Again, when we look at that project timeline, do we can we accelerate this?

[00:31:07] And sometimes you can if you know the site needs to be you know, you have an idea, and

[00:31:11] you're working with your geotech, you can basically break up two tender packages of the full project.

[00:31:16] So let me kind of explain.

[00:31:17] So again, we had a school.

[00:31:20] We had an aggressive schedule.

[00:31:22] And we had a good idea.

[00:31:23] There was a whole bunch of retaining walls.

[00:31:25] There was parking lots and everything.

[00:31:28] And it is does make it a little bit tricky on the architectural side, because you've got a document really well.

[00:31:32] And we had like a phasing plan and phase one phase two and kind of show the overlap.

[00:31:36] But we would basically prepare the Earthworks tender.

[00:31:38] We showed what it is.

[00:31:39] We tendered as a separate package.

[00:31:41] Like I said, include all the retaining walls in that respect.

[00:31:45] And we drew a very fine line where the scope changed where their handoff is and that that is the tricky part of this.

[00:31:51] But the value of it and a QS will do it at the same time that they can kind of price out and again, make sure that we're met, we're following the budget.

[00:32:00] But it does same time as the project and probably give you anywhere from kind of six, six to nine months back to your job, depending on what it is.

[00:32:07] Because as, as you're kind of you basically get as you get the early stage of the design, you're kind of at that building permit, you've submitted an Earthworks tender and immediately you're launching that tender in there.

[00:32:17] So while you're designing for that extra six months and wrapping up the CDs side of things, guys are already on site moving Earthworks getting it ready.

[00:32:23] And the moment you award the contract, they're ready to go.

[00:32:27] They're ready to start doing their footings and stuff.

[00:32:29] So like I said, it's just the challenges that kind of scope thing is just the crossover.

[00:32:34] So again, who's doing all the piping and then the plumbing work in that sense.

[00:32:39] Those are things that you just got to really identify and be very careful with your drawings and how you do it.

[00:32:43] But there is there is benefits.

[00:32:45] It's it does save time off projects and definitely something to consider and and going forward with your your future projects.

[00:32:54] So pretender review, last call, everyone, last call.

[00:32:58] So how are the drawings?

[00:32:59] How are they looking?

[00:33:00] Are they complete?

[00:33:01] All right.

[00:33:02] So a couple things.

[00:33:02] The final review.

[00:33:03] Again, this is where I'm going to be doing a full print.

[00:33:05] I'm going to be bleeding over.

[00:33:07] I'm going to be checking everything.

[00:33:08] I'm going to pull up those truck lists and going through them like crazy and making sure that they're being followed.

[00:33:14] You know, the it's typically again, if you've got an architect on record that, you know, you've got your tech, your project owners doing one thing.

[00:33:20] You got to allow him have time.

[00:33:22] Don't just throw it.

[00:33:23] Don't throw this, you know, 150 page document along with the specs and say, here, I need this review tomorrow.

[00:33:28] Plan ahead.

[00:33:29] Right.

[00:33:30] Schedule in, you know, try and look again.

[00:33:32] Going back from that calendar that we talked about.

[00:33:34] Give them give them a month's time.

[00:33:36] Right.

[00:33:36] Just the way life is travel, other jobs, other responsibilities.

[00:33:40] And then two, you want to make sure you've got time to correct those revisions that they particularly have.

[00:33:45] So very important.

[00:33:47] Right.

[00:33:48] Dimensions, dimensions, dimensions.

[00:33:49] I cannot stress this enough because in right now for me to make a dimension from here to here is literally click, click and I'm done.

[00:33:56] When it comes to construction, if someone asks for an RFI and you go, if you're doing the formalities of it, you're not just taking a screenshot, you're putting it into an RFI, you're putting it into an SI or something like that.

[00:34:07] It's just 10 times harder.

[00:34:08] It is so much quicker to put the information out now.

[00:34:11] And I, and I find, especially with kind of newer staff, they're so scared of putting the dimensions on in certain areas, especially when it comes to details.

[00:34:17] Like, it's okay.

[00:34:18] You've built this.

[00:34:19] You've modeled this.

[00:34:20] You're telling them how to build this.

[00:34:22] Put the dimensions on there.

[00:34:23] Right.

[00:34:23] And if it's not right, well, then correct it.

[00:34:25] And I think I cannot stress that enough is, is literate with dimensions.

[00:34:29] No one's going to complain that you put too many dimensions on it versus you didn't have enough.

[00:34:34] And yeah, just, just have your record drawings and that and keeping all that.

[00:34:40] When I say record drawings as well, is this an addition to a 1970s building?

[00:34:45] If so, take those record drawings, which you've already worked with those at the beginning of this project.

[00:34:49] And that's probably where you started your base and they went out and field measured.

[00:34:54] Put them in the tender set.

[00:34:55] Right.

[00:34:56] Maybe you forgot to note that there was a septic field in there.

[00:34:59] You forgot there was some kind of storage tank.

[00:35:00] You forgot it.

[00:35:01] At least that tender set shows that, hey, you had record drawings on top of ours.

[00:35:05] We made, didn't call up an architectural, but they were part of the specs.

[00:35:08] They were part of this.

[00:35:09] And again, it just gives you something else.

[00:35:11] Another leg to stand on that.

[00:35:13] The contractor should be aware.

[00:35:15] Again, ideally get into your drawings, but little things like that can really help.

[00:35:19] And they just appreciate it as well.

[00:35:21] Specs.

[00:35:22] How are we doing with those?

[00:35:23] Did you triple check with that?

[00:35:25] Did you go through?

[00:35:25] Did you bleed through that as well?

[00:35:28] One thing.

[00:35:29] Quantities.

[00:35:30] That's an important one.

[00:35:31] I don't agree with that because, and again, speaking from a fun experience, we had a gym

[00:35:38] and we had gym equipment and our specs called for six basketball hoops.

[00:35:43] No, no, no, no.

[00:35:45] There was 10 or 12 of them in the room.

[00:35:47] So our drawing showed it correctly, but our specs overruled.

[00:35:51] And that's where we got dinged with buying a few extra basketball hoops.

[00:35:54] Is it right?

[00:35:54] No, but they say specs roll.

[00:35:56] So something to take in mind.

[00:35:58] The other thing too is be very cautious when it comes to finishes.

[00:36:01] We would have a physical finish schedule.

[00:36:03] So the finish itself, the say target flooring would be in the specs.

[00:36:07] And that's basically saying what type of flooring we want.

[00:36:09] So this kind of sheet good is going to be target.

[00:36:11] But the colors, we made it very clear, refer to the drawings.

[00:36:14] And then we'd go to the drawings and we'd have a physical, basically a floor finish plan

[00:36:18] with a full finish schedule.

[00:36:20] And that's where the colors were.

[00:36:22] We're not saying just pick up, you know, these tier because some colors, as surprisingly

[00:36:26] are, the greens are more expensive and the bright oranges are more expensive versus some

[00:36:30] blacks are more expensive as well.

[00:36:32] So noting that in the drawings and just doing that cross check between the specs and the drawings,

[00:36:37] very, very important to save you through that hassle later.

[00:36:41] Consultant comments.

[00:36:42] Have you given all those specs to everyone?

[00:36:44] Again, this is really critical, making sure that they've reviewed those individual specs.

[00:36:47] Structural's done his review.

[00:36:48] Uh, civil's done his earthworks and that stuff, landscape, et cetera.

[00:36:52] So just making sure that they've done, they've reviewed your specs that you're including.

[00:36:56] And then of course they'll include their own specs on certain specific items.

[00:37:00] Owner conditions, right?

[00:37:02] Has the owner reviewed your full specifications?

[00:37:05] Have they gone through, um, have they gone through the front end?

[00:37:09] You know, they typically, they've got some legal departments as well that may want to put

[00:37:12] their, their information.

[00:37:13] Is there any last minute changes?

[00:37:15] Hopefully not.

[00:37:16] Hopefully we haven't, we're not going to this point.

[00:37:20] And just this final last minute coordination, right?

[00:37:23] Last call for consultant drawings.

[00:37:25] Please send this to us.

[00:37:27] And it is frustrating when we've had, I've had some structural engineers basically submit

[00:37:31] stuff on the day of tender and they have, and I physically took out my old set and my

[00:37:36] new set and I've grabbed a, you know, six different highlighters and I've done a color code system

[00:37:40] and highlighting what's the same, what's the same.

[00:37:42] Oh my goodness, this has changed.

[00:37:43] This has gotten bigger and we've seen that before where they've changed footings at last

[00:37:47] minute that were under toilets.

[00:37:49] And while, because of the footing increased, that toilet wasn't going to work or they would

[00:37:53] have to do something on site to, you know, play with it.

[00:37:55] So again, really pushing for those consultant drawings sooner or later and don't like to

[00:38:00] lie, but I would lie in this application.

[00:38:03] I would say, oh, we're tender on this day because I knew the consultants wouldn't give it to me

[00:38:06] the two weeks before.

[00:38:07] They'd give me the day of tender.

[00:38:08] And then at least gave me two weeks to kind of buffer.

[00:38:11] Now in saying that over time, if you're working with the same consultants, they're going to

[00:38:14] catch on to the way it goes.

[00:38:17] But, but transparency is really key, but making it very serious, having that honest conversation

[00:38:22] by phone that this is when we're doing it and it's really critical because you don't want

[00:38:24] to be scrambling.

[00:38:25] We're trying to avoid the late nights to basically getting this done.

[00:38:31] Another one, when this does go out to bidding, construction bidding and the management software,

[00:38:36] who's doing it?

[00:38:36] Is the owner taking precedent on this, taking lead on it?

[00:38:39] Are we taking lead?

[00:38:40] Are we using a bids and tender system, BC bids, Ontario tenders?

[00:38:45] Where is this going?

[00:38:46] Where is this tender going to live?

[00:38:47] Important details and just the expectations.

[00:38:51] I've had owners take control of it where it's very frustrating because it bottlenecks in their

[00:38:55] court and then there's stuff that's sitting and then they dump it to us on a Friday

[00:38:58] afternoon.

[00:39:00] I would highly encourage that you take, you can both take the lead on it, but you get

[00:39:04] the information as it's being filtered in through this management software and just very important

[00:39:10] because again, that you want to be on top of it and with it and just the, the, how the

[00:39:15] bidding is transparent and, and basically following the standards for this process.

[00:39:20] Especially when you issue out addendums that is getting out and it's getting pushed to the

[00:39:23] right people in that sense.

[00:39:26] So we're almost there.

[00:39:27] The day of tender.

[00:39:29] When I see this countdown clock, I'm working on tender.

[00:39:32] I'm already feeling my, my anxiety could build off, right?

[00:39:35] We're almost there.

[00:39:36] We're almost there.

[00:39:37] Okay.

[00:39:37] It's coming down to the final wire.

[00:39:39] We've got a data tender ready to go.

[00:39:41] I think this picture really resonates really well.

[00:39:44] You know, there's been definitely some late nights, you know, just trying to put those

[00:39:47] documents together.

[00:39:47] And again, just doing those final checks to ensure that we're issuing an amazing set.

[00:39:54] So issue for tender.

[00:39:56] The big day.

[00:39:57] It is the day.

[00:39:58] It is.

[00:39:58] We are, we're on the moment where we're about to hit print, but got a couple more things.

[00:40:04] A couple more things.

[00:40:07] So the day of tender is definitely your final check day, right?

[00:40:10] What can we do?

[00:40:11] And eventually we're gonna have to just call it quits and just issue this out.

[00:40:14] But one thing I would typically propose is issue a test print the night before.

[00:40:20] Because printing does take a long time.

[00:40:23] Before you go for the end of the day, hit print.

[00:40:25] Just run it as a PDF.

[00:40:27] When you get it, come back in the morning, do a quick scan.

[00:40:30] How are we looking?

[00:40:31] A lot of messes.

[00:40:32] You know, everything's looking pretty decent.

[00:40:33] Good.

[00:40:34] You know, nothing's out of there.

[00:40:36] Do I have all the consultant drawings?

[00:40:37] I should.

[00:40:38] I should at this point.

[00:40:39] I have everyone.

[00:40:40] I've got their PDF.

[00:40:41] I got their Revit.

[00:40:42] And I guess some like civil engineers are probably gonna provide you some AutoCAD files.

[00:40:46] You've got everything at this point.

[00:40:48] Let's get those linked right into our project.

[00:40:50] Let's get them re-linked into everything.

[00:40:52] Making sure that we've got the latest and the greatest.

[00:40:54] I would hate to print something where Mechanical didn't revise something.

[00:40:58] Or they did an update later and they didn't give it to us.

[00:41:01] Or I didn't link it into there.

[00:41:02] And it did, you know, pose out a big coordination issue at that last second.

[00:41:06] Let's try and catch this stuff before we do it.

[00:41:09] So find minimal coordination.

[00:41:12] Again, logging in there, doing your section box.

[00:41:14] Just ripping through, making sure that things are looking nice and pretty.

[00:41:18] Try and do this before you do that test print.

[00:41:20] Just to make sure.

[00:41:22] And how's your schedules?

[00:41:23] Is there any blanks, right?

[00:41:25] Just that final check.

[00:41:26] You know, you got all the doors in there.

[00:41:27] Again, Revit's an amazing product because it's going to pull it in together.

[00:41:30] But we just don't want any blanks.

[00:41:32] You know, make sure your fire ratings again.

[00:41:34] All these little, little things.

[00:41:35] And again, checklist, checklist, checklist.

[00:41:37] I'm being a broken record here.

[00:41:39] But I think if anything out of this presentation,

[00:41:42] if you take the fact that you need to have a checklist,

[00:41:45] I think then you've won, right?

[00:41:47] Because it is such an important thing.

[00:41:49] Like I said, we're humans.

[00:41:51] And hit print.

[00:41:52] We're there.

[00:41:53] We are at this final point.

[00:41:55] I would typically allow four hours.

[00:41:57] I would always say, look, I'm printing off at noon.

[00:42:00] I'd be in early, you know, six, seven, just to get that final push.

[00:42:03] Depends on how, where I knew where the state of the drawings were at.

[00:42:06] And just give it.

[00:42:07] Because you're going to run a print over lunch.

[00:42:08] You know, go for your lunch.

[00:42:09] That's already an hour off of it.

[00:42:11] The print would typically take an hour and a half,

[00:42:13] you know, based on how much raster image is

[00:42:15] and how many documents, again.

[00:42:18] Bigger the projects, the longer it's going to take, right?

[00:42:20] But again, that buffer and being proactive

[00:42:23] allows you to basically fix anything.

[00:42:25] Because once I got that final print and I'm like, this is good.

[00:42:28] I've combined the site file on Revit and then the building file.

[00:42:32] I put those PDFs together and they're all in there.

[00:42:34] I would go through page by page and just have a quick look,

[00:42:38] making sure, oh shoot, on my site plan,

[00:42:41] I forgot to turn the crop region back on.

[00:42:43] So now everything's a big mess.

[00:42:44] I'm going to go make a note on my notepad.

[00:42:47] A11 needs to be revised.

[00:42:49] Keep going again.

[00:42:50] Maybe a section.

[00:42:51] Maybe there's something.

[00:42:52] Maybe, you know, maybe someone was putting big red lines

[00:42:54] to help them make sure.

[00:42:56] Maybe they put a revision cloud.

[00:42:58] People do funny things when it comes to drawings.

[00:43:00] And at that final moment, you want to make sure it's captured

[00:43:03] because it is so much easier to fix it now versus when it's tendered.

[00:43:07] And we're about almost there.

[00:43:09] So final, final check.

[00:43:10] At this point, you're happy with what you're seeing.

[00:43:13] It's pens down and send it to the printers.

[00:43:17] So we're done.

[00:43:18] Get this posted.

[00:43:19] Get this to BCBid, Ontario Tenders,

[00:43:23] wherever this is going to live.

[00:43:25] It's getting posted.

[00:43:26] And honestly, the most important thing is celebrate the wins, right?

[00:43:31] A hundred percent.

[00:43:32] It's not just you.

[00:43:33] It's a whole team backing it.

[00:43:35] It's even accounting.

[00:43:36] It's finances.

[00:43:37] It's your proposal writers that got the job.

[00:43:40] Come together as a group and, you know,

[00:43:42] and maybe combine it, you know,

[00:43:43] do it on every Friday or something like that.

[00:43:45] It depends on how many tenders are going.

[00:43:46] Maybe you're a smaller firm and not seeing a huge amount of tenders go out.

[00:43:49] Celebrate it.

[00:43:50] Simple as just grabbing, you know,

[00:43:52] taking off an hour early and going to grab a set of drinks or something like that

[00:43:56] or bring something in.

[00:43:58] Just acknowledgement is key when it comes to culture

[00:44:00] and just showing that appreciation for how hard that people work.

[00:44:04] That these, you know, you look at the timesheets,

[00:44:07] hours upon hours of these people's lives have been dedicated to this job

[00:44:10] and show the appreciation.

[00:44:12] So the next time they just want to drive it even further.

[00:44:18] All right.

[00:44:19] It's real now.

[00:44:20] We're out to tender.

[00:44:21] Now what?

[00:44:22] What can we expect during this tender phase?

[00:44:24] And this is really critical.

[00:44:25] And we're definitely going to dive into the kind of all the do's,

[00:44:28] the don'ts and where does it stand?

[00:44:31] So I call this phase two from our phase one of milestones.

[00:44:34] Now we've got a new agenda.

[00:44:35] And like,

[00:44:35] this is kind of this four weeks,

[00:44:37] maybe to six weeks agenda.

[00:44:39] And so we've issued the tender.

[00:44:41] We've celebrated.

[00:44:42] We've got addendums.

[00:44:43] We've got RFIs,

[00:44:43] requests for alternates,

[00:44:45] more addendums.

[00:44:46] Are you tracking all this?

[00:44:48] We've got some supplier calls,

[00:44:49] some research going on,

[00:44:50] consultant review it,

[00:44:52] final call,

[00:44:52] antenna close,

[00:44:53] and issue of construction.

[00:44:55] So don't let off the gas at this point,

[00:44:58] what I'm getting at,

[00:44:59] right?

[00:44:59] You've worked so hard up to this point.

[00:45:01] And for just to kind of sit back and relax and just coast,

[00:45:04] don't do it.

[00:45:05] Again,

[00:45:06] you're about,

[00:45:07] you're about one mile,

[00:45:08] one kilometer away from that finish line on that half or that full marathon.

[00:45:12] Don't let go.

[00:45:13] You almost want to be pushing 10 times harder here,

[00:45:15] even though you're exhausted at this point.

[00:45:17] And you just want this done.

[00:45:18] Push hard.

[00:45:19] Don't,

[00:45:19] don't lose steam.

[00:45:21] So what can we expect exactly in terms of the details is,

[00:45:24] like I said,

[00:45:25] we had that mandatory site visit.

[00:45:26] We put it that in the specs and everyone must show up to that meeting.

[00:45:30] That's going to be part of that.

[00:45:31] They have to sign in that sign in sheet gets recorded.

[00:45:36] Take a picture.

[00:45:36] If you're outside in the rain,

[00:45:37] so you don't get it wet.

[00:45:38] Cause it's really critical.

[00:45:40] And if there's any errors,

[00:45:41] like you can't understand someone's signature or they're the writing,

[00:45:44] get clarification.

[00:45:44] Cause it's really important that they get this.

[00:45:47] Otherwise you will cause a lot of ripples and a lot of angry calls later.

[00:45:51] Get that post that in first addendum one right away.

[00:45:53] And now all the suppliers know where to direct their pricing to.

[00:45:57] They don't,

[00:45:58] I need to call you as the architect.

[00:45:59] So this is where the mandatory site visit is helpful.

[00:46:02] The pros is that we know who's bidding on the job,

[00:46:05] the cons,

[00:46:05] we know who is pitting on the job,

[00:46:08] but you won't get any outside third party in that sense.

[00:46:11] Again,

[00:46:11] if you know of some GCs that should be part of this,

[00:46:13] that you go,

[00:46:13] I really would like them to be part of this job,

[00:46:15] then send them the BC or the Ontario tenders listing,

[00:46:20] right?

[00:46:20] There's nothing wrong with that.

[00:46:21] Just say,

[00:46:21] look,

[00:46:22] we've launched a job.

[00:46:23] You know,

[00:46:23] we'd love to see you attend the site meeting.

[00:46:25] Doesn't mean they have to bid on it if they go to the mandatory site

[00:46:28] meeting,

[00:46:28] but it definitely allows them to bid.

[00:46:31] So something to take into account.

[00:46:33] I think it works really well.

[00:46:35] RFIs and lots of cross for alternates.

[00:46:37] Be ready for this.

[00:46:39] Your team needs to review this and respond in a timely matter.

[00:46:42] Think of a CA.

[00:46:43] You've got to review it in a timely matter.

[00:46:45] The more,

[00:46:45] more time you can do it,

[00:46:46] the better.

[00:46:46] Um,

[00:46:47] and I think it's really important here.

[00:46:49] It really take note as not to have an ego,

[00:46:52] not to be stubborn in that sense.

[00:46:53] Take note when someone's asking a question,

[00:46:55] an RFI,

[00:46:56] why are they asking this?

[00:46:58] And if you get a second one,

[00:46:59] that should be immediately red flag to your drawings going,

[00:47:02] what is going on?

[00:47:03] Why am I having two separate people ask the same question about this

[00:47:07] schedule or this spec section or whatever?

[00:47:09] At that point,

[00:47:10] pull out the drawings,

[00:47:12] dive into it and try and find out,

[00:47:13] be detective,

[00:47:14] look at what's going on and go,

[00:47:16] yeah,

[00:47:17] you're right.

[00:47:17] We made,

[00:47:18] we made a mistake.

[00:47:19] Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[00:47:21] Cause now this is going to let us basically update the drawings,

[00:47:24] update,

[00:47:25] and basically prepare an addendum to include all this information and get it

[00:47:28] out.

[00:47:30] And definitely lock in your calendar for the last week of,

[00:47:35] of,

[00:47:35] of the tender.

[00:47:37] And why I mean that is the reality is in today's world,

[00:47:40] a lot of stuff comes in at the last minute,

[00:47:42] right?

[00:47:43] That's just the way human nature is.

[00:47:44] It shouldn't be.

[00:47:46] And then again,

[00:47:46] hopefully from this presentation,

[00:47:47] you've kind of taught you not to do that to the last minute,

[00:47:49] but the idea is lock it out because you are going to get a ton of

[00:47:52] requests at that last minute.

[00:47:53] You're going to get RFIs just flooding your inbox at that moment.

[00:47:56] So lock out your calendar,

[00:47:57] try not to schedule some trips or business trips or anything like that.

[00:48:01] Be present,

[00:48:01] be in the office,

[00:48:02] ready to tackle it.

[00:48:03] And of course you can keep doing your other little,

[00:48:05] the other little projects and they go,

[00:48:06] but allocate a good amount of time.

[00:48:08] And for me,

[00:48:09] I hate alternates.

[00:48:10] I really do with a passion because through this whole design space,

[00:48:15] and it's,

[00:48:15] it's not in terms of a disrespect or anything,

[00:48:17] but you've spent this time designing this BMW all to this point.

[00:48:20] You know what you want when this is basically going to a stiff,

[00:48:23] some tender,

[00:48:24] you know exactly the details,

[00:48:25] you know,

[00:48:26] what lockers you want and you know what toilets,

[00:48:28] you know,

[00:48:28] you know exactly what you want.

[00:48:30] And now you've got someone that's coming in here and saying,

[00:48:32] I want to put my product because they want to sell it.

[00:48:34] And rightfully so.

[00:48:34] I get that,

[00:48:35] right?

[00:48:35] That's the,

[00:48:36] that's the business,

[00:48:37] but be so careful with alternates because things can change from going from

[00:48:42] Oh,

[00:48:42] sure.

[00:48:42] We'll allow it.

[00:48:43] Cause we're going to be feeling nice to,

[00:48:45] Oh my goodness.

[00:48:45] There's an extra on site later because we didn't check the breaker size on this.

[00:48:49] It leads you up to the point where you can really get,

[00:48:53] get in trouble.

[00:48:54] And here's a good example.

[00:48:55] We had basketball hoops.

[00:48:56] We knew what we hoops we wanted.

[00:48:57] Our hoops went up and down,

[00:48:59] right?

[00:48:59] It was like we not only the swing,

[00:49:01] but also the actual hoop itself adjusted.

[00:49:03] And,

[00:49:03] and that was awesome.

[00:49:05] But,

[00:49:06] um,

[00:49:07] the supplier that we approved didn't have that.

[00:49:10] Oh shoot.

[00:49:10] We missed it.

[00:49:11] Or another good example of was a curtain wall.

[00:49:14] We always specified con your curtain wall,

[00:49:16] right?

[00:49:16] And that was,

[00:49:17] you know,

[00:49:17] the 1600,

[00:49:18] 1600 series.

[00:49:19] And it was a great system and it came with a matching sunshades and the sunshades

[00:49:22] were beautiful.

[00:49:23] They looked very elegant.

[00:49:25] They tied in.

[00:49:26] It was all part of the system.

[00:49:27] Well,

[00:49:28] we approved an alternate and they didn't have sunshades.

[00:49:32] So the,

[00:49:32] the contractor was forced to go get something.

[00:49:34] And they came back to us with this little goofy bracket that we had a bolt on.

[00:49:38] And then he had another put a bolt.

[00:49:39] And when you,

[00:49:40] and you saw these sunshades,

[00:49:40] like you were right there at the windows and you saw these,

[00:49:43] these details.

[00:49:44] And again,

[00:49:45] it's to me,

[00:49:45] it's all in the details.

[00:49:46] I,

[00:49:46] I'm a very detail oriented person and that stuff drives me nuts.

[00:49:49] And that's why I hate alternates because you don't have time to research everything in this last process.

[00:49:53] And there's a huge amount of peer pressure coming from the trades.

[00:49:56] So just be very cautious of where you want it.

[00:49:59] You should allow it.

[00:50:00] You should entertain it,

[00:50:01] do your homework,

[00:50:01] but just be very cautious.

[00:50:03] So apologize for my soapbox rant,

[00:50:05] but I hate alternates.

[00:50:07] Managing all these tender items.

[00:50:09] These are really critical.

[00:50:09] Cool.

[00:50:10] So you're going to get flooded with these RFIs,

[00:50:11] just like when we get into the CA portion,

[00:50:13] track it,

[00:50:14] have an Excel log,

[00:50:15] have a word document.

[00:50:16] That's what we did.

[00:50:17] File on your server,

[00:50:18] software,

[00:50:19] whatever you want to.

[00:50:19] It doesn't matter.

[00:50:20] Track this information because you don't want to be caught off where it is.

[00:50:24] Always envelope reviewing this.

[00:50:26] Important information,

[00:50:27] just having it documented in a place so you can pull up at any given moment,

[00:50:30] especially if you go on holidays during tender,

[00:50:32] right?

[00:50:32] Tender gets extended and you're,

[00:50:34] you've gone away.

[00:50:34] That's happened to me before.

[00:50:36] You try and plan your own personal holidays.

[00:50:37] There's a bonus tip too.

[00:50:39] Request for extension.

[00:50:40] As we already talked,

[00:50:41] be prepared and ready for this.

[00:50:42] They are going to ask for an extension guaranteed.

[00:50:44] So again,

[00:50:45] allow that two weeks,

[00:50:46] a hundred percent.

[00:50:48] And last chance.

[00:50:50] You never issue your last addendum on the day of tender close.

[00:50:53] That's not going to happen.

[00:50:54] Do it three,

[00:50:55] four business days.

[00:50:56] And that's your final addendum.

[00:50:57] Make it very clear.

[00:50:58] And when people call in,

[00:50:59] just be very polite and say it's the addendums,

[00:51:02] last issues,

[00:51:03] last addendums been issued.

[00:51:04] And that's the way it is.

[00:51:06] So some do's and don'ts about tender,

[00:51:08] right?

[00:51:08] Very clear.

[00:51:09] Do not reissue full sets of drawings.

[00:51:11] That's going to confuse everyone.

[00:51:13] I've seen it happen.

[00:51:14] It creates a lot of headaches.

[00:51:15] It doesn't give you good pricing.

[00:51:17] It is okay to issue drawings,

[00:51:19] but maybe one or two,

[00:51:21] you know,

[00:51:21] again,

[00:51:22] maybe an RFI trigger that,

[00:51:23] Hey,

[00:51:24] this wasn't clear on the drawings.

[00:51:25] Maybe there was some titles wrong issue that one sheet cloud it.

[00:51:28] And that goes into the communications aspect.

[00:51:30] Make it very clear.

[00:51:32] Prepare.

[00:51:33] You're basically preparing a site instruction,

[00:51:34] supplemental instruction.

[00:51:36] When it's closed,

[00:51:37] you're doing the same thing,

[00:51:38] put this in the addendums,

[00:51:39] make it really clear.

[00:51:40] You're going to bring your specs,

[00:51:41] update your specs of suiting.

[00:51:42] And as you're issuing these drawings,

[00:51:45] issue for tender,

[00:51:46] addendum one,

[00:51:47] addendum two,

[00:51:48] you've got versions of drawings.

[00:51:50] Keep track of this.

[00:51:51] Okay.

[00:51:52] Keep it track.

[00:51:52] Cause you're going to need that when you get into the construction side.

[00:51:58] So another kind of thing to include in tender,

[00:52:00] that's kind of a neat thing.

[00:52:01] If you're doing this kind of a pre,

[00:52:03] like basically an expansion and addition to something,

[00:52:05] 360 cameras,

[00:52:06] they are so cheap today.

[00:52:08] And they're amazing.

[00:52:08] You just basically go anywhere,

[00:52:10] take a picture.

[00:52:11] Boom.

[00:52:11] You've got everywhere.

[00:52:13] You didn't miss.

[00:52:14] I, you know,

[00:52:15] what does that duck look like there?

[00:52:16] What does that panel look like?

[00:52:17] What's the size of the panel?

[00:52:18] I don't know.

[00:52:19] 360 cameras are great.

[00:52:20] The only caveat you're in every photo.

[00:52:21] So keep in mind if your camera shy in that sense,

[00:52:23] but there is,

[00:52:24] there is web hosting sites that you can take these 360 images and basically

[00:52:29] take a plan and drop all these pins around.

[00:52:32] And you can include that in tender for a complete,

[00:52:35] you know,

[00:52:35] as per the record drawings,

[00:52:36] in addition to the record drawings,

[00:52:37] here's as built conditions.

[00:52:39] And yes,

[00:52:40] we're going to do our mandatory site walk,

[00:52:41] which will be good too.

[00:52:42] They'll see it there,

[00:52:42] but this almost creates another caveat.

[00:52:45] They can say,

[00:52:45] yes,

[00:52:46] that roof overhang was there.

[00:52:47] You did have to remove that.

[00:52:48] We know it in the drawings and it just gives you another piece of

[00:52:51] ammunition to basically make a rock solid.

[00:52:55] And I think most importantly,

[00:52:58] be a yardstick of quality.

[00:52:59] Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

[00:53:03] And that came directly from Steve jobs.

[00:53:05] I,

[00:53:05] the quality is key,

[00:53:07] right?

[00:53:07] And I know it's tough,

[00:53:08] especially at this point.

[00:53:10] Do your,

[00:53:11] do that,

[00:53:12] try and drawing checklist one more time.

[00:53:14] This is your last call to get this right.

[00:53:16] And I can't stress this enough.

[00:53:17] If,

[00:53:18] if anything's left,

[00:53:19] it's an extra,

[00:53:20] or it's going to be an RFI or anything.

[00:53:23] Do your due diligence and really,

[00:53:27] really focus on the quality in today's world.

[00:53:30] I find that's just,

[00:53:31] it's slipping and just be that better,

[00:53:34] be a better you.

[00:53:34] That's all I'm going to get at go that extra mile.

[00:53:37] Right.

[00:53:37] And I,

[00:53:38] I,

[00:53:38] me personally,

[00:53:39] I learned that early on,

[00:53:40] you know,

[00:53:40] with,

[00:53:41] with it.

[00:53:42] When I was doing a lot of photography back in the day,

[00:53:44] in that sense.

[00:53:45] And it was a neat story.

[00:53:46] I heard from one of the podcasts way back in the day.

[00:53:49] And it was kind of like the way that Disneyland took quality right to the

[00:53:52] thing where if someone said,

[00:53:53] Hey,

[00:53:54] where's,

[00:53:54] where's splash mountain?

[00:53:56] You know,

[00:53:56] the individual,

[00:53:57] the host there would not only just say,

[00:53:59] Hey,

[00:53:59] it's,

[00:54:00] it's over here.

[00:54:00] But by the way,

[00:54:01] when you're going over there,

[00:54:03] you might want to check out this.

[00:54:04] And because you're so close to this ride at this time of the day,

[00:54:06] it's not busy.

[00:54:07] Jump on it too.

[00:54:08] You'll appreciate it.

[00:54:09] And that's the same thing when it comes to their drawings is,

[00:54:11] is go that extra mile.

[00:54:13] Don't just,

[00:54:13] you know,

[00:54:14] skim through the drawings and go,

[00:54:15] Oh,

[00:54:16] Susan didn't update that,

[00:54:17] that detail.

[00:54:18] We'll flag it,

[00:54:19] do something about it,

[00:54:20] you know,

[00:54:20] bring it to our attention.

[00:54:21] It doesn't mean you have to own it,

[00:54:23] but bring it to the team and quality,

[00:54:25] quality,

[00:54:25] quality.

[00:54:27] And this,

[00:54:28] by having this attitude,

[00:54:29] this mindset is really going to push you into a next realm to basically

[00:54:34] deliver a right set.

[00:54:36] And that's it.

[00:54:37] Tender is now officially closed.

[00:54:38] We are done.

[00:54:39] All right.

[00:54:40] The beginning to an end.

[00:54:41] All right.

[00:54:45] So tender is closed.

[00:54:46] And what's next?

[00:54:48] Well,

[00:54:48] we're going to basically go into the issue for construction and we're

[00:54:50] going to touch.

[00:54:51] We're going to kind of talk about a little bit about this and just

[00:54:53] kind of what's,

[00:54:54] what's going to expect.

[00:54:55] Right.

[00:54:55] So we're not quite,

[00:54:56] we're not building at this point.

[00:54:58] We've just closed the tender.

[00:54:59] Well,

[00:55:00] the question is,

[00:55:01] was this a public opening?

[00:55:02] Sometimes it is,

[00:55:03] right?

[00:55:03] Maybe you'll have all the GCs come into the room.

[00:55:06] They've mailed all their stuff.

[00:55:07] And it's literally like their bids have literally come in moments before

[00:55:10] that.

[00:55:11] The tenders close.

[00:55:13] Maybe we do a public opening.

[00:55:14] We open up all the envelopes.

[00:55:15] We go through the forums that make sure that they did finish everything

[00:55:19] properly.

[00:55:21] At that point,

[00:55:22] we'll excuse everybody.

[00:55:23] We'll review all the proponents.

[00:55:25] We'll review the documentations,

[00:55:27] all the tender packages with the owner.

[00:55:29] Again,

[00:55:29] architecture and record.

[00:55:30] And we'll come to a conclusion that,

[00:55:33] you know,

[00:55:33] we know who the winning bid is,

[00:55:35] right?

[00:55:36] That again,

[00:55:36] with those alternates kind of going back to that,

[00:55:39] those alternate prices,

[00:55:40] we would always put a clause in the specs.

[00:55:42] The owner would just basically say,

[00:55:43] and they have the right to kind of basically make the final decision.

[00:55:46] So if there was two GCs that are neck to neck,

[00:55:49] they had a choice to make who they wanted to work with.

[00:55:52] Now,

[00:55:53] if they were a million dollars off for a public tender project,

[00:55:56] you wouldn't be able to do that.

[00:55:58] You would just,

[00:55:58] you would have to,

[00:56:00] you know,

[00:56:00] follow suit.

[00:56:01] You wouldn't have that obligation to do that.

[00:56:03] But if someone's really neck to neck and you've got the,

[00:56:04] the alternate prices that basically played the game,

[00:56:07] you might be able to pick the GC in and who you want to see win with that.

[00:56:11] Right.

[00:56:12] And it would give you a leg to stand on to basically say,

[00:56:14] look,

[00:56:15] we feel that this,

[00:56:16] this team was better.

[00:56:17] And the pricing just,

[00:56:18] just came in a little bit lower in that sense.

[00:56:20] So keep in mind,

[00:56:22] once the decision's made,

[00:56:23] a letter recommendation,

[00:56:24] fun part.

[00:56:25] I always enjoyed giving a calling,

[00:56:27] the winning proponent and sharing the exciting news that they were the

[00:56:29] successful proponent to winning the bid.

[00:56:32] And it was a great way to break the ice,

[00:56:34] meet,

[00:56:35] have that open conversation.

[00:56:36] Everything's in a happy mood.

[00:56:38] At this point,

[00:56:39] pick a day for your first site kickoff meeting,

[00:56:41] right?

[00:56:41] Get them involved,

[00:56:42] right?

[00:56:42] Get that.

[00:56:43] And basically allow,

[00:56:44] you know,

[00:56:45] notify the team,

[00:56:46] your design team that we've got our first site kickoff meeting,

[00:56:49] ready to get going.

[00:56:49] And we'll see everyone on site.

[00:56:53] And a couple,

[00:56:53] just a little,

[00:56:54] just throw this in just because given the timing and everything,

[00:56:57] best practices that I've been finding over the years is for your site

[00:57:00] meetings is you manage all your site meetings,

[00:57:02] right?

[00:57:02] You can maintain that control when this goes to kind of the CA side.

[00:57:08] You know,

[00:57:08] definitely note long lead items in your meeting notes,

[00:57:11] right?

[00:57:12] Hydro gas,

[00:57:14] long lead submittals,

[00:57:15] take back control as the architects.

[00:57:16] Don't leave this to the GCs.

[00:57:18] We've been doing that for so long.

[00:57:20] And why?

[00:57:21] Let's take back the control and ownership of this,

[00:57:23] of these items.

[00:57:24] They're going to still be submitting it,

[00:57:26] but let's do it.

[00:57:27] Especially during COVID times.

[00:57:28] It was really critical that like the first shop during,

[00:57:30] I said it was electric,

[00:57:31] electrical distribution panels because they weren't a three month lead time

[00:57:35] anymore.

[00:57:36] My goodness,

[00:57:37] they were going up to 12 months and some of these kinds of small daycare

[00:57:40] projects that we had on the go.

[00:57:41] Well,

[00:57:42] the daycare was supposed to be done in 12 months.

[00:57:43] So they couldn't energize and then basically fire up their equipment and

[00:57:46] get an occupancy because these panels weren't ordered in time.

[00:57:49] So be proactive,

[00:57:51] lay that out and basically shop drawing schedules.

[00:57:55] And I'm going to talk about that in the next slide.

[00:57:57] And the right visual tools,

[00:57:59] you know,

[00:58:00] again,

[00:58:00] good practice,

[00:58:01] have those site trailers with those full size TVs,

[00:58:04] you know,

[00:58:04] talk about that,

[00:58:05] bring up drawings.

[00:58:05] It's a great way to just communication.

[00:58:08] Today's technology with zoom as we're doing right now,

[00:58:10] great way that everyone should be part of that site meeting regardless.

[00:58:13] So someone physically can't be there because of conflicts,

[00:58:16] they still need to be attending those site meetings.

[00:58:18] It's,

[00:58:18] it's really,

[00:58:19] really important.

[00:58:21] And I just want to touch into the point.

[00:58:24] Again,

[00:58:24] this all goes back to our specs about what you're allowing the contractor

[00:58:27] use.

[00:58:27] He's going to want to use Procore,

[00:58:28] right?

[00:58:28] We find that 60% of the jobs are running that.

[00:58:31] Maybe they're using e-builders,

[00:58:32] a few other applications out there,

[00:58:34] depending on where you are.

[00:58:35] The reality is the contractor is going to look after his behalf.

[00:58:38] And so,

[00:58:38] and rightfully so he should,

[00:58:39] he has a project schedule that he asked to maintain.

[00:58:42] He has a budget to maintain.

[00:58:44] He's going to do whatever tools that he needs.

[00:58:46] So that's the reality of it.

[00:58:47] But where Procore kind of puts us at bay from the architectural side is

[00:58:52] that we lose control.

[00:58:53] He's driving the boat.

[00:58:55] He's issuing everything.

[00:58:56] Now we're managing all those documentations in,

[00:58:58] into,

[00:58:59] um,

[00:59:01] into our own systems.

[00:59:02] We're getting flooded with emails.

[00:59:03] It's a nightmare.

[00:59:04] It takes away from it.

[00:59:05] And it,

[00:59:06] you know,

[00:59:07] you've got to track it though.

[00:59:08] And one thing I want to introduce you to is part three.

[00:59:12] And my little story about this is the,

[00:59:14] this team approached me about three years ago when I was at my previous

[00:59:17] firm.

[00:59:17] And it definitely changed not only just my career,

[00:59:19] but the whole firm's kind of outlook on CA,

[00:59:22] how we tracked CA.

[00:59:23] And basically this is an application that lives on in the cloud and it manages

[00:59:28] it.

[00:59:29] It collaborates all the CA together.

[00:59:30] It has dashboard real-time data into it.

[00:59:33] So you can see who's fallen behind in their response time.

[00:59:36] It's just an advanced tool that does it.

[00:59:39] And the best part of this actually connects with Procore and allows you to keep

[00:59:42] control of those logs,

[00:59:44] um,

[00:59:44] shop drawing review,

[00:59:45] same thing.

[00:59:46] Everyone jumps into the same session.

[00:59:48] They review it.

[00:59:48] It follows up with their,

[00:59:49] their change orders.

[00:59:50] You do your field reviews,

[00:59:52] all off online.

[00:59:53] Everything is an all-in-one CA application designed by architects and for

[00:59:57] architects.

[00:59:57] And very cool.

[00:59:58] So like I said,

[00:59:59] I used it for two years professionally.

[01:00:01] It changed my career.

[01:00:02] I went from three to 15 jobs because of it.

[01:00:04] And you know,

[01:00:05] through that,

[01:00:06] through that excitement,

[01:00:06] I actually work for them now,

[01:00:08] but,

[01:00:09] but another kind of thing to take into account is I was talking about shop

[01:00:12] drawing logs.

[01:00:12] And this is something that,

[01:00:13] that was developed not too long ago is you can actually upload your specs and

[01:00:20] part three's AI learns the shop drawings and it creates a shop drawing log

[01:00:23] for you.

[01:00:23] So again,

[01:00:24] this changes the game for years.

[01:00:26] We've always said contractor,

[01:00:28] can you give me a shop drawing log?

[01:00:29] And they go,

[01:00:30] sure.

[01:00:30] We'll give you a shop drawing log in that sense.

[01:00:32] They never do right.

[01:00:33] Or it's outdated or anything.

[01:00:35] This changes the game where you take control and say,

[01:00:36] no,

[01:00:36] no,

[01:00:37] here is the shop drawing log.

[01:00:38] And a good example is again,

[01:00:40] that school.

[01:00:41] I don't want to be kind of nine months into the project going,

[01:00:44] what shop drawings are we missing?

[01:00:45] What haven't I reviewed yet?

[01:00:47] Oh my goodness.

[01:00:48] We haven't reviewed the bleachers.

[01:00:50] The school is going to open up in three months.

[01:00:52] The bleacher shop drawings are about six to seven months lead time.

[01:00:57] Partial occupancy.

[01:00:57] I guess nothing we can do.

[01:01:00] So if we were proactive with it and again,

[01:01:02] kind of laying the groundwork first and taking control of the project,

[01:01:07] you're going to win.

[01:01:08] You're going to have no surprises.

[01:01:09] And again,

[01:01:10] with this proactive approach,

[01:01:11] I've had jobs finished early,

[01:01:13] even during COVID times,

[01:01:14] because everyone's working together and that's kind of the efficiency.

[01:01:17] And again,

[01:01:18] AI,

[01:01:19] one kind of little fun thing just to bring this up is you can use AI to basically review the shop drawings as flag.

[01:01:25] If it's an alternate,

[01:01:26] and then basically,

[01:01:27] basically does a precursor review to it.

[01:01:29] Does it meet testing?

[01:01:31] Does it meet the colors?

[01:01:32] And again,

[01:01:33] it's AI is not replacing us,

[01:01:35] but I would have loved using this years ago,

[01:01:37] you know,

[01:01:38] in CA,

[01:01:39] right?

[01:01:39] And a good example is say we have a rooftop unit comes in.

[01:01:43] I'm not reviewing it,

[01:01:44] you know,

[01:01:44] as the architectural side.

[01:01:46] But you know,

[01:01:47] it flags and says,

[01:01:48] Hey,

[01:01:49] this doesn't meet specs.

[01:01:49] Well,

[01:01:50] I'm getting on the phone with mechanical be like,

[01:01:51] this is a new rooftop unit.

[01:01:52] This is not what we specified.

[01:01:54] It's an alternate.

[01:01:54] Do you want it?

[01:01:55] No,

[01:01:55] because we'd have to redraw the whole system.

[01:01:57] Great.

[01:01:57] Thanks.

[01:01:57] I'm going to return it right now on your behalf,

[01:01:59] but done.

[01:02:00] And that that's,

[01:02:01] I think where this AI functionality,

[01:02:04] it's going to put time back in the project.

[01:02:06] Again,

[01:02:06] it's not going to do your job.

[01:02:07] It's not going to replace your job.

[01:02:08] You still have to have intelligence reviewing a shop drawing,

[01:02:10] but it's a precursor review.

[01:02:12] And I think that's,

[01:02:12] what's really exciting about this.

[01:02:14] And again,

[01:02:15] either you're with it or you're not,

[01:02:17] but it's,

[01:02:17] it's here and it's just going to get better and better and better.

[01:02:20] And so take advantage of it,

[01:02:22] use it.

[01:02:23] But again,

[01:02:24] you still have the intelligence with it.

[01:02:28] And I think this ultimate goal,

[01:02:29] we've worked so hard.

[01:02:31] And I,

[01:02:31] and again,

[01:02:32] I apologize that some of it was all talked about at the beginning of this.

[01:02:36] Basically there was so much about pretender and everything,

[01:02:38] but that makes sense.

[01:02:40] It really does.

[01:02:42] It's because ultimately our goals in construction is not to lose all the money

[01:02:45] that we made in design.

[01:02:47] And that's came from an actual quote from a 60 person firm in Ontario.

[01:02:50] And it's so true when it comes to CA,

[01:02:52] if you've done it well,

[01:02:54] the process should just flow.

[01:02:57] And that's what we're kind of trying to achieve with this.

[01:03:00] Ultimately just finish the job,

[01:03:02] do it well,

[01:03:03] be proactive,

[01:03:04] go through the necessary steps as we've talked about today.

[01:03:07] I'm going to say it one more time,

[01:03:08] drawing checklist,

[01:03:09] get that down there,

[01:03:10] focus on the quality,

[01:03:12] you know,

[01:03:12] don't rush it.

[01:03:13] And again,

[01:03:14] if you're in that point with an owner,

[01:03:16] you're going,

[01:03:16] look,

[01:03:16] I need a one more week owner.

[01:03:18] Be honest,

[01:03:18] be transparent.

[01:03:19] They're usually pretty good about that.

[01:03:21] If you say I need six months,

[01:03:22] that's a different matter,

[01:03:23] right?

[01:03:24] That's something you're going to have to figure out on your own,

[01:03:25] but put that time in,

[01:03:28] do it because the more you invest at the beginning and during that,

[01:03:32] that final tenor stage,

[01:03:33] you can create an amazing drawing set that when you go into construction,

[01:03:37] that it does move smooth,

[01:03:38] that your drawings aren't having constant extras.

[01:03:41] They're not having additional things.

[01:03:43] You're not buried with RFIs.

[01:03:44] The more you can kind of proactively do the better and kind of just,

[01:03:49] yeah.

[01:03:49] Thank you again so much for everyone for let me be here and present.

[01:03:53] And of course you want to connect with me and find me.

[01:03:56] I'm very social on LinkedIn in that sense.

[01:03:58] That's my QR code,

[01:03:59] my email and everything.

[01:04:01] Part three dio is kind of that system that I showed you at the very end.

[01:04:04] Like I said,

[01:04:05] firm believer in it.

[01:04:06] I also run a contract administration podcast called what the RFI and it's on

[01:04:11] Spotify and,

[01:04:12] and Apple and everything.

[01:04:14] And just even the website is loan.

[01:04:15] So have a look at it.

[01:04:17] Check me on LinkedIn.

[01:04:18] But again,

[01:04:19] thank you so much.

[01:04:20] Appreciate the invite again,

[01:04:21] Felix and the rest of the team.

[01:04:23] And I,

[01:04:24] I didn't get any questions at least that I haven't seen,

[01:04:26] but you know,

[01:04:28] we,

[01:04:28] yeah,

[01:04:28] we finished off the hour and we've definitely got some time and happy to

[01:04:32] discuss.

[01:04:33] Okay.

[01:04:34] For the open house at the 60% milestone,

[01:04:35] you mentioned that you do not want any changes to,

[01:04:40] to maintain the schedule.

[01:04:41] Is this more of a presentation?

[01:04:43] The open house.

[01:04:44] Yeah.

[01:04:44] Like I said,

[01:04:44] it was,

[01:04:45] it doesn't mean you're set,

[01:04:46] right?

[01:04:47] Like it's,

[01:04:47] you've met with the user groups,

[01:04:49] you've got your schematic design stage and you're basically going to be

[01:04:52] prevent,

[01:04:54] presenting it to an open house.

[01:04:55] Right.

[01:04:55] And like I said,

[01:04:56] there might be some media there and it's really just to say to the

[01:04:58] public,

[01:04:59] here's our drawings.

[01:05:00] This is what we did.

[01:05:01] And again,

[01:05:02] another kind of key fact to it is capture,

[01:05:06] like when you're physically in these user group meetings,

[01:05:08] have someone take some photos.

[01:05:09] Like those are very powerful for a,

[01:05:11] for like future interviews for your website and everything,

[01:05:14] but bring those,

[01:05:15] those presentation to the open house,

[01:05:17] showcase the design to the public,

[01:05:19] get them involved.

[01:05:20] And,

[01:05:21] and of course,

[01:05:22] finish it with a beautiful touch and do a video and fly in media and

[01:05:26] sound.

[01:05:27] And again,

[01:05:27] this is,

[01:05:27] we've done that for performing arts theaters as well.

[01:05:30] And,

[01:05:30] and tell the story.

[01:05:31] Like I rather,

[01:05:32] that's what I was getting at with doing these renderings are so

[01:05:34] powerful.

[01:05:35] Rather than doing one still image,

[01:05:36] you're only focused on,

[01:05:37] I don't know what the last,

[01:05:38] the rest of the building is,

[01:05:39] but when you do a video and you're flying through the building,

[01:05:41] you're constantly going,

[01:05:42] Oh shoot this ceiling.

[01:05:43] I forgot to,

[01:05:44] we've got a big gaping hole in our video.

[01:05:46] So what are we going to do?

[01:05:47] And it forces you to do that in respect to that.

[01:05:51] And I think one,

[01:05:52] my most heartfelt story,

[01:05:54] I've got a couple,

[01:05:55] but this was probably one of my favorite ones is we,

[01:05:58] that school at the very beginning,

[01:05:59] one of that in the top left hand corner there,

[01:06:02] because it was a tight site.

[01:06:03] And it was,

[01:06:04] it was,

[01:06:04] we definitely took into account of the biophilia aspect and the

[01:06:07] trees.

[01:06:07] And I had one individual come to the meeting and he's like,

[01:06:11] I owe you an apology.

[01:06:13] This is already,

[01:06:14] we're starting the conversation very different now.

[01:06:17] And he's like,

[01:06:18] I came here with a hard heart.

[01:06:20] I really did.

[01:06:20] I was ready.

[01:06:21] I had my whole list.

[01:06:22] He actually showed me his list to briefing.

[01:06:24] He had a whole list of why this was a horrible,

[01:06:26] horrible idea for the community,

[01:06:28] why this was,

[01:06:29] didn't belong here.

[01:06:30] And this didn't.

[01:06:31] And he was part of the art side too.

[01:06:33] And he apologized.

[01:06:34] He said,

[01:06:34] I was totally wrong.

[01:06:35] You guys nailed it.

[01:06:37] And you know,

[01:06:38] you had the,

[01:06:39] the,

[01:06:39] the room facing,

[01:06:40] you know,

[01:06:41] North in that sense,

[01:06:42] you had all the things,

[01:06:43] you had it connected to nature,

[01:06:44] everything at the school,

[01:06:45] you've taken into account.

[01:06:46] You've heard the people,

[01:06:47] you heard our comments,

[01:06:48] and we really appreciate that.

[01:06:49] So it just gives an opportunity to get some feedback.

[01:06:52] Those user group feedbacks are great.

[01:06:54] Another fun story is I got,

[01:06:56] we had one kid write down breakfast club when they were marking up the

[01:06:58] drawings that they wanted a breakfast club.

[01:07:00] And we laugh,

[01:07:00] we joked about that.

[01:07:01] And we said,

[01:07:02] actually,

[01:07:02] that's cool.

[01:07:02] Let's put a survey by the gym and the breakfast club can take care of

[01:07:06] this.

[01:07:06] So yeah,

[01:07:07] that's kind of what I was saying about the open house is you're still

[01:07:09] going to work along.

[01:07:10] It's just going to push you to get some of those decisions done at the

[01:07:13] beginning.

[01:07:14] Okay.

[01:07:16] Last,

[01:07:16] like the part three format didn't have mechanicals.

[01:07:19] I'm sort of good,

[01:07:19] a payment.

[01:07:20] Has this feature been added?

[01:07:21] If not,

[01:07:22] what do we issue?

[01:07:23] Yes.

[01:07:23] So yeah,

[01:07:24] lots has changed.

[01:07:24] I don't know when Corey,

[01:07:26] you looked into part three,

[01:07:27] but it's all in one.

[01:07:28] It does certificate of payment.

[01:07:30] It does progress draws.

[01:07:31] It does your deficiencies.

[01:07:33] It does your changes,

[01:07:35] quotes,

[01:07:36] CDs,

[01:07:37] you name it,

[01:07:37] everything all in one.

[01:07:39] And yeah,

[01:07:40] reach out to me and we can talk more.

[01:07:42] Thank you.

[01:07:42] Very important subjects.

[01:07:43] Site soil conditions sometimes bring expensive surprises that impact cost and

[01:07:47] schedule.

[01:07:48] You're absolutely right.

[01:07:50] And that's a topic on the own.

[01:07:52] I've done a couple of podcasts about that,

[01:07:54] but doing site stripping plans is really important.

[01:07:57] That's a great exercise to basically get your civil NGO to do it.

[01:08:01] And I actually,

[01:08:02] when I was presenting,

[01:08:03] I thought about like,

[01:08:04] Oh,

[01:08:04] I should have mentioned that.

[01:08:05] So thank you for bringing it up in that case.

[01:08:07] But yeah,

[01:08:08] what we would do is we provide an actual site stripping plan saying,

[01:08:11] when the geotech said,

[01:08:12] look,

[01:08:13] like here's our level of soils here.

[01:08:15] You've got,

[01:08:15] you know,

[01:08:16] we've got some bad soils here and there.

[01:08:17] Let's just strip everything down to minus 1.2 meters to this elevation.

[01:08:22] That's what the contractors to do.

[01:08:24] And we guarantee,

[01:08:25] we know exactly what the cost is going to be because it's all going to be fair and tender

[01:08:29] because soils is such a challenging thing.

[01:08:31] Now,

[01:08:32] if we do strip it down and we do get a couple of odd soft spots,

[01:08:35] well,

[01:08:36] you would have unit rates in your specs to cover those.

[01:08:39] So if they did have to dig out so much extra fill in that area,

[01:08:42] we already know what the extra cost is.

[01:08:44] And yes,

[01:08:45] that during construction is one of those things you can't predict.

[01:08:47] And again,

[01:08:48] maybe put a contingencies to that.

[01:08:50] We've done that as well.

[01:08:51] We've got a really nasty site.

[01:08:52] We've put a million dollars for contingency just in case it's,

[01:08:55] it's a cash allowance to basically be used and,

[01:08:58] and put to that.

[01:08:59] But a hundred percent site soils is one of those things that the money's in the

[01:09:04] ground or something.

[01:09:05] There's a saying that goes really well with it.

[01:09:07] You can get burned really bad and lose a lot of money in that sense.

[01:09:10] So again,

[01:09:10] do the match you can force that geotech to do additional drill holes early on

[01:09:15] that stage.

[01:09:16] Which again,

[01:09:16] once you've got the actual site figured out,

[01:09:18] now,

[01:09:19] you know where you can start puncturing some additional holes to get an idea.

[01:09:22] You're not going to do a hole every 10 feet.

[01:09:23] That's just not a practicality of it,

[01:09:26] but do due diligence.

[01:09:28] And yes,

[01:09:28] you're absolutely right.

[01:09:30] So that wraps up the live webinar.

[01:09:32] I hope you enjoyed it.

[01:09:33] I hope you pick something out of it from a technique,

[01:09:36] a skill,

[01:09:37] maybe just a different mind shift and focusing on how you want to deliver the

[01:09:41] tender set.

[01:09:42] I would love to connect with you.

[01:09:44] Find me on LinkedIn,

[01:09:46] connect with me.

[01:09:47] If there's something that you do,

[01:09:49] part of your firm,

[01:09:50] part of the thing that you do to make sure the tender set goes really well,

[01:09:53] please,

[01:09:54] you know,

[01:09:54] shoot me a note.

[01:09:55] Always an interest in learning more and how to just be better.

[01:09:58] And like I said,

[01:09:58] just how can we be deliver the ultimate tender set and look like rock stars to our clients?

[01:10:04] And that's really what it comes down to.

[01:10:06] We want to just deliver the right product and better yet,

[01:10:09] we've designed this product,

[01:10:10] this building from day one,

[01:10:12] we've spent hours.

[01:10:13] We don't want to see it fall apart during construction.

[01:10:16] So very,

[01:10:17] very important topic.

[01:10:18] And I know it wasn't directly to CA,

[01:10:21] but it definitely ties into it.

[01:10:22] So that's it for me this week.

[01:10:24] Thanks for joining.

[01:10:25] And again,

[01:10:26] architects keep designing and contractors keep making those blueprints reality.

[01:10:30] We'll see on the next one.