I’m acting as an owner’s representative on a project. The contractor calls me before he calls the owner, the front office folks, or the user groups in the building. It's one of “those” phone calls. “Hey there Lisa. Well, um, we had a pipe burst in the building last night…”. My first response was “Are you serious? knowing that this contractor and I can joke around. He assured me he was not joking. I headed over to the site.
It is a funny situation to be in. I’m not the owner (just acting on their behalf); I’m not the design architect (knowing the likely “behind the scenes” discussions); and I need to work with the contractor on projects independent to this one.
So first I focus on getting the facts: what, where, how, when (and the inevitable), what are we gonna do about it? Then I visit the site and see for myself (although clean up operations have begun) so I can report back to the owners (and the design team with whom the owner has a contract):
a) A brief history of an on-going punch list item which has yet to be fully resolved has failed (again).
b) The failure and the timeline as I could ascertain regarding the failure.
c) What are the areas which were affected and what fixes will be required?
d) Other questions/issues and when will it be completed? Who will pay for it?
It dawned on me as I was typing up the information that there is only one time when you can gather the true facts on what happened. That’s as soon as it happened, not after clean up, not after repair work. I seem to recall an insurance seminar on disaster recovery and in this short-term retrospective, I realized I had most of the stuff to capture all the information. Have you ever had one of "those” phone calls? What did you do? How do you make sure you capture the information you (or your client or the GC) might need in the future? What suggestions do you have? No, you can’t suggest hiding under your desk.
—Lisa Stacholy, AIA
Comments (3)
I never said anything about "finger pointing". My point is that everything flows from proper characterization of the issues, of which this expression is not an example.
Please also be aware that the AIA general conditions authorizes the architect to issue extra contractual directives when site conditions are thought to be dangerous.
May I suppose you provided the opinion that the cable was abandoned? May I also suppose that you provided both the research and opinion at no additional expense to the owner?
Hero, you were. Should your opinion have been mistaken, then you would have been the goat.
Posted by Craig Hunt | April 15, 2009 12:19 PM
Posted on April 15, 2009 12:19
Craig, thats a good start but for me the issue goes beyond what the contract says. I see as urgent work to find out what happened and what can/needs to be done about it. A contractor called me one day saying his parking lot excavation had severed what looked to be a 500 pair phone cable. It looked like it because it was. Panic ensued. A half day of research revealed that all the contractual stuff not withstanding nothing needed to be done. The cable was long abandoned. Still finding a solution is first and seeking blame and responsibility can come later. There's always time to find someone to point a finger at but working together to limit damage and prevent injury or death is first priority. Everyone benefits from that.
Posted by Louis Smith, AIA, NOMA | October 15, 2008 10:34 AM
Posted on October 15, 2008 10:34
Before going to the site I would review my contractual obligations to the owner, the contractor's contractual obligations to the owner, and the general conditions of the construction contract. My observations would be in conformance with the requirements of these documents and would note performance of the work strictly with regard to them.
Posted by Craig Hunt, AIA | October 1, 2008 10:18 AM
Posted on October 1, 2008 10:18