David R Hoover, Architect, NCARB

Subcontractors are protected in Louisiana from non-payment by the Contractor as described by the following: Louisiana RS 14:202 §202.  Contractors; misapplication of payments prohibited; penalty

Submittals are NOT contract documents, but are only to demonstrate the way that the contractor proposes to conform with the design concept in the contract documents. Pursuant to AIA A201 2007: 3.12.4 Shop Drawings, Product Data, Samples and similar submittals are not Contract Documents. Their purpose is to demonstrate the way by which the Contractor proposes to conform to the information given and the design concept expressed in the Contract Documents for those portions of the Work for which the Contract Documents require submittals. Review by the Architect is subject to the limitations of Section 4.2. 7. Informational submittals upon which the Architect is not expected to take responsive action may be so identified in the Contract Documents. Submittals that are not required by the Contract Documents may be returned by the Architect without action.

There are now a lot of reports on the failures of the Levees in the New Orleans area on the television and on the internet, and now the talk seems to be moving at how much money Louisiana should be given to build more levees around the small isolated communities in the South and to reinforce or rebuild the levees around the New Orleans area. Why do we think that this is a good idea? I am not sure. From working in this area, I have seen what it takes to build a deep foundation for the mid to high-rise buildings in the CBD, and the one that is certain is that you will be driving piles a few hundred feet to hit anything "substantial" (I use this very loosely) and create enough friction from the surrounding swamp to hold the structure up and create a matt slab to basically float the building. If you have ever lived her or driven around town, you will always notice that the driveways to the residential garages are always a foot or so lower, so that the occupants can not even dr...

Article: Field Reports Author: Nicholas Leone This is an article concerning the authors way of conducting Field Reports during construction. If your company does not have a certain way to complete field reports or if you are interested in seeing another architects method of documentation, please read the article. http://www.archrecon.com/2011/02/field-observation-reports.html DRHdesign http://www.drhdesign.com/