I just had an experience that while not the first of its kind, made me think it might be good to share.
The situation involves the audio system for a theater in a county performing arts center that I had designed as part of the facility design. For more than a year I have been asking when we would see the the speaker rigging Shop Drawings required by the Specifications, meanwhile the facility construction has been proceeding.
I finally received the related drawing from the Contractor and it reflected a significantly different approach than what I had shown in my design Drawings. I knew there had been some coordination issues regarding conflicts with ductwork for which the Architect had been involved so before responding I contacted the Architect to see if the deviation was a result of his input. He also forwarded the information on to the Structural Engineer for the building. The response back was that not only was what was shown not in response to the Architect's input, but the structure they showed using to support speaker arrays was not designed for and would not support their load.
The specific aspects that stood out on this for me were:
The situation involves the audio system for a theater in a county performing arts center that I had designed as part of the facility design. For more than a year I have been asking when we would see the the speaker rigging Shop Drawings required by the Specifications, meanwhile the facility construction has been proceeding.
I finally received the related drawing from the Contractor and it reflected a significantly different approach than what I had shown in my design Drawings. I knew there had been some coordination issues regarding conflicts with ductwork for which the Architect had been involved so before responding I contacted the Architect to see if the deviation was a result of his input. He also forwarded the information on to the Structural Engineer for the building. The response back was that not only was what was shown not in response to the Architect's input, but the structure they showed using to support speaker arrays was not designed for and would not support their load.
The specific aspects that stood out on this for me were:
- I had a drawing from the Contractor showing rigging that not only deviated from the design intent but that was not feasible.
- That drawing was actually stamped and signed by a licensed Structural Engineer who apparently reviewed only the rigging itself and not the structure to which it was attached.
- Because they waited so long to submit the information, the construction progress is such that they may have to tear out much of the work already done in order to rig the speakers safely, much less as intended.