PA_PPI Flashcards
In a project budget, are utility lines considered to be a site development cost or a building cost?
In this type of document, utility lines are categorized as site development.
How is a budget arrived at during the schematic design phase?
During this phase of a project, a budget is arrived at by estimating the costs of major subsystems.
What is the contingency line item in a project budget used for?
This part of the budget is reserved for unforeseen conditions or changes by the owner.
What method of analyzing a schedule can provide information on the soonest possible completion date of a project and on which activities are most important to meeting that date?
The critical path method, or CPM, provides this information.
In the practice of architecture, what is programming?
This is the process of defining and analyzing a problem and establishing a few clear problem statements about it.
What value is communicated by a corner office as compared to an office with a single exterior wall?
The occupant of this kind of office has a higher status than that of the occupants of the other offices on the same floor.
Which occupancy has a greater net-to-gross ratio, a restaurant or a hospital?
This ratio is greater in a restaurant than a hospital, because a restaurant has less nonassignable space.
What kind of corridor is used in a dumbbell circulation pattern?
This kind of circulation pattern uses a double-loaded corridor.
What is a Gantt chart used for?
This kind of bar chart is used to display a project schedule, breaking down the project into separate phases and activities and plotting them against time. Charts of this sort are widely used in managing both design and construction activities
What are the four methods most commonly used for field measuring and recording a historic building?
The four most common methods used are
- tape measure and sketches
- laser-based measuring device
- photography laser scanning
- video
During the programming phase, what are the two most common ways of recording and organizing information about spatial relationships?
The two most common ways of recording and organizing this kind of information are in
- an adjacency matrix
- a bubble diagram.
What are the four basic variables to consider in developing a construction budget?
These four variables are
- time
- quality
- quantity
- the total funds available
What is the difference between a project estimate and a construction cost estimate?
- The first kind of estimate includes the cost of the land, professional fees (attorney, architect, engineering), moving costs, furniture, equipment, financing costs, and all construction costs.
- The second kind of estimate includes only site development and building construction costs.
What does a net-to-gross ratio measure?
This is the ratio of occupiable space to total floor area.
The total area includes nonassignable space such as stairs, toilets, elevators, and corridors.
As a percentage of the gross building area, within what range should the area be of a mechanical room that uses an all-air or air-water system in a large building?
In a large building, the area of this kind of room should be 3% to 9% of the gross building area.
What three threats are addressed in good security design?
Good design in this area protects against
- vandalism
- theft
- physical harm
How many people are usually involved in informal group interaction?
Studies have shown that two to four people are usually present at this type of group setting. When five or more people work together, more formalized patterns of leadership, procedure, decision-making, and conflict resolution begin to appear.
In a critical path analysis chart, what is a dummy?
In a critical path analysis chart, this is a dashed line that creates a dependency relationship but has no duration.
The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties requirements for preservation require deteriorated features to be repaired rather than what?
In this type of work, these are required to be repaired rather than replaced.
Name five cast-in-place concrete floor framing systems.
- Beam and girder,
- one-way pan joists,
- flat plate,
- flat slab
- waffle slab
What document is used to determine the boundaries of zoning districts?
A zoning map determines the boundaries of these regions.
What design elements are generally part of an accessible route from a parked car to a front entry door?
The design elements that are generally part of this are
- a striped access aisle
- a curb ramp
- a walkway or ramp
- landings at the top and bottom of the ramp and at the front door
What is tax-increment financing, or TIF?
This type of financing funds construction of new infrastructure by borrowing against the increased tax revenues expected to result from the improvements, and attracts private development to the area by reducing property and other taxes.
What National Park Service program preserves the nation’s largest archive of photographs, drawings, and written records of historic sites, maintained as a special collection at the Library of Congress?
This program is the Historic American Building Survey (HABS).
What must be shown at a public hearing before a variance can be granted?
Before this can be granted, it must be shown at a public hearing that there are conditions or circumstances unique to the property that would create an undue hardship if all provisions of the zoning code or ordinance were strictly enforced.
Name two major trade associations that publish standards used in the construction industry.
The gypsum and steel associations are two examples of numerous associations that publish standards to benefit the construction industry.
What is the relationship of ICC/ANSI Standard A117.1 to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
This document is used to outline the technical requirements to comply with the ADA.
What is the purpose of a model code?
It allows a city or county to have a working building code without the expense of writing its own.
What is the purpose of a public right-of-way?
This site-specific regulation creates a public access easement for sidewalks and utilities.
How is an easement documented?
This land restriction must be recorded with the municipal government office.
How and by whom is a fire-rated door regulated?
The construction of this undergoes fire testing and receives an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) label
What are restrictions to a deed called?
These are called covenants and can be placed on property by land developers.
Who is responsible for the enforcement of zoning districts?
This determines the zoning of property based on location and is enforced by a city or county planning commission.
What type of work is Underwriters Laboratories (UL) responsible for?
This organization is responsible for developing standards and testing products for safety and fire.
Name two federal regulations or laws that directly impact building design and construction.
Examples of this type of law or regulation are
- the Americans with Disabilities Act
- the safety-glazing requirement issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission
- wetlands protection
- historic preservation
What issues should an architect be sensitive to in the environmental analysis for a new building?
In this kind of analysis, it’s important that the architect be sensitive to
- context of the surrounding area
- particularly with respect to views
- existing buildings,
- noise.
Is the albedo of natural materials generally high or low?
Natural materials reflect little energy, so this quality is generally low.
Name four design strategies used in a cool climate.
Four design strategies used in this climate use
- compact forms
- large south-facing windows
- high thermal mass
- dark colors for exterior surfaces
What two angles are used in surveying to describe the position of the sun?
The two angles used in surveying to describe this are the azimuth and the altitude.
What is proxemics?
This is the interrelated observations and theories of the human use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture.
What aspect of human behavior is demonstrated through the protection of one’s personal space?
This kind of human behavior demonstrates territoriality.
A school district is studying the prospect of building a new school. What is the name given to the population area within the district?
This is referred to as the catchment area.
Who is the most famous American park planner?
Frederick Law Olmstead has this distinction.
Name four common strategies for maintaining good indoor air quality.
Four strategies for this are
- elimination or reduction of pollution sources
- ventilation control
- proper maintenance
- controlling the activities of occupants
The contractor uncovers contaminated soil and notifies the architect. What should the architect do?
On learning about contaminated soil, this party should notify the owner immediately and suggest that the work stop until the nature and extent of the contamination is determined by a qualified professional.
If peat or another organic soil is found on a building site, what is the likely course of action?
This type of soil cannot be used to support a building foundation or roadway, so it must be removed from the site before building.
What kind of road is used to connect local streets with arterial streets?
A collector street is used to connect these two kinds of roads.
A road has a 2% slope. How many feet does it change in elevation for every 100 ft of horizontal length?
A road with this slope changes 2 ft in elevation for every 100 ft of horizontal change.
What is the best range of orientation for a site in the Northern Hemisphere in order to balance summer and winter heat gains?
For a site in the Northern Hemisphere, an orientation between 5° and 25° east of south best achieves this balance.
What is an invert elevation?
This is the elevation at the bottom of a drain, manhole, or catch basin. This quantity is often needed in the design of sewer and storm sewer systems.
What are the three principal methods of describing a property’s boundaries?
The three principal methods of describing these are by
- location within a subdivision
- metes and bounds
- reference to a township and section
What is indicated by contour lines that point in the direction of the downslope?
Contour lines that point in this direction represent a ridge.
In a residential neighborhood street, where does the sewer line run?
In this kind of district, the sewer line runs below grade at the centerline of the street. This gives the theoretical shortest total distance to buildings being served on both sides of the street.
Name two design strategies used to drain a parking lot.
Two common solutions for this design problem are the use of
- sheet draining
- the use of a swale.
What system of land subdivision was encouraged by the Land Ordinance of 1785?
The grid system was established in the United States after this document was adopted.
In the Public Land Survey System, what is a township?
This unit of land measurement is a square six miles on a side
What is a degree day?
This is the unit of measure of the average temperature difference between a building’s interior baseline temperature of 65 degrees and the outdoor average temperature.
What is a bulk plane restriction?
This is a zoning restriction that prevents a new structure from projecting beyond certain spatial limits. It is used so that this new building does not block air and light from neighboring properties
Is the building site at A in a valley or on a ridge?
The building site is in a valley. To tell a valley from a ridge on a contour map, note whether the contour lines “point” toward higher or lower ground.
What is a drainage easement?
This is private land used for stormwater management by a governmental agency.
For which of these locations would grading the site for construction be least expensive?
This aspect of construction would be least expensive for Location B, which has the most level slope.
How are contour lines placed to represent a uniform slope?
This is what contour lines represent when they are equally spaced.
LEED v4 BD+C point criteria
- strategies for sustainable site development,
- water savings,
- energy efficiency,
- materials selection,
- indoor environmental quality.
Accumulation of sufficient points enables a project to achieve varying levels of LEED certification status, from Certified to Platinum.
Legal exits
provide a protected path of escape from a building in the event of a fire.
Some revolving doors now have a feature that permits opening in an emergency, making them legal exits in some circumstances but not always.
Proposed structures are classified by building codes according to
- occupancy group (assembly, residential, etc.)
- fire hazard, (fire hazard modifier A or B).
- construction type. (Type I, Type II, etc.)
Land use is generally regulated by zoning ordinances, not building codes.
Programming”s primary purpose
a process used to define a building’s function
Subsystem Cost Budget of Office Buildings
Compared to a single-family detached residence, the normal activity spaces in a unit of a highrise apartment building are generally
is quite similar. Regardless of the type of residence, normal activity spaces generally accommodate required human functions in much the same manner.
1 acre to sqf
43560
The purpose of schematic design is to
- graphically represent program details.
- describe general relationships
- formulate initial design possibilities.
- formulate concept cost estimate.
solve building design - DD phase
Define project schedule - during the development and design phase
In a preliminary project budget, off-site development costs would include
utilities outside the property lines.
pendentives
Byzantine architecture
dosseret blocks
triglyphs and metope
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture
Quoin
quoin, in Western architecture, both the external angle or corner of a building and, more often, one of the stones used to form that angle.
crocket
A crocket is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture
Bosses
In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of wood, stone, or metal during Gothic architecture
Environmental impact statements
- detailed reports used to determine whether the implementation of a proposed project will have any adverse effect on its immediate environment.
- Rather than establish regulations, the administrative agency reviews the implications of a proposed project and suggests alternatives to minimize any potential hazards.
- Environmental impact statements apply to proposed, not existing projects, and have nothing to do with economic feasibility.
Enthalpy
- enthalpy is the thermodynamic quantity equal to the sum of the internal energy of a system plus the product of the pressure-volume work done on the system.
- While it can’t be directly measured, differences between the initial and final state of the process can.
- Factors that affect the enthalpy of reaction include
– concentrations of reactants and products
– temperature of the system
– pressure of gases involved.
The wind pressure on a building acts
- inward on the windward wall
- outward on the leeward wall
- upward on a flat roof
Acoustical barrier
Berms, coniferous trees, fences, and walls all provide physical barriers.
Which climate zone should consider thermal mass cooling?
- mixed or hot temperatures that need cooling, as well as marine or dry conditions so that condensation does not inhibit the air exchange process.
- For these reasons, mixed-dry, warm-marine, and hot-dry climates are appropriate for thermal mass cooling
Node / landmark / district / edge
- node is a center of interest that people can enter, such as a plaza, a public square, or the intersection of paths. A node is smaller than a district and may be the center of a district.
- A landmark is a point reference and a device for wayfinding and symbolic identification of an area
- A district is a two-dimensional area that people perceive as having a common, identifying character and that is critical to the sense of neighborhood.
- An edge is a linear element other than a path that forms a boundary between two districts or that breaks continuity.
This question requires an understanding of the ideas of Kevin Lynch as described in his book, The Image of the City.
Garden city
- Ebenezer Howard formulated the garden city concept late in the 19th century. He proposed the creation of a city with 30,000 inhabitants on 1,000 acres of land.
- A central core of public buildings was to be surrounded by shops and row houses, with industrial facilities on the outskirts. All of this was to be encircled by a permanent greenbelt.
- Early in the 20th century, two such garden cities, Letchworth and Welwyn, were developed with the intent that they be self-sufficient. Instead, both cities became satellite towns dependent on London, rather than true garden cities.
Superblock
- The planned community of Radburn, New Jersey, was built by American planners Henry Wright and Clarence Stein in the 1920s.
- The intent was to minimize automobile-pedestrian conflict by creating superblocks, which were islands of green bordered by houses, with roads and parking at the periphery.
Mastic
high-grade construction adhesive commonly used to bond ceiling, wall, and floor tiles, plywood panels, concrete, asphalt, leather and fabric.
life cycle inventory model
building orientation for climate zone
the climate during the summer is hot and dry during the day, but cooler and quite comfortable at night. What architectural approach will be?
- Exterior shading devices
- Dark color on the south facade
- Light-colored roofing
- Insulation on the exterior of masonry walls (cane be thermal mass)
- Vented openings facing the prevailing wind
preferable development location in hot and arid southwestern area of the United States?
- At the bottom of hills in valleys
- Near a body of water
- Protected from northerly winds
Program analysis factors to Consider
- Building location on its site
- Building orientation
- Building massing
- Building footprint
- Available passive energy options and their integration
- Existing features that can be used on site
best building location in temperate climate
A : building is in drainage pattern
B : wrong south orientation
C : wrong south orientation
A public enterprise revenue bond
general obligation bond
Development impact fees
- A public enterprise revenue bond is issued to fund a public project that will produce revenue; the bond is repaid with the money generated by the facility. This type of bond may be issued to finance a project like an airport, a hospital, or a stadium.
- general obligation bond is used to fund public projects that will not produce revenue. These are often used to finance schools, public libraries, or municipal buildings**. The bond is repaid through property, or ad valorem, taxes. General obligation bond measures must be approved by voters in the jurisdiction.
- Development impact fees are charged to developers to pay for public improvements that are necessary because of the development. Fees may be assessed to cover the costs of road improvements, utility extensions, or other upgrades required for the private development project that must be provided by the municipality.
occupancy group of below
- outpatient clinic
- agricultural barn
- concert hall
- motor vehicle repair shop
- An outpatient clinic does not house nonambulatory patients, so it can be classified as a business.
- An agricultural barn serves as a utility building supporting the function of an agricultural space.
- A concert hall is used for assembly and is classified as an A-3 occupancy.
- A motor vehicle repair shop is used to store flammable and hazardous materials and is classified as an S-1 occupancy.
Preliminary code evaluation
-
What is the occupancy of this building?
The occupancy is determined according to the owner’s program, which defines the size and use of the spaces within the building. A building can be comprised of many different types of occupancies, which must be separated with appropriately fire-rated walls or partitions. The International Building Code (IBC) lists the following occupancy classifications. -
What type of fire-suppression system will be required?
This question ascertains whether or not the building will be sprinklered. This can vary based on several factors, including whether the project residential or commercial. A sprinkler system, can also allow a larger building than a non-sprinklered one. -
What type of construction will be used?
The IBC lists the following construction types.
Which is dictated by ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) based on the use, number of floors, and square footage per floor of the building.
whether an elevator must be included based on the use, number of floors, and square footage per floor of the building.
Sprinkler, exit, and parking requirements are not defined by this criterion.
zoning variance
- A variance addresses situations where zoning requirements cause undue hardship for a property owner or where zoning requirements do not address a unique situation.
- Generally the application for a variance includes an explanation of the request and drawings depicting what will be built.
- The request is publicly advertised (often with a sign on the property) and then goes before a municipal board (such as a planning commission or zoning board), and comment is invited from neighbors and other interested parties. The board then makes a decision.
sewer invert elevation
maximum slope of ADA ramp
1:12, 8.3%
What building materials can be used with Type I and II construction? What about Type V? Is A or B sprinklered?
- You should have a basic understanding of the five general types of construction, I, II, II, IV and V.
- You will most likely encounter I, II and V
- Types I and II are non-combustible materials, like steel and concrete
- Type V is “any material” which is what we generally use with wood framed construction.
- A or B designators DO NOT have anything to do with whether a building has sprinklers or not.
- They differentiate the level of protection different building elements must have
- A Type IA exterior wall will have a higher fire-resistance rating requirement than a
Type IB wall. - A Type VA structural framing member will have a higher fire-resistance rating requirement than Type VB
- Sprinklers DO give you a lot of leeway in the code…lower ratings, more area, more height, but that is noted through exceptions and formulas, NOT through the A & B types.
bleacher
guardrail code
handrail detail
guardrail 2
bulk plane
Cornice
Eaves
Adobe mission
Adobe means a building material mix of earth and straw. American Indians started building houses with adobe in the 1400s. Spanish elements were added when the Spanish conquered the region in the 1600s. Northern Europeans took over later.
Log cabin
The first log cabins in the Americas were built by emigrants from Sweden and Finland. Log cabins had been built in these countries for thousands of years.
One man working alone could build a small log cabin in a few weeks. It went much faster if he had help.
Gambrel roofed barn
The Gambrel Roof Barn evolved from the New England Barn in the early 20th Century as farming became more commercial and less for subsistence. The origin of the name derived from the Medieval term gamba, meaning “horse’s leg or hock”…….
Native pueblo
Pueblo architecture, traditional architecture of the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States. The multistoried, permanent, attached homes typical of this tradition are modeled after the cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture beginning in approximately 1150 CE. This architectural form continued to be used by many Pueblo peoples into the 21st century.
roads
solar altitude in main cities
four broad climatic regions
- The cool region includes all of Canada, the northern part of the middle United States, and the mountainous regions of Wyoming and Colorado.
- The temperate region includes most of the middle latitudes of the United States, including northwest and northeast areas of the country.
- The hot-humid region includes the southeastern parts of the country.
- The hot-arid region stretches from Southern California across the desert southwest to portions of southern Texas.
topo
what is maximum cross slope for ADA ramp
1:48 (2%)
Programming
Programming is the stage of defining the problem and establishing all the guidelines and needs on which the design process can be based. It is a time for analyzing all aspects of the problem and distilling its complexities into a few clear statements. Programming is often conducted in a five-step process:
Establishing Goals
Collecting Facts
Uncovering Concepts
Determining Needs
Stating the Problem
Space Requirements for Estimating Non-assignable Areas
Some Common Space Planning Guidelines
Some Common Efficiency Ratios
personal space
- Designing environments so individuals can maintain a comfortable distance between them
- The concept of personal space, as developed by Edward T Hall, states that four basic distances can be understood to exist in the study of human behavior, each one appropriate for different private and social situations. These are the intimate distance, the personal distance, the social distance, and the public distance. The theories of personal space are described by Edward T. Hall in The Hidden Dimension and by Robert Sommer in Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design.
Sheet drain
Sheet Drain captures and removes subsurface water, reducing hydrostatic pressure to help prevent saturation of surfaces and costly property damage
diagram types
Below slopes
- sheet drainage : xx%
- parking area : xx%
- falling away from structure: xx%
- Drainage ditches vary in slope from a minimum of xx% to a maximum of xx%.
- soccer field : xx%
- maximum slope of walkway : xx%
- Lawns should be kept under xx% to facilitate mowing and maintenance.
- The maximum slope for paved streets is usually between xx-xx%, depending on the region and city, so a xx% maximum would be appropriate.
- Planted banks and unretained earth cuts are usually limited to a xx% grade, since slopes steeper than this are highly susceptible to erosion.
- sheet drainage : 0.5~1%
- parking area : 1.5~5%
- falling away from structure: 2%
- Drainage ditches vary in slope from a minimum of 2% to a maximum of 10%.
- soccer field : 4%
- maximum slope of walkway : 5%
- Lawns should be kept under 25% to facilitate mowing and maintenance.
- The maximum slope for paved streets is usually between 10-14%, depending on the region and city, so a 10% maximum would be appropriate.
- Planted banks and unretained earth cuts are usually limited to a 50% grade, since slopes steeper than this are highly susceptible to erosion.
Single story rigid steel system
Span is about 100 ft
Open web steel joist
Sunchart
- A sun chart can be used to read solar azimuth and altitude by plotting the position of the sun over a certain location for each hour (time) between sunrise and sunset and for each month (date) of the year.
- The solar azimuth is the angular distance of the location from the north, measured clockwise.
- The altitude is the height of the location in relation to the horizon. It is important to note that sun charts are specific to a latitude and longitude and the information shown on these charts will vary from location to location
radial organization pattern
A radial organizational pattern best facilitates social interaction, because all inhabitants of a building pass through a central core to move to other spaces. This pattern is popular in secondary school design, where wings—a science wing, a humanities wing, the industrial arts shops, and so on—branch off from a central space housing common amenities like the library.
axial pattern
An axial pattern connects two major spaces on the main axis with secondary paths branching off from either side. This organizational pattern is often used for shopping malls.
grid pattern
Most American cities are based on the grid pattern. This strategy is easy to expand and easy to interpret, even for a first-time visitor. It can become monotonous, though, unless portions of the city or building break from the grid to form areas of surprise and complexity.
precinctual pattern
A precinctual pattern works well for buildings that house a number of dispersed activities. This organizational technique could be used for an office building housing several distinct companies. Advantages of this strategy are flexibility, efficiency, and economy.
