How SMARTreview APR transforms the compliance review process — for any rule book.
Architects are primarily tasked with the design of a project based on the owner's wishes. However, architects must also consider how their design complies with the applicable building code or standard. Many architects and designers interpret the complexity of the building code themselves or entrust the compliance analysis to third party contractors (or engineering firms). Typically project reviews are back loaded in the project schedule, waiting until the end of the design cycle before checking to see if the project violates the code. The reasons for pushing reviews until the end of the design cycle include:
In other words, the high cost of determining compliance has driven up the project cost and added weeks of analysis and rework time to the project timeline.
To best illustrate the difference between the current approach and the approach advocated by SMARTreview, consider the following:
An owner engages an architectural firm to design a new building that is 10,000 square feet in size and hosts a business and a mercantile area.
The architectural firm uses an independent contractor to review the design. The independent contractor charges $150/hour and, because of the complexity of the design, takes 5 days to review the project.
At the end of the review, the independent contractor provides the architect with a plan review document that identifies 20 items that are in violation of the International Building Code.
The architect spends 2 days to make the corrections and gives the revised project documents back to the independent contractor for re-review. The independent contractor takes 2 additional days to verify compliance and provides the architect with a plan review report.
The architect purchases the right to use SMARTreview APR and the AI Report on the project for the fixed price of $250.
As part of the natural design of the building, the architect regularly runs a compliance analysis of the design against the selected rule book and makes small corrections organically as they are identified by the SMARTreview APR.
At the end of the design cycle, the architect is confident that the design fully complies with the applicable rule book and generates an AI Compliance Report from the analysis results — proving the project’s compliance to the Authority Having Jurisdiction.
Summarizing the two different approaches in a comparison table, the cost of each approach reveals that the SMARTreview APR costs less than 5% of the traditional approach, is organic to the design process, and saves 9 days off the project's design timeline.
| Traditional | SMARTreview APR | |
|---|---|---|
| Review Duration | 5 days | a few seconds |
| Rework Duration | 2 days | — |
| Re-review Duration | 2 days | — |
| Review Rate ($/hour) | $150/hour | — |
| Rework Rate ($/hour) | $50/hour | — |
| Total Review Hours | 56 hours | < 1 hour |
| Total Rework Hours | 16 hours | — |
| Total Review Cost | $8,400 | $250 |
| Total Rework Cost | $800 | — |
| Total Cost | $9,200 | $250 |