The Building Commissioning Association (BCA) officially released its New Construction Building Commissioning Best Practices. This publicly available document is applicable to most building types and distills the long list of guidelines, and longer list of tasks, into easy-to-navigate activities that represent the ideal commissioning process.
This document represents a collaborative effort on the part of several leading experts in the field of commissioning. Bruce Pitts of Wood Harbinger, Inc and Karl Stum of Summit Building Engineering spearheaded this two-year effort.
According to its authors, it aims to promote commissioning in the marketplace by defining the qualities and characteristics of best commissioning practices and to raise professional standards by establishing a benchmark against which the market can gauge quality and professionalism, and which the BCA can use to objectively evaluate other commissioning initiatives, including their own.
“I am proud of this Best Practices document,” stated BCA President Mark F. Miller, PE, CCP. “A unique and valuable aspect of this document is to identify several of the most common issues, pitfalls and challenges that BCA members see in the industry related to the practice of commissioning new construction and major renovation projects. Our hopes are that by highlighting these challenges and identifying proven strategies for overcoming them that this will heighten awareness and understanding and lead the industry to overcome these problems while promoting quality and standardization in the industry.”
New Construction Building Commissioning Best Practices draws upon existing resources such as the BCA’s own Building Commissioning Handbook, NEBB Procedural Standards for “Whole Building Systems Commissioning of New Construction”, National Institute of Building Science (NIBS) “Whole Building Design Guide”, ASHRAE Guideline 0-2005, ASHRAE Guideline 1.1-2007 and the USGBC LEED rating system.
Best Practices in Commissioning Existing Building is available in its entirety on the BCA website at www.bcxa.org. BD+C
Related Stories
| May 1, 2012
Gilbane to build $100 million cranberries manufacturing facility
Gilbane to provide design build services for a new Lean manufacturing facility for Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., beverage products.
| May 1, 2012
Construction is underway on MLK ambulatory care center in L.A.
Featuring a variety of sustainable features, the new facility is designed to achieve LEED Gold Certification.
| Apr 30, 2012
Virginia Commonwealth unveils design for Arts Institution
Institute for Contemporary Art will serve as a catalyst for exhibitions, programs, research and collaboration.
| Apr 30, 2012
Summit Design + Build completes build-out for Office Concepts
The project is seeking LEED ID Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
| Apr 30, 2012
HSA Commercial selected as consultant for Orland Park’s Main Street Triangle project
HSA will be responsible for designing an overall mixed-use merchandise plan, attracting a unique retail tenant mix and completing leases with prospective tenants.
| Apr 30, 2012
Gilbane to manage retrofit of the Fraunhofer CSE R&B structure
Building is a first-of-its-kind research and demonstration building for sustainable technologies in Boston's Innovation District.
| Apr 30, 2012
KBE Building completes renovation at the ConnCAT
The $1.2 million project consisted of a 16,000-sf interior renovation.
| Apr 27, 2012
GreenExpo365.com to offer webinars on EPA’s WaterSense Program
Architects and builders interested in developing water-efficient buildings invited to attend free sessions featuring experts discussing water-efficient building practices.
| Apr 27, 2012
APA launches wood design web portal for building and design pros
Design professionals who are members of APA’s Professional Associates are automatically enrolled in the APA Designers Circle program.