Structural Drawing Review

The architect is not going to check the engineering and should not try. What the architect has to check is the other thing, and nobody else does it: whether the frame that was designed fits the building that was drawn, and whether the structural set still assumes a plan that has moved.

Workflow

Step 1. Establish what you are comparing

Ask, in one message:

1. What revision is each set, and was the structural set drawn on the current architectural background?
2. What phase, and what is the structural set issued for?
3. Do you have the general notes and the drawings they reference?
4. Has the geotechnical report been reviewed, and does the structural set cite it?
5. What is fixed architecturally that the structure has to work around: ceiling heights, clear spans, openings, a facade module?

A structural set drawn on a superseded architectural background is the most common and the most expensive finding, and it is answered by a question rather than by reading drawings.

Step 2. Compare grids, levels and datums first

Nothing after this is meaningful if these disagree:

• Grid lines: same designations, same spacing, same origin on both sets.
• Levels: same names, same elevations, same datum.
• Whether structural levels are top of steel, top of slab, or finished floor, and whether the architectural set means the same thing by the same name. This one difference produces more errors than any other.
• Building outline and any relationship to the property line.

Step 3. Find the structure that lands in the architecture

Walk the plans together and report every conflict:

Location	Structure	Architecture	Conflict	Both values

• Columns in rooms, in corridors, in unit layouts, in parking bays, in the middle of a door.
• Braced frames and shear walls where the plan wants an opening or a glass line.
• Transfer structure, and what its depth does to the floor below.
• Beams crossing where the ceiling has to be highest.
• Foundations conflicting with a lift pit, a shaft, a sump, or a below-grade wall.
• Slab edges, steps and depressions against the architectural floor finishes.
• Anything landing in the working clearance of an electrical room or the service space of a plant room.

Step 4. Work the vertical dimension, which is where ceilings are lost

Structural depth is the constraint the architecture feels most:

• Deepest member in each area, against the floor-to-floor and the required clear height.
• Where members cross, and what the depth is at the crossing.
• Where services have to pass under, over, or through structure, and whether penetrations through members are shown and permitted. Point at mep-review.
• Slab thickness and any topping, against the floor build-up the architecture assumes.
• Roof structure against the roof build-up and the drainage falls.

Report the clear height available in each area against what the architecture requires, as two figures.

Step 5. Find what has been deferred, and to whom

The most valuable pass and the easiest to skip. Structural sets defer work routinely and legitimately, and the deferral has to land on somebody:

• Anything marked delegated design, design-build, or by others: connections, cold-formed framing, stairs and railings, curtain wall attachment, precast, joists, canopies, elevator rail loads.
• For each: who designs it, who reviews it, whose seal, when it is submitted, and is it in anybody's fee?
• Anything marked to be confirmed, by supplier, or subject to shop drawings.
• Whether the specification carries the delegated design requirements the drawings assume.

A delegated item with no owner is a gap the architect stands in.

Step 6. Report

#	Finding	Structural says	Architectural says	Kind

Kind is conflict, gap, duplicate, or deferred. Report both values on every conflict and rule on none.

Then, in order:

• Grid, level and datum disagreements, first. Everything else waits on them.
• Conflicts affecting clear height or a fixed architectural dimension.
• Deferred items with no owner.
• What could not be checked and why.

Close by saying the engineering was not reviewed.

Step 7. Save, if asked

Ask whether to write the review to a file and where.

Rules

• Never check or comment on the engineering.
• Never supply a span, a depth, or a load.
• Compare grids, levels and datums before anything else, and stop if they disagree.
• Establish what each set means by a level name.
• Report both values on every conflict and decide neither.
• List every deferred item with who owns it, or flag that nobody does.
• Say what was not supplied and therefore not reviewed.

Anti-patterns

• Checking whether a beam is big enough.
• Comparing sets drawn on different architectural backgrounds without saying so.
• Assuming top of steel and finished floor mean the same thing.
• Reporting a column conflict and choosing which drawing is right.
• Treating a delegated design note as somebody else's problem.
• Checking plan conflicts and not clear heights.
• Reviewing without the general notes.

Resources

None. This skill is one file. Output is written directly at the path you choose.