Friday 19 December 2014

Luncheon Meeting - Design Professionals’ Liability: What you don’t know can hurt you.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Presented by Glen Boswell – Partner, Clark Wilson LLP

What are the main sources of design professional liability?

How long can a design professional be liable for errors?

What protection does liability insurance provide?

What can design professionals do to minimize liability risk?

Glen Boswall will address these questions and more as he reviews the law governing design professional liability arising from tort, contract, and statute. His discussion will include standard of care, fiduciary duty, Letters of Assurance, field review, and building codes and what protection liability insurance does and does not provide.

Glen is a partner at the Vancouver law firm Clark Wilson LLP. He has extensive experience in construction and insurance law and has litigated many cases including a recent major lawsuit concerning the BC Place roof replacement project.

LOCATION
Sandman Hotel, 180 West Georgia Street, Vancouver 
Enter Moxie’s Classic Grill escalator entrance. The ballroom is located straight through the restaurant at the back of Moxie’s.

AGENDA
11:30 am - 12:30 pm - Luncheon (full course self-serve buffet style)
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm - Chapter Business
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm - Guest Speaker Presentation

COST
$32.00 plus GST for pre-registered CSC members / Association Executive Directors
$48.00 plus GST for non-members

PARKING
Sandman Hotel Parking: Enter off Cambie Street, pass the Sandman Hotel Breezeway, underground parking to the left, press buzzer to access parkade and take elevator to restaurant level. Cost is $1.25 per 15 minutes.
Easy Park: Across the street on the corner of Georgia and Cambie Streets. Cost is $1.50 per 30 minutes.

SKYTRAIN
Exit at Stadium-Chinatown Station. Walk 2 minutes.

REGISTER ONLINE
Online at Karelo by VISA, MasterCard, or Interac Online.

REGISTER BY FAX
The registration form available at vancouver.csc-dcc.ca. Payment can be made at the door by cash, cheque, or VISA only.

PRE-REGISTRATION
Pre-registration ends at 2:00 pm on the Wednesday before the meeting.

WALK-INS WELCOME
Missed the deadline? Did not pre-register? You may still attend at $50.40 per person, space permitting, BUT please call 604-868-8406 beforehand.  If you pre-register and do not attend, we may invoice you for the cost of the meeting. If you have special dietary (meal) requirements, please notify us at least 24 hours before the event.

Thursday 11 December 2014

Membership Report - Specifier: November 2014

As we continue to promote CSC, the need for value in the construction industry is greater than ever. The Vancouver Chapter has increased by three new members which brings membership to 163.

Please help us to welcome our new members:

  • Mrs. Alison Henry, Van. Sales Manager of Engineered Site Products Ltd
  • Ms. Shandra Vedress, CSP. Arch Technologist of Stantec Architecture Ltd.
  • Mr. John Rehmann, Technical Sales Representative of Euclid Canada

For More Information on Membership:
Download the entire issue for this article and more.
For more issues, visit our website or visit our archive for past issues.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Education Report - Specifier: November 2014

The Vancouver chapter began a Principles of Construction Documentation course this September. Fifteen students had registered for the class that started on the 22nd. Once again the course is being taught by Glenn Chatten and being held at the VRCA Vancouver office.

Principles of Construction Documentation is the first course, and a pre-requisite, for all of the CSC education streams. These are Certified Technical Representative, Certified Construction Contract Administrator, and Certified Specification Practitioner. It is also a strong foundational course for people who are new to the construction industry or want to better understand construction documentation (specifications, drawings and schedules), products, bidding procedures and contracts. This course is offered on-line by CSC Canada once a year and the Vancouver chapter aims to hold one local class a year. If there is enough demand the Chapter will look at offering another course.

The Technical Representative course is scheduled to begin January 22, 2015. Final details are being worked but tentatively we expect them to once again be held at the VRCA Vancouver location. Please look for the registration form to be posted on the Chapter web page in the next month or so.

The CSC Vancouver chapter is also looking to hold either, or both, Specifier 1 and Construction Contract Administration beginning in the late Winter or early Spring. There have been a few people that have expressed interest in both classes, but not enough to hold a session. If you or any one you know has expressed an interest please contact me so we can work on getting a class filled and scheduled for each.

For further information please contact me at robert@div7.ca

For more issues, visit our website or visit our archive for past issues.

Thursday 4 December 2014

Mortgages and Dip Loans Trump Liens - Specifier: November 2014

By Bill Preston

Too often Designers/Contractors/Trades/Suppliers (I have witnessed delinquents among all of them!) invest services and materials into a project without first carefully investigating:

  • Does the proposed project have good market prospects and is its financing a smart investment for your credit?
  • Does the Owner/Developer have available some extra financial resources if a problem arises?

A recent BC Court of Appeal decision in Mission Creek v. New Recreations should be a gut wrenching lesson for everyone. In early 2007, New Recreations and its associated companies owned (and secured their investment by a mortgage on the title) prime Schuswap Lake waterfront property. They conceived a $19M West Beach Lands Development consisting of leased holiday sites and adjacent permanent storage facilities. For New Recreations’ business plan the appurtenant storage was critical to the success of the project. But, this portion of its scheme was attracting pushback from the municipal planners. Eventually, the municipality rejected the storage portion of West Beach Lands Development’s proposal and a Judge affirmed its decision in August 2010. But, by then New Recreation’s mortgage financing and the designers/builders had invested a whole bunch of credit in the development and eventually fought over who was going to spill the most financial blood.

Here is a chronology of what happened:

Oct/10
Liens for approximately $725,000 had been registered against the project.

Oct/10
But, Mission Creek Mortgage had before any liens were registered advanced $19M on its mortgages.

Oct/10
New Recreations was in default so Mission Creek gave bankruptcy notice.

Oct/10
New Recreations, hoping to complete its project and create better value for all of the creditors, obtained a Court order\staying all debt collection proceedings.

Oct/10
This Court also permitted the monitor (trustee) of New Recreations to borrow money (DIP financing) from Mission Creek Mortgage to leases-up the sites and sell the project.

Nov/10
So that New Recreation’s monitor could provide clear title to the lease sites, the Court vacated all of the liens upon the monitor borrowing and paying $725,000 into a lawyer’s trust account.

Aug/12
At this point there was $22.1M dollars owing Mission Creek for both its mortgages and the DIP financing, as well as a further $725,000 was still owing to the lien claimants.

Aug/12
The West Beach Lands Development was sold for $17.9M, about $4.2M short.

The fight thus distilled down to the issue, who was entitled to the $725,000 in the lawyer’s trust account? It became a fight between Mission Creek seeking payment on its mortgages and DIP loans on one side, and the lien claimants on the other side. This dispute went all the way to the Court of Appeal, which decided that Mission Creek was entitled to the trust money while the lien claimants were left with an empty claim + legal costs!

The lien claimants had argued that the trust deposit was a set aside for the purpose of first paying their claims, while Mission Creek countered that the trust deposit merely stood in substitution for the land and its mortgages and DIP financing were superior claims, thus it was entitled to all the trust funds. The Court of Appeal agreed. It concluded that because all of the mortgage advances had been duly made before the liens were registered and the DIP financing gave Mission Creek statutory priority over the liens pursuant to the federal CCAA legislation, they trumped the liens. The Court rationalized that in October 2010 this project was in grave financial peril and all creditors, including Mission Creek and the lien claimants, hoped to revive the project or at least optimize their claims by using DIP financing to complete it. It didn't work out; and, it would create a mischief and uncertainty for future DIP financing Court orders if the financing could be trumped by late filed lien claimants.

Conclusion

Would it have been different if the liens had been filed sooner? Maybe. Earlier filed liens may have sooner prompted Mission Creek to freeze the mortgage financing and threaten bankruptcy proceedings. The better conclusion, in my opinion, is that had the lien claimants carefully investigated the financial prospects and strengths of the project before investing their credit in services and materials, they would have discovered that New Recreation’s business proposal was substantially predicated upon obtaining municipal approval for the storage sites; and further New Recreations has no rainy day resources, rather only debt financing.

Here in the end, New Recreation’s affiliated company also lost its investment in the land because earlier, to obtain Mission Creek’s mortgage financing, it had postponed its land mortgage to Mission Creek’s claim, and the sale price didn't realize enough to even completely pay off Mission Creek’s mortgages.

For more issues, visit our website or visit our archive for past issues.

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Luncheon Meeting: STC and Steel Framing: Dispelling Myths & Forging Innovative Designs

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Presented by Ben Shafer, MS (Physics), Acoustic Systems Specialist, PABCO Gypsum (USA)

Does varying the steel stud gauge really cause the STC rating to change?
Can a loadbearing, structural-steel interior partition also be acoustically rated?
How do cross-bracings, channel stiffeners, blocking, and door frames affect STC ratings?
What is the variation between STC lab results and actual field performance?
Should specifications identify different STC levels for assembly framing designs of different steel gauges?
What are best practices for achieving, or even exceeding, BC Building Code STC50 in the field for multifamily party wall and corridor wall designs?

Ben Shafer will answer these questions, and more, as he provides a comprehensive overview of designing acoustically-rated interior partitions for a variety of steel stud configurations, including partitions with structural requirements. The differences between ASTM E90-09 (sound transmission loss/STC) lab tests, typically performed on 25 gauge steel studs, and the real world sound isolation performance of interior partitions that have structural components such as cross bracing, channel stiffeners, blocking and door frames will be addressed. He will also introduce and explain new sound isolation measurements and standards related to SPC (Speech Privacy Class) and ASTC (Apparent Sound Transmission Class).

Ben graduated with a Master of Science (Physics) degree from Brigham Young University (BYU), is a voting member of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), and actively participates as a member of the Structural Acoustics and Vibration Technical Committee within ASA. He is a full member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE), and currently serves as secretary for the ASTM E33.03 sub-committee on Sound Transmission. Ben has close to a decade of field experience in acoustics and noise control for multi-family residential, hospitality, healthcare, transportation, and education sectors throughout Canada and the US.

LOCATION
Sandman Hotel, 180 West Georgia Street, Vancouver 
Enter Moxie’s Classic Grill escalator entrance. The ballroom is located straight through the restaurant at the back of Moxie’s.

AGENDA
11:30 am - 12:30 pm - Luncheon (full course self-serve buffet style)
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm - Chapter Business
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm - Guest Speaker Presentation

COST
$32.00 plus GST for pre-registered CSC members / Association Executive Directors
$48.00 plus GST for non-members

PARKING
Sandman Hotel Parking: Enter off Cambie Street, pass the Sandman Hotel Breezeway, underground parking to the left, press buzzer to access parkade and take elevator to restaurant level. Cost is $1.25 per 15 minutes.
Easy Park: Across the street on the corner of Georgia and Cambie Streets. Cost is $1.50 per 30 minutes.

SKYTRAIN
Exit at Stadium-Chinatown Station. Walk 2 minutes.

REGISTER ONLINE
Online at Karelo by VISA, MasterCard, or Interac Online.

REGISTER BY FAX
The registration form available at vancouver.csc-dcc.ca. Payment can be made at the door by cash, cheque, or VISA only.

PRE-REGISTRATION
Pre-registration ends at 2:00 pm on the Wednesday before the meeting.

WALK-INS WELCOME
Missed the deadline? Did not pre-register? You may still attend at $50.40 per person, space permitting, BUT please call 604-868-8406 beforehand.  If you pre-register and do not attend, we may invoice you for the cost of the meeting. If you have special dietary (meal) requirements, please notify us at least 24 hours before the event.

Monday 1 December 2014

Words from the Chair - Specifier: November 2014

We are in the final days of November and I am still wondering where the time went…but I don’t believe I am the only one feeling this way! I am sure the students in our PCD course who are in their final review before the exam are scratching their heads wondering where it went!!! They are probably also wondering if they have studied enough for the exam! I wish them much success in this endeavor and wish to thank Glenn Chatten for doing an outstanding job in teaching this course!

Time waits for no man (or woman) or so they say, AND you can’t manage time, only your productivity within the allotted time you have‍…so what are you doing to make yourself more effective and productive? This not only relates to ourselves personally but also to our professional time and volunteer time! How do we manage so that we have balance in where and how we spend our time?

This leads me to the next topic;

Our association just held our 4th annual Simply but Revealing Trade Fair at the Vancouver Trade and Exhibition Centre where our manufacturers showed up again in great numbers. Although the cost to exhibit is low and the time involvement is short compared to other events, they are finding themselves questioning the involvement in this event due to lack of turn out. As manufacturers we expect to participate in Association Events to show our support, to network with customers and showcase new and exciting products. In order to justify our time and expenses to our bosses (yes we all have those) we need to show a return on our investment or else there may be reluctance in approving next years’ participation budget. Quite the conundrum for sure!

I felt we had 3 great speakers with AIBC Core LU’s attached and an easily accessible venue within walking distance of many firms as well as on transit for those further away, yet we had a decline in attendance compared to the previous year. Going back to how we spend our time, it is very discouraging for volunteers to put their time and effort into organizing this event and then have a poor showing. I would certainly appreciate some feedback from the design community as to how we can better serve you or how we can make the event more attractive. Or, if this type of event has run its course? Please take the time to reply to me at kim@tecagencies.com with your thoughts or comments, we truly do value your input and appreciate you taking the time.
Kimberly Tompkins, CTR
Chapter Chair, CSC – Vancouver Chapter
For more issues, visit our website or visit our archive for past issues.