Architectural

Standards

• Architectural Wood Trim and Paneling

  Interior architectural woodwork applied to the building's walls, ceilings, and openings rather than built as cabinets — standing and running trim (base, casing, chair rail, crown, picture mold, and other moldings); wood wall and ceiling paneling in flush, stile-and-rail, and raised-panel configurations; wood slat and linear plank systems, including acoustic slat assemblies; applied and ornamental woodwork; and the transparent or opaque finish that completes them. Covers the architectural woodwork quality grade, the species and cut of solid lumber and decorative veneer, face veneer grade, leaf and assembly matching and panel-to-panel sequencing, panel face and core construction, interior finish fire classification and fire-retardant treatment, composite-wood formaldehyde compliance, adhesives, finish system and finishing location, service humidity and wood moisture content, concealed blocking and hanging systems, joinery, and movement provisions.

• Doors, Frames, and Hardware

  Swinging door openings furnished as one combined package of hollow metal doors and frames, architectural wood flush doors, and finish hardware, in commercial, institutional, and light-industrial construction. Covers the opening schedule as the coordination instrument; hollow metal performance levels, models, face-sheet materials, cores, frame thickness, profile, construction method, anchorage, grout fill, and factory finish; wood door duty levels, appearance grades, cores, face materials, veneer selection and matching, edges, and finishing; fire-rated and smoke-rated listed assemblies under NFPA 80, NFPA 105, and UL 10C; hinges, locksets, exit devices, closers, stops, protection plates, thresholds, and gasketing; cylinders, keyways, and keying hierarchy; electrified hardware, fail modes, power transfer, and fire alarm release; accessible-opening obligations; installation tolerances and clearances; fire door inspection at turnover; and warranty.

• Exterior Painting and Coatings

  Field-applied decorative and protective coating systems on the exterior architectural substrates of commercial, institutional, and multi-family residential buildings: cast-in-place and precast concrete, concrete masonry, portland cement plaster (stucco), hollow metal doors and frames, miscellaneous metals and metal fabrications, exposed structural steel over its shop primer, galvanized steel including the factory-primed curtains and sections of coiling and sectional doors, aluminum and other non-ferrous metals, wood siding, trim, soffits, and doors, fiber-cement siding and trim, and previously painted exterior surfaces. Covers the finish and primer chemistry for each substrate (acrylic latex, elastomeric, high-build acrylic, waterborne acrylic-epoxy, mineral silicate, alkyd, waterborne acrylic-urethane, two-component aliphatic polyurethane, and the opaque, semi-transparent, and clear finishes for wood), surface preparation grades, substrate moisture and cure, application weather limits, sheen, number of coats and film thickness, color matching, volatile organic compound limits, mildew resistance, anti-graffiti coatings, mock-ups, field verification of thickness and adhesion, touch-up, warranty, and extra stock.

• Glass and Glazing

  Architectural vision glass and glazing for storefronts, curtain walls, windows, exterior and interior doors, sidelights, transoms, borrowed lites, partitions, and other building glazing infill. Covers annealed, heat-strengthened, and fully tempered flat glass; laminated glass; coated (low-emissivity and solar-control) glass; insulating glass units (IGUs) including double and triple makeups; spandrel and ceramic-frit glass; safety glazing in hazardous locations per the International Building Code; glass strength and thickness determination under wind and snow load per ASTM E1300; thermal stress and edge-condition selection of annealed versus heat-strengthened versus fully tempered glass; nickel-sulfide heat-soak treatment for tempered glass; low-iron glass; warm-edge spacers and inert-gas fill; structural silicone and dry-gasket glazing methods; setting blocks, edge clearances, and glazing accessories; and field installation, testing, cleaning, and warranty of the glass and glazing materials.

• Gypsum Board Assemblies

  Interior gypsum board partitions, furred walls, and ceilings, and the gypsum sheathing on framed exterior walls, in commercial, institutional, multifamily, and residential buildings. Covers the gypsum panel products by exposure and duty: regular, Type X, and Type C board, sag-resistant ceiling board, mold- and moisture-resistant board, glass-mat faced board, abuse- and impact-resistant board, the wet-area backer boards that carry tile on framed walls, gypsum base for veneer plaster, shaftliner in area separation walls, and glass-mat and paper-faced gypsum sheathing. Covers the nonstructural steel studs, runners, furring, and resilient channels furnished to ASTM C645 and installed to ASTM C754, the suspended and direct-attached ceiling framing that carries gypsum board, deflection heads and partition bracing, in-wall blocking and backing for the trades that hang work on these walls, execution of fire-resistance-rated and sound-rated assemblies to their design numbers, perimeter acoustic sealant and electrical box treatment, fastening, multi-layer application, trim accessories, control joints, joint treatment, levels of finish, and textured finishes.

• Interior Lighting Fixtures (Luminaires)

  Permanently installed interior luminaires for commercial, institutional, industrial, multifamily, and mixed-use buildings: recessed troffers and panels, downlights, recessed and surface linear luminaires, pendants, wall-mounted and cove luminaires, high-bay and low-bay luminaires, vapor-tight and washdown luminaires, and the luminaires in refrigerated and unconditioned interior spaces. Covers the LED light source, chromaticity and its tolerance, color rendition, efficacy, lumen maintenance and rated life, photometric measurement, glare control and optics, the LED driver and its input voltage, power quality and surge immunity, the dimming input and its response to the control signal, the lowest dimming level, the dimming curve, color tuning, flicker, the integral emergency battery driver as a component of the luminaire, housings, insulation-contact and air-tight recessed housings, location listings, mounting, support, the seismic attachment of recessed and pendant luminaires in suspended ceilings, the luminaire schedule as the record of each type, field testing, warranty, and spares.

• Interior Painting

  Field-applied surface preparation, primers, and finish coatings on interior architectural substrates — gypsum board, plaster and veneer plaster, concrete, concrete masonry, ferrous and galvanized metal, and interior wood — in commercial, institutional, and multi-family residential buildings. Covers latex, alkyd, and water-based epoxy paint systems applied to walls, ceilings, doors and frames, exposed structure, and exposed mechanical and electrical work that is to be field-painted.

• Metal Stairs and Railings

  Shop-fabricated metal stairs and railing systems for commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings — egress and convenience stairs built as steel pan stairs with concrete fill, steel plate (formed plate) stairs, and bar-grating-tread stairs, including their stringers, treads, risers, landings, and supporting framing, together with the handrails and guards (guardrails) of steel, aluminum, or stainless pipe, tube, and picket. Covers structural design for the IBC stair uniform live load and concentrated load, deflection and vibration serviceability, tread and riser dimensions and slip-resistant nosings to the IBC means-of-egress provisions, the IBC structural loads on handrails and guards (concentrated, uniform, and infill), shop and field welding to AWS D1.1, bolted and anchored connections, hot-dip galvanizing and shop priming, and field finishing.

• Metal Wall Panels

  Exterior metal cladding installed on the above-grade wall enclosure of commercial, institutional, and multifamily buildings. Covers the four principal panel families — factory-foamed insulated metal panels (IMP), single-skin formed and profiled panels, metal composite material panels (MCM/ACM), and flat plate or cassette panels — installed as concealed-fastener or exposed-fastener systems and, where specified, as pressure-equalized or drained-and-back-ventilated rainscreens. Addresses the air, water, structural, thermal, and fire performance the assembly shall demonstrate; the metal substrate and its gauge or thickness; the core and insulation type; the coil and panel finishes with their weathering warranties; the attachment, sub-girt, and support framing; the panel joints and sealants; the interface to flashing, trim, and the air/water barrier behind the panel; and the laboratory and field testing that verifies the installed wall. Addresses the NFPA 285 fire-propagation triggers in the IBC that govern combustible-core panels on Type I through IV construction.

• Precast Concrete

  Plant-fabricated precast and prestressed (pretensioned) concrete for buildings, including structural precast — columns, beams, spandrels, double-tees, hollow-core plank, solid and insulated wall panels, stair and landing units — and architectural precast cladding panels with specified exposed finishes. Covers concrete and release-strength requirements, pretensioned and conventionally reinforced production, connection hardware and embedded plates, architectural finishes (form liner, exposed aggregate, acid-etch, sandblast), PCI plant certification and quality control, product and erection tolerances, bearing pads, grouting, joint sealant coordination, erection, and patching. Applicable to commercial, institutional, industrial, parking, and multi-family buildings.

• Sheet Metal Flashing and Trim

  Shop- and field-formed architectural sheet metal that closes the building envelope at interfaces - copings on parapets, gravel stops, fasciae and drip edges at roof edges, counterflashings over membrane base flashings, through-wall and head and sill flashings, gutters, downspouts, scuppers and conductor heads, expansion joint covers, and closure and reveal trim. Covers zinc-coated and aluminum-zinc alloy-coated steel, aluminum, stainless steel, copper, and architectural zinc; coil-applied and anodized finishes; forming, hemming, seaming, soldering, and welding; thermal movement and expansion joint provisions; wind securement of low-slope roof edges to ANSI/SPRI ES-1; fastener, cleat, sealant, and underlayment selection; and galvanic separation of dissimilar metals.

• Signage

  Interior and building-mounted architectural and code-required signage for commercial, institutional, and light-industrial buildings — tactile room-identification signs, directional and overhead wayfinding signs, regulatory and informational panel signs, dimensional letters and logos, code-required egress and accessibility signage (exit, stairway identification, floor-level, area-of-refuge), and both non-illuminated and electrically illuminated signs. Covers accessibility requirements for tactile characters and Braille, visual character legibility, contrast and finish, mounting height and location, substrate and copy methods, the sign and message schedule, and installation.

• Unit Masonry

  The assembled unit masonry wall. Load-bearing walls, shear walls, non-load-bearing partitions, composite and multi-wythe walls, the masonry backup wythe of a cavity wall, and pilasters and piers, built from concrete masonry units alone or from concrete masonry units combined with clay brick. Covers the assembly design values (specified masonry compressive strength, the unit and grout strengths that follow from it, and the mortar type for each wall class), grouting extent and the cells that receive it, bar reinforcement and joint reinforcement, corrosion protection of embedded metal, wythe ties and intersecting-wall connections, bond beams and lintels, bond pattern, bedding, and joint profile, control and expansion joints in the assembly, the prescriptive seismic detailing the seismic design category invokes, bracing of walls under construction, tolerances tightened for exposed work, and the strength verification and special inspection program.

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