Study of Top 500 Design Firms' Plans to Adopt MasterFormat^TM 2004

Abstract

In 2004, the Construction Specification Institute released an update of MasterFormat^TM 2004. This was a complete overhaul of the 1995 version of MasterFormat^TM, which enjoyed widespread industry support. One of the major changes was increasing the number of divisions from 16 to 50 in order to be more inclusive of not only building projects, but also of civil and industrial projects. In addition, the new version increased the numbering system from 5 digits to 6 digits, allowing designers to be more descriptive in their specifications. Because previous versions of MasterFormat^TM have been the industry standard for so many years, this research was conducted to determine if and when large design firms planned to adopt the new MasterFormat^TM 2004. Two hundred of Engineering News Record's (ENR) Top 500 Design Firms were surveyed. The findings from this research show that approximately 75% of the firms currently using MasterFormat^TM are planning to adopt the 2004 version and that 72% of these firms plan to adopt MasterFormat^TM 2004 by the end of 2006.

Keywords:

• CSI codes
• design
• division
• MasterFormat
• specifications

Notes

∗A = Architect; AE = Architect-Engineer; AEC = Architect-Engineer-Contractor; AP = Architect-Planner; CE = Contractor-Engineer; E = Engineer; EA = Engineer-Architect; EAC = Engineer-Architect-Contractor; EAP = Engineer-Architect-Planner; EC = Engineer-Contractor; ENV = Environmental Engineer; GE = GeoTechnical Engineer; O = Other.

∗A = Architect; AE = Architect-Engineer; AEC = Architect-Engineer-Contractor; AP = Architect-Planner.