The Guiding Principles of ARCHI-SPECS
“Good specs can rescue an average set of drawings, but bad specs can ruin a project and your relationship with the client.”
“We enjoy writing technical specifications because it is during this process that we learn the most about building materials and their performance standards."
About Archi-Specs
ARCHI-SPECS was founded in 2013 by architect, Lisa Drew-Alton. After private practice for more than 35 years as a project manager, she set out to write specs for several firms who needed a spec writer. As the daughter of an architect, she had a solid background of spec writing and even “cut stencils” for her architect father, Glen Drew, during her high school years. Her father maintained two offices in Missouri from the 1940’s until his death in 1971.
Over the past 10 years, ARCHI-SPECS has grown very quickly, with a clientele of 50+ firms all over the United States. Her clients have a wide variety of both public and private work including projects with both historical and sustainable design/construction requirements. She has worked with large project teams on jobs worth as much as $750,000,000 as well as for sole proprietors on simple additions for rural public entities, worth as little as $100,000.
In general, her clients fall into one of two categories. Either they don’t have the capability or resources to produce quality up-to-date project manuals, or they just hate writing specs and wish someone else would write them. Clients hire ARCHI-SPECS because they value a quality project manual.
PROFESSIONAL/EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Ms. Drew-Alton graduated from Kansas State University in 1978 and received her first professional license while practicing in Houston, Texas in 1981. Over the years, with her NCARB certificate, she became licensed in Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. She achieved her LEED AP BD+C credentials in 2001 and taught a design studio for several semesters at Drury University in Springfield, MO on the subject of sustainable design. She is past President of the AIA Springfield Chapter and has served as an appointee on City of Springfield professional advisory boards on issues of sustainable communities.
