NEWSLETTER

BSD Customer Case Study: 
BSD SpecLink helps Evan Terry Associates Meet Clients’ Special Needs

Evan Terry Associates is an Architecture and Access Compliance Firm located in Birmingham, Alabama.

Evan Terry Associates, P.C., is a firm dedicated to providing its clients with highly professional architectural services. 

The firm’s reputation, built over the last 47 years, is one of excellent service, quality design and commitment to client interest.

Evan Terry’s design philosophy, based on a client-oriented approach, is to create solutions that exhibit the functional and aesthetic concerns and wishes of the owner. 

These solutions are developed to answer specific client needs with close client involvement throughout the process. A professional attitude, attention to detail, and adherence to schedules and budgets are all priorities at Evan Terry Associates.

Evan Terry Associates is committed to the “Universal Design” concept for facilities accessibility. The architectural projects at Evan Terry are designed to ensure access to buildings and facilities for all people, including those with disabilities. Evan Terry’s work with the ADA has gained the firm a nationwide reputation as a leader in the field of accessible design.

The Need: In any automated specification writing process, the “master” document is where specification writers normally start. They will then add, delete or modify the various sections needed for the current project. Lawrence Hughey, Specifier, recalls, “We weren’t aware of it at the time, but our previous system was a much slower process.” Hughey knew that if he wanted to produce faster, more accurate documents, he needed to use SpecLink.

The Solution: Because accuracy of the specifications was so important, the quarterly updates from SpecLink made a huge difference in Evan Terry’s specification process. “With the old system, updating the master was exceedingly slow. Looking back, the referenced standards were generally more out of date. I am not aware of a more up-to-date specification system than SpecLink,” Hughey stated. 

Hughey notes that time is important in this process, as well. “Updates now take 15 minutes, and they do not overwrite my changes.That means I don’t have to apply them selectively, which also saves time.”Additional time is saved through the intelligent links in SpecLink. Hughey describes his process in this way: “The linking feature is great. I generally start editing a section in Part 2 (Products), then move to Part 3 (Execution) and finish up in Part 1 (General). Once the products are identified, most of the rest of the work is done automatically by the intelligent links. And being able to add my own links helps save even more time.” Hughey estimates that his time savings are close to 50% using SpecLink.

The Outcome: Many of the project types Evan Terry Associates works on have special needs. Their recent work on a medical clinic called for a number of unique waterproofing/dampproofing requirements. Modifying the Office Master to include these unique products and details presented no problem using BSD Speclink.

Hughey recently joined Evan Terry Associates, and SpecLink was part of that decision-making process. He says, “Choosing which firm to join was easy. Especially when I learned that Evan Terry Associates was already a SpecLink user.” The decision has been a good one for both the firm and Hughey.