Newsletter

THE BEGINNING

by
Chesley Ayers
Chapter Historian

The Construction Specification Institute started because a group of Government specification writers were
dissatisfied with the way construction specifications were being prepared by the various Government
agencies. As a result, in 1948 some sixty-five men interested in standardizing bidding procedures met in
Washington. They organized and elected Mr. James Moore of the Hospital Construction Office in the Public
Health Service to head the group as the first president.

A group of specification writers in New York City learned of the improvements in specifications brought about
by the group in Washington and asked to join their organizations. Thus, in May 1951, New York became the
first chapter, and the possibility of a national organization took form.
In April of 1953, Chicago became the third chapter of the Construction Specification Institute (C.S.I.). As
New York was given the honor of being the first chapter, Washington was named the second chapter of the
organization in the same year.

Early in 1954, Mr. McGinnis, President of C.S.I. sent a letter to architectural organizations in several cities to.
determine if there was interest in forming additional chapters. The idea caught fire in California and the
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh charters were given in rapid succession to Los Angeles, San Diego,
Sacramento and San Francisco. The Detroit Charter was granted on November 19, 1955 and became the
eighth chapter in the national organization followed by Boston and Cleveland.

The Specifier was first published in 1949. It was issued quarterly at first but as membership increased, it was
published monthly.

The writer was Chief of Specifications for the H. E. Beyster, Architects and Engineers in 1951 when Mr. Ray
Perkins, Chief Architect, handed him an application for membership which he had received and did not intend
to use. At the time, the writer had a fairly large acquaintance with various American Institute of Architects
(AlA) members but did not know a single person that was a full-time specification writer. The main
inducement in joining was to receive the Specifier and improve his specifications.

The first action to form a Detroit Chapter of the Construction Specification Institute was taken early in 1954
when President McGinnis wrote a letter to Mr. Talmage Hughes, Secretary of the Michigan Society of
Architects. This letter resulted in an article by Alger W. Luckham being published in the November 1954
edition of the Weekly Bulletin. Mr. Barrows, AlA National Director from the Metropolitan New York Chapter
and heading a committee for chapter organization of a national body, saw this letter and suggested in a
letter dated November 22, 1954, that Mr. Luckham form a chapter in Detroit. Mr. Luckham considered the
possibilities. On May 9, 1955, he answered Mr. Barrow’s letter requesting a list of C.S.I. members and on May
13th, he asked Talmage Hughes to publish a notice requesting those interested in C.S.I. to contact him. On
May 16th, a letter was returned from the National Headquarters with a list of nine C.S.I. members. The nine
members were Ayers, Carlin, Couch, Heenan, Kapp, Kraimer, Larkin, Luckham and Scripture.

On May 21, 1955, Mr. William Kapp was asked to get the members together. He agreed, and on June 30th
Leslie Lowery, Alger Luckham arid Charles Scripture met with Mr. Kapp at lunch to organize a meeting of the
specification writers in the area. This was followed by a meeting on July 15th in Mr. Kapp’.s office. Chesley
Ayers, Frank Couch, William Kapp, Leslie Larkin, Leslie Lowery, Alger Luckham, Charles Scripture, and Henry
Wilcke attended and plans were formalized for a meet¬ing at the Kingsley Inn. The purpose of the meeting
was to determine if there was sufficient interest among specification writers in the area to start a chapter of
C.S.I.

At the meeting in Mr. Kapp’s office, someone said that he had invited Mr. Glenn Dailey to the meeting at
Kingsley Inn. This introduced a problem because Mr. Dailey was not a specifi¬cation writer; he was a
representative of the U. S. Gypsum Company. Most of the members thought the meeting should have been
limited to those engaged in the preparation of specifications; however, as Mr. Dailey was the only member
from industry invited, it was decided to let the invitation stand.

On July 19th, 1955, the first organizational meeting was held at Kingsley Inn, Bloomfield Hills. Twenty-seven
people attended this meeting. Mr. Kapp acted as temporary Chairman, and introduced the guest speaker, Mr.
Suren Pilafian of the American Institute of Architects. Mr. Pilafian gave an informative talk on what AlA was
doing to improve specifications. The one statement remembered by the writer was, that specification writers
represent the smallest group in both numbers and cost of any group in the architectural field. In view of the
fact that those dealing with design, working drawings and field supervision had no organization other than
within the AlA, he felt that specification writers had illusions as to their importance. In spite of the speakers
rather pessimistic prediction of its success, the group unanimously agreed to join the C.S.I. and the following
committee was appointed to organize a chapter.

William E. Kapp - Chairman        Leslie Lowery
Chesley Ayers                          Alger Luckham
Orpheus Bellucci                       August St. George
Frank Couch                            Charles Scripture
Glenn Dailey                             Neal Smith
Leslie Larkin                             Henry Wilcke

On September 2, 1955, Mr. Kapp wrote Mr. Luckham regarding a follow-up meeting of the organization
committee. This meeting was held on October 11, 1955. Mr. Kapp chaired this meeting and, August St.
George was the temporary Secretary. At the meeting, Luckham and St. George were asked to make contact
with the National Organization regarding a charter; Couch, Larkin and Scripture were asked to prepare a
Constitution and By-Laws. Dailey, Bellucci and Wilcke were asked to arrange a dinner meeting at the Rackham
Building.

One of the subjects discussed at this board meeting was the limitations of membership. On October 8, 1955,
Glenn Dailey had asked to become a member and to assist in organizing sales representatives who worked
with specification writers. The writer was unequivocally opposed to opening the membership. He remembers
saying “We spend our working hours listening to salesmen hawk their wares, and we shouldn’t be required to
listen to them during our free time. I like Mr. Dailey per¬sonally, but if we accept all the salesmen who wish to
join the group, the sales representatives will soon outnumber the specification writers and take over the
organization. Soon specification writers will refuse to come to meetings leaving the sales group to talk to
each other.”

Others in opposition pointed out that other chapters had non-specification writers as associate members.
They added, that, as sales representatives make visits to the various architectural organizations throughout
the metropolitan area, they would be a big help in promoting C.S.I. among other specification writers and
help to obtain new members.
As there was considerable disagreement, a compromise was hammered out that was accepted by all. The
compromise provided that: members other than those engaged in preparing specifications would be known
as associate members.

Mr. Dailey would be accepted as an associate member and encouraged to organize others; however, no
associate member could hold office and the number of associate members would be limited to one-quarter
(1/4) the number of regular members. Much credit must be given to the early associate members. Their
willingness to do the real work in organizing the group and their conduct during meetings soon alleviated the
fears of all and after the first few meetings, the one-quarter limitation on membership was changed to one-
half (1/2) without objection from even those who strongly opposed their membership.

The dinner meeting was held on October 19, 1955 where a Board of Directors was formed and officers
elected. Leslie Larkin was elected President and August St. George was elected Secretary—Treasurer.
On November 1, 1955, the Board of Directors met and sent an application to the National Board, with the By-
Laws of our organization. On December 5th, the letter arrived from the parent organization recognizing the
Detroit Chapter as of November 19th.

The December 6th meeting was the first meeting with a guest speaker. It was held at the Veterans’ Building
and Mr. Tom Sirrine spoke on “Concrete Masonry Specifications.” The next meeting was held January 10th,
1956, in which Mr. Lynton Hart spoke on “Piles and How to Specify Them.” At the February 7th meeting,
Larry Dunn spoke on the subject, “Aluminum”.

On February 15th, a Board of Directors meeting was held. Mr. Dailey and Mr. Ayers were requested to
contact the Engineering Society of Detroit in an effort to become Affiliate Members and hold meetings in their
buildings. At this time, the Treasurer was directed to open a banking account. On March 19th, a Board
Meeting was held in which letterheads, requirements for membership, and the E.S.D. affiliation were
discussed.

On March 16th, a meeting was held at the Veterans’ Building where Mr. John Ockum of the Otis Elevator
Company showed a movie and gave a talk on “Elevator Doors”. On April 3rd, Mr. Willard of U. S. Steel gave a
talk on “High Tension Steel Belting”.

As a national meeting was scheduled on June 9, 1956, the Board of Directors met on April 19th and
appointed Alger Luckham to represent the Detroit Chapter at that meeting.

On May 1, 1956, Mr. Faulwetter spoke on “Ceramic Tile and Its Application”. At this meeting, the receiving of
the Charter was announced.

On May 8, 1956, a board meeting was called because the Engineering Society had rejected the application for
affiliate membership on the grounds that C.S.I. was not an engineering or architectural organization. Mr.
Dailey and Mr. Ayers were directed to resubmit the application. As a result, a list of members was prepared
showing the Registered Architects, the Registered Engineers and graduate architects and engineers. The
following year when it was shown that professionals controlled the membership and leadership, ESD finally
decided to accept the application.

The final meeting of the first year of the Society was held on June 19, 1956. At this meeting Mr. Leslie
Lowery reported for the Membership Committee that there were twenty—one active members and six
associate members. Mr. Luckham reported on the meeting with the national group and President Larkin
thanked those in the various committees prior to the election of officers.

The Officers for the following year were:
Frank Couch                President
August St. George       Vice President
0. Robert Bellucci         Secretary-Treasurer
Joseph Fuhrer              Director
Charles Scripture          Director
Leslie Lowery                Director
Chesley Ayers               Director

So this was the start, the year of organization. The second year was the year of growth and the start of The
DeCSlpher by Dave Mueller. Perhaps we can write about it at another time.

THE YEAR OF GROWTH
1956 — 57

Few of our younger members today realize the problems of the pre-C.S.I. specification writers. They had very
little contact with contractors and subcontractors on a professional basis. Most specification writers regarded
contractors as con artists and most contractors felt specification writers, naive and simple souls completely
ignorant of building construction. There was very little uniformity in specifications, even among writers
working in the same organization. In fact, there were considerable differences between specification writers as
to the general arrangement of a specification. I was one of those who believed a specification should be
arranged so that each subcontractor could bid on one or more sections in the specifications. There were
others who believed that a specification was divided into sections soley for the convenience of the Architect
and the subcontractor should not be considered.

When Frank Couch, the C.S.I. president appointed me as program manager, my first consideration was to
get contractors and subcontractors to tell the specification writers how specifications could be improved. The
response was paramount. Every contractor and subcontractor in the area had only dreamed of a chance to
vent his anger regarding specifications to a few writers and C.S.I. was giving them a chance to speak to the
entire group.

It was the intent in arranging the meetings to have two speakers from separate companies. Usually a supplier
and an installer. In most cases, we invited the most knowledgeable person in the most prominent companies
to be speakers. The fact that you don’t recognize the names of the following speakers, only proves that
companies, like people, disappear in time.

The first speakers I contacted were Mr. John Armstrong, President of Darin & Armstrong and Mr. James
Savage, Vice¬President, O.W. Burke Company. They were both anxious to speak, and on 11 September
1956 they presented an excellent talk on “Improved and More Uniform Specifications.” This talk brought to
the attention of the specification writers the difficulty contractors were having with trying to make
satisfactory estimates. Mr. Savage mentioned the differences in three sets of specifications issued by the
same office on the subject of clean—up. Mr. Luckham made a ten page summary of this presentation that I
have in my files.

The subject for the October meeting was Excavating and Backfilling. The speakers were Mr. Quinn - Chief
Estimator for the Charles J. Rogers Company and Otis Love -Chief Engineer for Sudgen and Sivier.
The November meeting was on paint. The speakers were Mr. Zimmer - Chief Chemist for Pratt & Lambert and
Mr. Austin -President of Austin Painters. Mr. Zimmer gave a technical talk on the paint chemistry that was
probably above the heads of most members.

Mr. D. H. Zechman of the R. W. Meadows Company represented the Manufacturers on the meeting on
Waterproofing in December. Mr. Wray Baily of the Bailey - Zummo Waterproofing Company represented the
waterproofing contractors.

The January meeting dealt with Mechanical and Electrical Specifications and Mr. Moloy of Donald Miller and Mr.
Harlan, Harlan Electric Company were speakers.

The February meeting was an outstanding meeting on Hardware. At this time many specification writers
specified the hardware as a part of the Hollow Metal Door Section; others in the partition section and still
others specified hardware in a separate section. The purpose of the meeting was to determine the
advantages of each method. Mr. Anderage of Detroit Sterling Hardware Company was selected to represent
the hardware dealers. Mr. C. Bennett - Chief Engineer of the Mills Company came from Cleveland and brought
with him Mr. Bronson, their research engineer, to represent the Partition Manufacturers; Mr. Chester Moores,
Sales Manager for the Sargent Company came from New Haven, Connecticut to represent the hardware
manufacturers and Mr. Beebe of Fenestra spoke for the steel door manufactures.
The March meeting was a closed meeting for specification writers only.

In April, some members interested in dramatics, produced a stage play based upon the Macknight Flintic
Stone Company v. City of New York case regarding performance specifications.

A good time was held by all.

Mr. Eugene McMillian of the McMillian Floor Company and Mr. Nardoni of the Nardoni Cement Floor Company
made the May meeting outstanding by explaining methods of obtaining long-wearing concrete floors. At the
meeting, Mr. Nardoni apologized for his poor English and introduced his chief assistant, Mr. Piggott who
made the presentation.

The June meeting was for the election of officers and a review of the season. The following officers were
elected for the 1957-58 season:
Henry Wilcke           President
Chesley Ayers         Vice-President
0. Robert Bellucci     Secretary-Treasurer
Ann Kliner               Director
Frank Morgan          Director
Joseph Fuhrer          Director

The membership increased during this from 21 to 52 active members and from 6 to 69 associate members as
listed in Membership Roster of 19 November 1957. If the writer remembers correctly, the rules at this time
required a ratio of one active to one associate. The names of some associates listed were waiting formal
acceptance pending new active members.

THE YEAR OF WORK AND PLAY
1957-58

Looking back after twenty years, the writer believes the 1957-58 year was the most progressive season in
the history of the Detroit Chapter.

The most remarkable event during this period was the appearance of The DeCSlpher. One of the first
directives issued by the new president was appointing Mr. David Mueller as Chairman of the Publications
Committee in July of 1957. Mr. Mueller, with the assistance of Mr. Robert Saxton and Mr. Charles Burrows,
started work immediately. There was a lot to be done.

They decided to publish a monthly paper that would be self supporting. The name they selected was The
DeCSlpher, the “De” from Detroit and the “CSI” from the Construction Specification Institute. The purpose
was to be to publish the events of the Chapter to its members and also to translate the aims, functions, and
activities of the Chapter to the architects and engineers at large in the State of Michigan. The purpose was
not to replace or duplicate any existing publication, but to present new fields of endeavor to the architectural
and engineering professions.

Obtaining ads to support the paper was a necessity, and before the first publication was made, they had sold
one hundred percent (100%) of the space available and received payment of ninety-five percent (95%). The
ads brought in eighteen hundred dollars ($1,800) in addition to the fifty dollars ($50) that was requested
from the Chapter treasury to start the work.

Amazing as it may seem, the first edition of The DeCSlpher appeared in August of 1957. This edition was
published on 8—1/2 X 11 glossy white paper with justified type and made a very impressive appearance. It
was sent to all registered architects in the state to publicize the work of the Institute. The Detroit Chapter is
indebted to Dave Mueller for his fine work.

The first meeting was held on September 3, 1957. Mr. Clair W. Ditchy, architect; Mr. Lyndon Welch,
structural engineer; and Mr. William Edward Kapp were the speakers at this meeting, which was held at the
Engineering Society of Detroit.

The second meeting was held on October 1, upon which the group were guests of the R. C. Mahon
Company. The third meeting on November 7 dealt with the subject of curtain walls, in which the guest
speaker was Mr. Burton H. Holmes, technical editor of Progressive Architecture.

The Tuesday, December 3 meeting was one devoted to electrical problems, in which the guest speaker was
Mr. Murray Quinn, a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society and active in the Building Research
Institute. The January 7 meeting dealt with heating, ventilating, and air conditioning of school buildings; and
Mr. Charles Trainbauer, manager of the Herman Nelson Division of the American Air Filter Company, was the
speaker.

It should be remembered that at this time there was no agreement between specification writers on the
division of trades in a specification. Some old timers believed that concrete, brickwork, stone work, gypsum,
and basement waterproofing should appear in a ‘single section entitled “Masonry”. The younger writers
believed they should appear in separate sections. At the beginning of the year, the Vice President assigned
the technical committee, headed by Mr. Raymond Perkins, the job of developing a division of trades that
could be accepted by all. Mr. Perkins and his assistant, Mr. McQuade, presented their report to the Board of
Directors at the January meeting of the Board. They proposed the number of specification sections be limited
to the sixteen they listed and that the number they assigned to each section should be the same in all
specifications. If a trade was not used, the section number should be omitted from the specification. The
advantages, they explained, were that it would ease the writer’s job as he could reuse old specifications
throughout the country with minor changes in the scope and no change in the section numbering. This was
vigorously opposed by the Vice President. He insisted that the writer’s job was to assist the contractor in
obtaining the lowest possible price for the owner, and the scope in each section of a specification should be
so written that all subcontractors in an area could bid on one or more sections complete without exceeding
the normal limitations of their trade practices. No action was taken on the report. The issue was resolved at
the national level.

The February meeting was chaired by Jack Cooper, president of the Cooper Supply Company. The subject
was “Concrete Specifications”. Mr. Stanton Walker of the American Society for Testing Materials was the
principal speaker. As this meeting was attended by several of the field superintendents from Detroit’s leading
contractors, concrete suppliers and concrete testing personnel, it was a lively meeting and everyone learned a
lot.

On the 22nd of the month, the First Annual Dinner Dance was held at the Dearborn Inn. It was an
outstanding event with Freddie Daye’s Orchestra, a good dinner, and many prizes. Franklin H. Morgan
headed the entertainment committee. A copy of the program and membership roster, which was prepared by
Victor Gillespie, is in the files. It is a printed booklet with justified type and a heavy green paper cover truly
worthy of the Institute. The names of fifty—four (54) active and seventy-one (71) associate members appear
in the roster.

The March meeting was a most unusual affair in which playwright and director Leslie Lowery presented a play
entitled “Their Day in Court” •or “The Remarkable Case of the Dry Gulch Waterproofing Company Versus the
City of Flatbrush.” The play was a comic reproduction of the famous “MacKnight Flintic Stone Company v.
Mayor, Aldermen and’ Commonalty of the City of New York” case which was decided in 1899.

CAST

Judge, the Hon. Sylvester Stone
•        Mr. Otto Von Bernthal of Giffels and Rossetti
Court Clerk
•        Mr. Kneeland Welch of Concrete Steel Corp.
Mr. Blatt, Attorney for the Defense
•        Mr. John McCormick of Truscon Laboratories
Mr. Chesterfield, Attorney for the Plaintiff
•        Mr. Jim Hughes Office of William E. Kapp, Architect
Mr. John J. McGuffey of the Dry Gulch Waterproofing Company, Plaintiff
•        Mr. Chesley Ayers of Acme Roofing and Sheet Metal Co.
Mr. J. Wellington Gouge, City Engineer for the City of Flatbrush, Defendant
•        Mr. Peter L. W. Beal of the R. C. Mahon Co.

Everyone got a big laugh out of this production that illustrated the advantages of a descriptive specification.
The death of Mr. Wilcke as President shocked the entire membership. He died very suddenly of a heart
attack, and his funeral was attended by many members; many others did not know that he had died. In
accordance with the laws of the Chapter, the Board of Directors are required to replace the President, as the
Vice President serves only until the Board elects a new man. A Board meeting was held at the Engineering
Society of Detroit shortly after Mr. Wilcke’s death. It was a stormy meeting, and the writer is stating the
facts from memory, as there is no written memo of the meeting in the files. The meeting was called to order
by the writer, and immediately his authority was challenged by one of the Board members. He said the Vice
President had no authority to con¬duct the meeting or serve as Vice President because the Charter required
all officers to be professional members.

To explain the above, the year 1957-58 was a year of depression; and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls, who at
one time had seven specification writers, were now down to two. C. A. Graether had retired, and Phillip Carlin,
Anne Kleiner, Lawrence Kennedy and the writer had been laid off. The writer, who had previously financed
others in buying the Acme Roofing Company in order to expedite a patent on a foamed concrete, bought out
an existing business. As the writer was no longer employed as a specification writer, the Board member
maintained the writer was no longer an active member. The writer pointed out that he had been terminated
not by choice and was still active in specifications as he was teaching a course in specification writing at the
Detroit Institute of Technology and that he would be willing to go back to Smith, Hinchman and Grylls when
an opening occurred.

The question then arose as to whether an unemployed specification writer could maintain an active status.
Anne Kleiner, a Board member, indicated that she was also unemployed, and if this rule took effect, she too
would not be able to sit on the Board. One of the members stated that he would check with the National
Society; however, a vote was required to decide if the writer would be able to maintain his position. He left
the room while the discussion of the proposal was before the Board, and was later informed that the Board
of Directors had voted in his favor, thus establishing a precedent that once an active member, he would so
remain. The writer continued as President for the remainder of the term.

An election was held at the close of the year in which the following officers were elected:

Mr. Leslie M. Lowery        President
Mr. 0. R. Bellucci             Vice President
Mr. David W. Mueller       Secretary-Treasurer
Mr. Donald G. Scripture   Recording Secretary

		Assisting members and non-members to prepare for the CSI certification exams [link ]
		Awarding scholarships to local architectural students
		Co-sponsoring the annual Design and Construction EXPO [link]
		Co-sponsoring the annual Imagineers design/construction contest for local 5th graders [link]
		Monthly educational programs for our members