MasterFormat® is a master list of numbers and titles identifying work results and construction practices, primarily used to organize project manuals and detailed cost information, and relate drawing notations to specifications.
The seeds of MasterFormat go back to the middle of the last century, when specifiers recognized the need for a consistent structure so everyone could find the same information in the same place within construction documents. In 1963, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), which had been founded in the years after World War II, introduced the Master Specification System, organizing construction work into 16 divisions.
Over the succeeding years, hundreds of CSI members volunteered their time to continue to refine the original CSI format, nurturing its development. By the late 1970s, MasterFormat had become the dominant structure for organizing project manuals and specifications in North American commercial construction. It's amazing that the original structure created by a small committee of spec writers years ago still organizes modern construction specifications in North America.
Not bad for something designed when specs were typed on manual typewriters.
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George Everding FCSI, CCS, CCCA, AIA, SCIP
Greater Saint Louis Chapter
314-517-7800
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