I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Why contract services?
- Building Officials often need temporary or ongoing professional assistance as a result of increased workload,
budget constraints, staff resignations, or illness.
- Complex, unique structures may require specialized and expedited plan review.
Why Forum Engineers?
- Satisfied client cities and counties throughout the State of Washington
- Commitment to cost-effective, quality work
- Customer-service attitude
- Licensed structural engineers with many years of plan review service
- Professional liability insurance
- Active involvement in ICC, APA, WWPA, SEAW, and ASCE
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Forum Engineers provides a professional, registered staff capable of complex or routine plan
reviews including residential units, community and civic centers, senior-care facilities, industrial and commercial
buildings, high-rise office complexes, and performance arts halls. We have reviewed over 360 projects of varying
occupancy with a total valuation of 440 million dollars in the past three years.
We are committed to helping jurisdictions with plan review. Our staff has the experience and
training to deal effectively with the public as an extension of your staff.
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II. PROJECT APPROACH
Forum Engineers Plan Review Process
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Plans are received with a signed plan review application from the jurisdiction
authorizing Forum Engineers to perform a plan review based on the information provided on the form.
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The plans are date stamped, and logged into our database with the
jurisdiction's permit number.
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A brief check-in review will be performed to verify that all the necessary
plans and documentation, such as structural or energy calculations, geotechnical report, and specifications, have
been collected. If not, we will call the project contact person to request the missing information.
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The project will be reviewed in the order of date received unless otherwise requested
by the jurisdiction. We will make comments relating to the specific code sections in letter format to the
jurisdiction with a courtesy copy to the project contact. The plan review comments generally relate to items which
require more consideration and will probably result in changes, or additional details or notes on the plans.
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We request two sets of revised plans to be submitted, along with the necessary
justification, and a letter indicating how the plan review comments have been resolved item by item. The re-submittal
will be checked-in and date stamped. Depending on the complexity of the project, we will require three to five working
days to finish the recheck.
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When all the review comments are satisfied, we send the two sets of final plans with
our plan review stamp back to the jurisdiction.
Turnaround Time
| Type of Project |
Turnaround Time |
| New single-family |
5 days (1 week) |
| Multi-family < 20 units |
8 days (1.5 weeks) |
| Multi-family > 60 units |
12 days (2.5 weeks) |
| Commercial with < 10,000 s.f. |
10 days (2 weeks) |
| Commercial with > 200,000 s.f |
15 days (3 weeks) |
| High-rise > 7 stories |
20 days (4 weeks) |
Fee
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Our plan review fee is based on
the building permit fee collected by the
jurisdiction. Our fee is less than most
of the plan review services in State of Washington. We will be happy to send you with our latest fee schedule.
We also like to visit your office and work out the fee schedule with you in person.
In general, we offer up to two rechecks on each project at no additional charge.
Other code consulting services and the billable rechecks (third and thereafter) are offered on hourly basis.
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Scope of Work
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The above fee schedule covers the
IBC non-structural (Washington State Barrier-Free and Energy
Codes included) and structural plan review. Mechanical and Plumbing Codes review will be charged separately based on
75 percent of the plan review fee
collected by the jurisdiction.
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Staff
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Forum Engineers is formed by professional engineers registered in State of Washington and other states.
We have broad experience and knowledge in the interpretation and application of building code.
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III. RELATED EXPERIENCE
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The plan review staff of Forum Engineers has many years of experience dealing with a wide variety of
structural systems and building types. They can assist the jurisdiction in dealing with the design team from the preliminary
layout to the final approval plans for the project.
In the past three years, Forum Engineers has plan reviewed the following representative projects:
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A.
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Project:
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Madison Elementary School
Classrooms, gymnasium, auditorium, expansion |
| Location: |
Olympia, Washington |
| Contact: |
Pete Watson, City of Olympia |
| Valuation: |
$3,300,000 |
| Type of Review: |
Life Safety, Energy, State Barrier-Free, and Structural |
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B.
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Project:
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Lakemont View Condo
22-building, 78-unit, condominium development |
| Location: |
Bellevue, Washington |
| Contact: |
Gregg Schrader, City of Bellevue - DPCD |
| Valuation: |
$8,400,000 |
| Type of Review: |
Life Safety, Energy, State Barrier-Free, and Structural |
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C.
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Project:
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Burke Property
105-unit apartment with stores and parking in the
lower stories |
| Location: |
Bellevue, Washington |
| Contact: |
Gregg Schrader, City of Bellevue - DPCD |
| Valuation: |
$11,200,000 |
| Type of Review: |
Life Safety, Energy, State Barrier-Free, and Structural |
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D.
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Project:
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Bellevue Galleria
4-level Underground Concrete Parking Structure
3-level Steel Braced Frame Super-structure |
| Location: |
Bellevue, Washington |
| Contact: |
Gregg Schrader, City of Bellevue - DPCD |
| Valuation: |
$24,400,000 |
| Type of Review: |
Structural |
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E.
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Project:
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Issaquah Court
3-story wood structure with post-tensioning slab |
| Location: |
Issaquah, Washington |
| Contact: |
John Minato, City of Bellevue |
| Valuation: |
$2,200,000 |
| Type of Review: |
Structural |
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F.
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| Project: |
167 Single-family houses |
| Location: |
Puget Sound Area |
| Valuation: |
$43,000,000 (average $257,000 per house) |
| Type of Review: |
Nonstructural, Structural, State Energy |
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Phone: 206.229.1066 email: planreview@forumengineers.com
Address: P.O. Box 40022,
Bellevue, WA 98015-4022
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