Building Area Measurement LLC

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Published Articles and Whitepapers

There is more to building area measurement than most people realize. In an effort to share current measurement issues with those in real estate, construction and building design, BAM regularly publishes articles and whitepapers. If you have the Adobe Acrobat Reader you can download and read the articles summarized below by clicking on the highlighted links. If you cannot open a PDF file, you may have to UPDATE your Acrobat reader.

• BOMA has been busy working on new and revised measurement standards. Read about it in The BOMA MOMCOM Report, published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal in September of 2009.
• What? The BOMA Standard is Complicated? is our response to a broker who publicly whined about it. Published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal in August of 2009.
• Approximately is a real estate term of art that is argued about from bars to courtrooms. The author shares his thoughts in this article published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal in May of 2009.
• It seems counterintuitive, but it is common for the square footage of properties to change even without any physical modifications. This article from the Colorado Real Estate Journal in February, 2009, explains why Buildings Breathe.
• Measuring Mixed-use Properties looks at why developers, brokers and others are paying more attention to how they are measured and the challenges thereof. Published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal in September of 2008.
• Get some background on the new IFMA/BOMA publication A Unified Approach to Measuring Floor Area in Office Buildings in this article Property Managers and Facility Managers Sing Kumbaya, published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal in August of 2008.
• Rentable Area: Opinion or Fact? suggests how using a published measurement standard and good documentation can make area calculations more fact and less opinion. Published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal in May of 2008.
• The most common modification to the BOMA Office Standard is the use of a single multi-tenant R/U ratio on all the floors of a building. This article from the February 2008 Colorado Real Estate Journal is an introduction to the method.
• The single R/U ratio method requires skill and significant attention to documentation. This whitepaper explores the reasons, methods and caveats of this common practice.
• Any design professional doing area calculations for leasing in a commercial property should read this article on Measuring Floor Area For Commercial Leases from the AIA Best Practices web site.
• Design professionals doing area calculations for leasing in commercial properties should also read this whitepaper on Professional Ethics, the Law and Area Calcs.
• There is currently no certification for professionals who measure space, but that could change. This whitepaper on Credentialing Program for the BOMA Standards presents a few ideas.
• A whitepaper titled BOMA Math: Feature or Bug? may help you understand why Rentable Areas calculated under the BOMA Standard change in ways you (and BOMA) didn't anticipate, and what you can do to correct the problem.
• Modified BOMA is a term that can leave you scratching your head. To find out more, read Modifying the BOMA Standard from the Colorado Real Estate Journal.
• This article on what commercial tenants need to know about area calculations will help any tenant that is about to sign a lease. From the July, 2005 issue of the Colorado Real eatate Journal.
• Throw out that old measuring tape! Laser distance meters are more accurate and faster. This whitepaper, Laser Distance Meters, compares three low-cost LDMs that you could buy on the Web in 2005. Also check out the updated version written in August of 2009 .
• If you take field measurements, this whitepaper, Wall Calipers Improve Field Measurements in Gopher Colonies, could save you time and aggravation.
• The publication of the BOMA Industrial Standard fills a huge void in the real estate industry. Setting the Industrial Standard was published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal and BOMA Matters to introduce this new standard.
• Developers and landlords who mislead tenants in measurement methods are setting themselves up for major liability. Area Calculations: Documentation and Communication are Critical Today was published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal to alert property managers of some common problem areas.

Any comments you may have on any of these articles are welcome. Please e-mail them to me at the address to the left. From time to time articles will be added to and purged from this list. Click here to view our article archive.