Learn about the intricacies of reading and understanding building elevation plans, including the markings, scales, and sections. This professional guide will help you navigate through architectural drawings and how to interpret the various sections, scales, and materials used.
Key Insights:
- The article provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the layout and information presented on an architectural building elevation plan, including the identification of different sections such as part A and B, the use of scales (eighth of an inch equals a foot, 3 64ths of an inch equals a foot), and the use of different images and legends.
- Various components are highlighted in the article, including the importance of the alignment of windows with the openings for the parking deck, the use of vertical elevations on building elevations, and the importance of referencing building sections, both on the floor plan and on the elevations.
- The article also discusses the use of bubbles around the entire elevation to indicate that a new elevation has been developed or significant modifications have been made since the last revision. It also emphasizes the necessity of having a legend that references materials being used on the building and reduced scaled drawings for large-scale projects to provide some context.
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We're now going to look at a building elevation. You can see that it says right here. It's the east elevation part A. It's on sheet A-201, point A. You might remember that when we were covering our A-101-B floor plan drawing, that there was the indication right here for the building elevation.
So this would be for image 1 on sheet A-201-B. When we look at the key plan, we see that this is part B of the building, and this is part A. So this is the elevation sheet for the right-hand side of the building, part B, and we're going to be looking at the elevation for the left-hand side of the building. At the bottom image, we're showing that elevation for part A, the scale of the drawing, is an eighth inch equals a foot.
If we look up here on the top, here is showing the A elevation and the B elevation. This is showing the match line between part B and part A. So again, the sheet that we were studying earlier referenced the elevation at part B. We're looking at the elevation for part A. The floor plan drawing was drawn at an eighth of an inch equals a foot. Typically, floor plans, building elevations, and building sections are all drawn at the same scale.
So this larger image right here is at an eighth of an inch equals a foot. This elevation that shows the left and the right part of the building is drawn at 3 64ths of an inch equals a foot, which is why it's smaller. Now, you'll notice over here we have another image, which is 3, and this image is the enlargement of this area on the building.
So again, we have the elevation itself at an eighth of an inch equals a foot, the overall building at 3 64ths of an inch equals a foot, and this enlarged elevation at a quarter inch equals a foot. Let's zoom in to the legend. You can see that in the legend we have marks, and these marks are calling out the materials.
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And so on the elevation itself, the marks will be shown and referenced from this table. Over here on this detail, they're making a note that the center of the windows aligns with the center of the openings for the parking deck. This provides the architect another way of referencing more information.
When we look at the elevation, again, you can see the material marks. You're also seeing call-outs for the windows. You've seen that the call-outs for the different kinds of ephus.
You see that this aluminum note is going over to the deck rails. Again, this is the reference to that enlarged detail up above. So it's saying go to image 3 on A 201A.
I go back and you can see that this is image 3 on A 201A. One thing you'll also notice in this building elevation is that we're referencing building sections. So there's not only the call-out of the section on the floor plan, but building sections are also called out on the elevations.
We can see there's a building section that goes from here down to here. So it would cut through the building looking to the right. Image 1, A 302 goes from up there to down here.
Again, legend informations. We're showing another building section reference up here, a wall section reference down here. There's a note for an expansion joint throughout the building.
And then one thing we do is that on a floor plan we show horizontal dimensions. We do not show horizontal dimensions on building elevations. What we show are vertical elevations.
So you can see that we have the finished floor call-outs along the side of the drawing. So the parking elevation, the finished floor of the parking elevation, is at 5 foot 6. There tend to be two different methods of establishing elevation datum heights. They will either give this lowest elevation a value of 0 and all others are the cumulative distances vertical relative to the finished floor 0 at the bottom, or they show it at the actual elevation.
And since this building is near the water, that the finished floor is technically 5 foot 6 inches above sea level. The architect is showing the base flood elevation of 11 feet above mean sea level, and then their design flood elevation of 12 feet above mean sea level. The datums are dimensioned to one another just in the same way the column grids are noted.
And when you look at the drawing, you'll notice that bubbles are around the entire elevation. That's saying one of two things, that in this revision submission either a brand new elevation was developed or they've made significant modifications since the last revision. Again, please remember that the dominant elevation is at the same scale for the elevation, the floor plan, and the building sections.
We will have a legend that references materials being used on the building, and in projects of this size it's very usual to have reduced scaled drawings so that people can see the entire building in context.
