Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 946, Designing a Building.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 946.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Kathy and Brett about designing a building.
Let's get started.
Seeing these blueprints really brings this project to life.
I can now envision what this building will look like when it's built.
I'm really glad.
As the architect on this project, it's my job to turn your ideas into design.
You did a great job.
I had the help of the surveyors and a civil engineer, so I can't take all of the credit.
We're ready now to solicit bids from general contractors, don't you think?
These plans will give contractors the specifications they need to give a detailed and accurate bid.
There won't be any problems with permits.
I don't think, because a similar structure was on this building site about 10 years ago, before it was torn down.
I'm hoping not to run into any stumbling blocks, but you never know with a building project.
I'll know we've cleared the hurdles when I can bring in the interior designers.
Our dialogue begins with Kathy saying to Brett Seeing these blueprints really brings this project to life.
Blueprints are detailed drawings of what you need to build a certain building.
It's the plan of the building, where the rooms go, where the doors go, and so forth.
It's called a blueprint because traditionally it was printed on paper in blue ink.
That's why we have the name blueprint.
The word blueprint is used also in a more general way to refer to the plan of something, especially a detailed plan about how to carry out or execute a certain task.
Kathy says seeing these blueprints really brings this project to life.
To bring something to life means to make it real, to do something that allows other people to visualize it, to see how it will look like and also to believe that it will happen.
Kathy says seeing the blueprints brings this project to life.
She says I can now envision what this building will look like when it's built.
To envision, E-N-V-I-S-I-O-N, means to imagine something.
So much so that you can almost see it in your mind.
You have a clear picture or a clear idea of what something will look like.
You can envision things that aren't just physical objects.
You can envision the success that you might have by completing a certain task.
Brett says, I'm really glad.
I'm very happy.
As the architect on this project, it's my job to turn your ideas into design.
An architect, A-R-C-H-I-T-E-C-T, is a person who designs buildings, who plans out what the building will look like and makes detailed drawings, plans that the people who are going to build the building look at in order to do their job.
The architect's job, according to Brett, is to turn ideas of the person who wants the building built into design.
To turn something into something else means to transform it, to change it in such a way that it is now this other thing.
In this case, we're talking about taking ideas and changing them or turning them into design.
Design here refers to how something will look or how it will function.
Kathy says, you did a great job.
Brett responds, no.
I had the help of the surveyors and a civil engineer, so I can't take all of the credit.
A surveyor, S-U-R-V-E-Y-O-R, is a person who makes very detailed measurements of in order to determine where something is located.
Usually a surveyor is used when you are going to build a new house or building.
The surveyor determines the exact size of the property, often where the property you own begins and where it ends.
People sometimes have surveyors come out when, for example, there may be some disagreement over where your property ends and where your neighbor's property begins.
A surveyor would help you determine that.
Usually, surveyors produce what are essentially maps of a certain area of land.
Brett also used a civil engineer on this project.
A civil C-I-V-I-L engineer is a person whose job it is to help with the design and the construction or building of things like bridges, roads and other similar structures.
Brett says that because he got help from these other people, he can't take all of the credit.
To take all of the credit means to say, yes, I deserve the praise that you are giving me.
I deserve all the nice things you are saying about me.
That would be to accept or to take all of the credit.
Here, Brett says he cannot take all of the credit because he didn't work on this project alone.
Kathy says we're ready now to solicit bids from general contractors, don't you think?
To solicit S-O-L-I-C-I-T bids.
B-I-D-S means to go out and find people who want to do your project and who will give you a price for completing your project.
It doesn't have to be a building project.
It could be anything that you are hiring someone else to help you complete.
It could be a project related to software or computers, or almost anything really that would require you to pay someone else to do work for you.
When you solicit bids, you're usually asking for detailed information and plans about how this person or company will complete the task.
A general contractor is a person who manages a construction project, sometimes doing some of the work himself, but usually bringing in other people, other companies or other workers to complete some of the more specialized work.
A general contractor will often bring in what are called subcontractors.
These are people who work under the direction of the general contractor in order to finish, for example, the plumbing or the electrical system in a building.
Brett says these plans will give contractors the specifications they need to give a detailed and accurate bid.
Specifications are detailed instructions for following a plan, especially when you are creating something new, as we are here in this building.
Specifications will allow the contractors to give a detailed and accurate bid.
Something that is accurate, A-C-C-U-R-A-T-E, is something that is correct.
Something that is exactly correct, we might say.
Brett also tells Kathy, there won't be any problems with permits, I don't think.
Permits.
P-E-R-M-I-T-S refers to official permission to do something, usually anything involved in modifying, changing or constructing a new building.
When you do work on your house, for example by i don't know putting in a new bathroom, You have to go to the city where you live and get a permit.
Basically, what you're doing is paying a tax, in a way, to the city so that you can build something or change something to your current house.
Often permits require someone from the government from the city government or local government to come out and look at or inspect your construction to make sure that everything is being done correctly and according to the laws or the codes C-O-D-E-S for buildings.
Codes are basically regulations that the government has about how you have to build a house or a building.
Brett says he doesn't think there will be any problems with permits.
This, of course, is what people involved in construction often tell you.
Well, I don't think there'll be any problems.
They're not actually promising there won't be any problems.
Brett says there was a similar structure or building on this building site about 10 years ago, before it was torn down.
A building site is a place where you are going to build something, a piece of land where you are going to construct your buildings.
To tear T-E-A-R down.
Something is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to destroy something, usually a building, a house or some other structure.
Brett says the building was torn, T-O-R-N, down.
Torn is the past tense of tear.
Kathy says, I'm hoping not to run into any stumbling blocks, but you never know with a building project.
Kathy says she's hoping not to run into or to encounter or to have any stumbling blocks.
A stumbling S-T-U-M-B-L-I-N-G block is an obstacle, something that makes progress on a project more difficult.
Kathy says, I'll know we've cleared the hurdles when I can bring in the interior designers.
The expression to clear, C-L-E-A-R, the hurdles, H-U-R-D-L-E-S, means to deal with the difficulties and the challenges and the problems that you have so that you can complete your task.
A hurdle here means the same as an obstacle.
Literally, a hurdle is something that you jump over in a race.
If you watch the Olympics, the Summer Olympics, they'll have a race where the runners have to jump over things.
Those things that they jump over are called hurdles.
To clear the hurdle means to jump over it without hitting it, to jump over it successfully.
We use that idea of the hurdle to mean more generally to overcome difficulties or problems.
Cathy refers to interior designers.
The interior, I-N-T-E-R-I-O-R, of a building is the inside design.
So an interior designer is the person who is responsible for deciding how the inside of the building will look, what color the walls will be, what kind of furniture will be in the building, and so forth.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Seeing these blueprints really brings this project to life.
I can now envision what this building will look like when it's built.
I'm really glad.
As the architect on this project, it's my job to turn your ideas into design.
You did a great job.
I had the help of the surveyors and a civil engineer, so I can't take all of the credit.
We're ready now to solicit bids from general contractors, don't you think?
These plans will give contractors the specifications they need to give a detailed and accurate bid.
There won't be any problems with permits.
I don't think, because a similar structure was on this building site about 10 years ago, before it was torn down.
I'm hoping not to run into any stumbling blocks, but you never know with a building project.
I'll know we've cleared the hurdles when I can bring in the interior designers.
The architect of ESL Podcast is our script writer, Dr Lucy Say, who always designs a wonderful script for us.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
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