Colloquia
Daniel Hogan
The Architect as Forensic Expert
Daniel Hogan is a registered architect in New York, Texas and Maine and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He has over 35 years of vast and deep experience in complex and complicated design and construction of buildings and sites. For more than ten years Dan has practiced as a Forensic Expert providing expert forensic analysis and testimony for issues in the built world for hundreds of cases and claims including death cases and multi-million-dollar damage claims. He is the creator and founder of Built World Forensics, a developing online resource for his network of over 7000 attorneys, insurance professionals, construction professionals and design professional peers.
Architects are premier design professionals. Engineers specialize in a specific area such as structural, mechanical or electrical design but Architects are masters of design and construction in all of its aspects and phases. This credential makes the Architect the ultimate Forensic Expert for issues in the built environment. Here is a claim that a built condition is or was dangerous or defective or damaged. Think millions of dollars. Death or serious injury may have occurred. There may be a serious failure of multiple building systems. Is or was something horribly wrong? How did this develop? Who or what is responsible? An insurance professional or judge or jury must decide but lacks the experience and understanding of a seasoned Architect.
This circumstance calls for the Architect as Forensic Expert to accurately and articulately clarify complex and complicated evidence and issues in a compelling manner so that a just outcome may be achieved. Lessons learned lift the architectural profession toward stronger, safer and more satisfying realization of good architectural design.
Could you give an opinion of the adequacy of a guard rail based on the police body camera video in which the officer tests the stability of the railing immediately after an individual fell to his death?
When a three-acre flat roof system experiences catastrophic failure in the aftermath of the installation of a liquid applied roof coating, what types of tests would you order?