Anticipating the full publication's release, a number of public and private construction organizations, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Navy Facilities Engineering Command, the Sweets construction products catalog, and Reed Construction Data's First Source, have decided to make the transition to the 2004 edition of MasterFormat™, according to the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI).

MasterFormat, a product of CSI and Construction Specifications Canada, is the specifications-writing standard used for most of North America's commercial and institutional building design and construction projects. The complete 2004 edition is due for release by year's end.

The new edition addresses advances in construction technology that have emerged since the 1995 edition. It will enable specifications to better address building owners' evolving construction priorities such as security, life safety, and environmentally responsible facilities. The new MasterFormat's section numbers and their titles are downloadable at no charge from CSI's Web site at www.csinet.org/masterformat.