Architect's Contract Administration

• Pages: 343-368

Arch itect’s Contrac t Admi nistrat ion 343

13.01 iNtrodu ctioN

Owners often hire design professionals to provide contract administration ser-

vices in addition to furnishing drawings and speci cations for the project. In

this context, “contract administration” refers to a wide range of activities that

assist the owner in its contractual relationship with the general contractor.

Those activities may include providing information to the contractor, inspect-

ing the progress of construction, preparing documents in connection with

changes to the work, helping to resolve disputes between the owner and the

contractor, and many other administrative tasks. Although an owner might

hire an architect, an engineer, or some other professional to provide contract

administration, for convenience this chapter presumes that an architect is pro-

viding those services.

In general, the owner and the architect may agree on whatever contract

administration services and procedures they think most appropriate for the

project. For many projects, however, the owner retains the same architect who

prepares the drawings and speci cations to provide a comprehensive array of

13

Architect’s Contract

Administration

CAR L J. CIRCO

C H A P T E R

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contract administration services that conform to established industry customs.

The 2007 editions of AIA Documents B101

1 (especially Section 3.6) and A2012

(especially Sections 4.2 and 15.2) illustrate one of the most common arrange-

ments for contract administration for a commercial project using the Design-

Bid-Build project delivery method. For that reason, much of this chapter dis-

cusses the architect’s contract administration role in a way that reects the

contract administration provisions of these AIA documents. You may want to

review these AIA provisions in conjunction with this chapter.

13.02 Nature aNd S cope of a rchitect’S r ole

iN coNt rac t admiNiStr atioN

As you will see from the materials in this chapter, contract administration may

involve many different activities and may raise several important legal issues.

Depending on the owner’s needs, the architect may provide such extensive

services during the construction phase of a project that the architect occupies

a central role throughout the entire construction process. But in other projects,

the architect may be involved only in discrete administrative functions once

construction begins. For still other projects, the architect may not be involved

in any of the administrative aspects of the project at all.

The main purpose of this section is to familiarize you with the general con-

cept of contract administration. Additionally, because agency law provides the

underlying legal construct for certain key aspects of contract administration,

the concluding subdivision in this section briey highlights some of the agency

law considerations that will be relevant to certain issues presented in later sec-

tions of this chapter.

A. Overvi ew of Contract Administra tion

The contract for design services normally establishes the nature and scope of

the architect’s role in contract administration.3 For most projects, nothing in

the industry or the law requires the architect to have an ongoing role during

construction although licensing regulations may require that certain activities

1. American Institute of Architects, AIA Document B101–2007, Standard Form of Agreement

Between Owner and Architect (2007) [hereinafter AIA Document B101–2007].

2. American Institute of Architects, AIA Document A201–2007, General Conditions of the Con-

tract for Construction (2007) [hereinafter AIA Document A201–2007].

3. See AIA Document B101–2007 supra note 1, § 3.6.1.1 (providing that the architect will pro-

vide contract administration as contemplated by AIA Document A201–2007).