Your thoughts!

Federally constructed buildings are exempt from the laws of the state the project is in, so the agencies may not require a seal.

I think that the state laws regarding application of seals to contract documents wouldn’t have much to do with a negligence case that goes before a jury. Whether the seals page excluded the Division 00 documents or not probably would not be a very strong factor in reaching a decision. These can be extremely complex, and if the Architect says he never saw the Division 00 documents that may hurt or it may help–one never knows how this would apply in a particular case. That’s where clever lawyers make their money.

However, as far as the various state licensing boards are concerned, they would most definitely want the seals to be used and applied correctly.

Even though federal projects may not be subject to state or local law, licensed professionals are still bound by their respective state licensing laws, which typically require sealing of ALL construction documents they prepare, federal or otherwise. The feds (including professionals who are direct government employees) may be exempt, but we aren’t.

I have on occasion used a separate page for each discipline requiring a seal, listing each professional of record along with a listing of the content for which each is responsible (listing them concisely, i.e., using document/section numbers, or ranges of numbers, instead of actual titles).

Documents prepared or furnished by governmental agencies or others (such as front-end documents, soil reports etc.) are listed as such in the Table of Contents (not necessarily on the “Title Page,”) and are explicitly excluded from those sealed, and those unsealed documents may be identified as either “separately bound” or “bound herein for the convenience of bidders.”

In most jurisdictions, it is misuse of the seal to apply it to documents prepared by others, without the specific authorization or permission of the responsible (licensed) preparer. I would think this applies to AIA 201, and to supplementary conditions prepared by the owner’s attorney – or, for that matter, the owner. If you don’t prepare them (or oversee their production), you can’t seal them.

Here in Texas, licensing regulations on seals are more specific for engineers than for architects (different boards, so of course they aren’t coordinated). Engineers are required to seal the “title page” of specifications, but the architectural regulations are more general; one may seal the cover, title page or the first page of the table of contents. So I have prepared seals pages as described above, labeling them as the “Title Page” explicitly (they of course also state the project name, etc., as well as listing the professionals-of-record and their respective responsibilities). I may use a single “title page” listing all the professionals-of-record along with the respective section numbers covered, but include it in multiple copies, each copy sealed by a different professional. Alternatatively, one such page might bear all the seals, as long as each professional’s responsibilities – and exclusions – are clearly differentiated.

Anonymous,

If you are “required” contractually to use owner furnished general conditions no discussion is necessary. A REAL big-hitter has it in his O/A Agreement if he always does business this way and you have little if any chance of changing his mind.

If you are “required” by owner order (in writing of course) to use non-AIA General Conditions, then use them. The owner has a right to have input on his project even if it is ill-advised. How can you be held responsible or lible for doing what is “required” of you?

However, it would be irresponsible to seal contract documents that are not coordinated with the general conditions. So, coordination of the general conditions is a must do task and so is an extra services fee for non-standard coordination work “required” by the use the non-AIA general Conditions. Include missing requirements in supplementary conditions and yes, bind it in the project manual because coordination makes it a part of the documents.

I often write project manuals for projects where the owner requires me to use non-AIA general conditions and it’s not a problem when properly coordinated.

As a consultant, I always identify the author of spec sections written by persons other than myself such as sections provided by engineers, in the table of contents. In this case, I would identify the general conditions as provided by the owner in the table of contents.