Why should the public use architects? In South Dakota they may not need to because of the State laws that exempt large public buildings. The following are taken from the State Laws regarding exemptions:
(a) Any building occupied as a hospital, hotel, motel, restaurant, library, medical office, nursing facility, assisted living facility, jail, retirement home, or mortuary, if the gross square footage of the new construction, the enlargement, or the alteration is four thousand square feet or less;
(b) Any building occupied as an auditorium, church, school, or theater if the gross square footage of the new construction, the enlargement, or the alteration is five thousand square feet or less;
And the goes on, and on from here. If you build a 5,000 sf Assembly building, or addition, at one occupant per 15 sf or 30 st that amounts to 333, or 167 occupants without the use of a design professional. In other words, a contractor can build these building without any training or accountability. Why would the public allow a contractor to build hospitals, jails, and nursing homes where people can not care for themselves without professional oversight?
Other architects have said we need to get involved with the legislators. We have. There are about 90 architects in the whole state and over 1,000 contractors. We are outnumbered. We don't have the money to spend on lobbyists because we receive fees of 6 to 8 percent fees, out of which we need to pay all the engineers and consultants. That leaves a profit, if there is one, of one half of one percent. Contractors write into there bid profits of 8 percent. We can't outspend them. We may have credibility on our side, but why should they use architects if they can save 6 to 8 percent by using a contractor and nothing bad happens?
The only way this will change is if we have a major event where lives are lost because professionals were not used, or if we shift the discussion to protecting people - not buildings. We need to talk about how many people should be put at risk before using registered professionals, not how big the building should be. Focus on peoples safety is the key to change these outdated laws.
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James Heroux AIA
MSH Architects
Sioux Falls SD
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