As usual, my comments about the Contract Documents are related to the lack of applicability to small projects and/or practitioners. The documents are long and a bit scary to many of the clients we come across. Yes I've heard the arguments in favor of them, but that doesn't change things. Architects will go on using simple 2 to 3 page letters of agreement and will not purchase the AIA documents if the AIA doesn't respond.
The specific issue that I noticed lately is the lack of a good Architect-Design Builder contract for small DB projects. DB is a widely defined practice and if we want to have a part in it, we need to be able to have a brief but good document that we can use for our services. I don't see too many Contractors signing the B143 with all of its many attachments for a small 6,000 sf warehouse project. By the time they're done reading it, we're done with our work.
Again, how the AIA responds to small practitioners, small firms, etc. right now will chart the course of its membership in the next few years. They can't keep ignoring us or give us less attention than the big boys with the big bucks without ramifications.
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Lee Calisti AIA
Principal
lee CALISTI architecture+design
Greensburg PA
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