The architect is visiting a project to observe the sitework that has been taking place over the past month. During this visit, the architect notices that the contractor has misplaced four of the 12 retaining walls. The retaining walls are clearly shown on the civil engineer’s drawing.
When documenting this discrepancy in a field report, to whom should the architect assign the action item in order to resolve the issue?
The answer is General Contractor, but my assumption is that it would be the Owner. My understanding is that since the contractor is contracted to the Owner, that the Owner will be the one to assing the action item to the Contractor after recieing the field report from the Architect? Doesn’t assgning the action item directly to the GC bypass the correct communication protocols?
Hi @william,
You are correct in that the owner is contracted to the contractor and architect separately; the architect and contractor are not contracted to each other under the typical design-bid-build delivery method. However, the question is asking to whom should the architect assign the action item in order to resolve the issue. The contractor has misplaced the retaining walls despite the correct locations clearly shown on the contract documents, so they are responsible for resolving the issue.
Per AIA B101 § 3.6.2.1 “…On the basis of the site visits, the Architect shall keep the Owner reasonably informed about the progress and quality of the portion of the Work completed, and promptly report to the Owner (1) known deviations from the Contract Documents, (2) known deviations from the most recent construction schedule submitted by the Contractor, and (3) defects and deficiencies observed in the Work.”
As the answer explanation stated, the owner could potentially accept the nonconforming work, but it is not the owner’s responsibility to pay for or remediate the work. The contractor is responsible to pay for and execute the correction.
If the question had asked to whom the architect should notify of this deviation, then ‘owner’ would have been correct; but in this case, the architect is simply assigning the action item to the contractor appropriately in the field report.
Hope this helps!
Kiara Galicinao, AIA, NCARB
Black Spectacles