Isn't the Architect liable if he does not coordinate his drawings with his own structural consultant?

Construction & Evaluation
1

From the NCARB CE practice exam:

“During construction, a contractor finds that the architectural and structural drawings contain conflicting information about foundation rebar. The contractor submits an RFI, and the architect advises the contractor to follow the structural drawings. The contractor then submits a change order for the more complex work required on the structural drawings, claiming they bid the project based on information in the architectural set.”

What action should the architect take?

A. Approve the change order.

B. Reject the change order.

C. Request a revised bid.

Reject the change order. The rebar installation is a structural issue. As such, the structural drawings take precedence over the architectural drawings and should have been priced that way by the contractor. Section: Administrative Procedures & Protocols”

My concern: I get the point that the contractor needs to discern that rebar is structural and that therefore the structural set takes precedence - but there is a competing legal principle and that is the contractual requirement of the Architect to coordinate the work of his consultants with his own work. If he does not do that, he is not meeting the standard of care, and is therefore liable for the issues that arise from such omissions of coordination. I could see him acknowledging this fact and approving the change order because it arose from his own errors.

I would certainly think that at the very least the contractor’s surety will come after the architect for failing the standard of care.

2

Hi @aidenjh - A key here is that the contract documents are complementary - what’s required by one is required by all, and if there’s a conflict, the contractor should either ask a bidding RFI to clarify the situation or they should include the more expensive item in their bid.
There’s also the issue of the architect’s standard of care - yes, the architect is responsible for coordinating their drawings with their consultants work, but they’re not expected to be perfect. In this question, we don’t know if the architect has made several errors like this, or if this is the first one, so we can’t really evaluate if they’re within their standard of care or not. In the absence of such information, I would assume that the architect has acted within their standard of care.

3

Thanks Chris. Helps to have your perspective for sure. Also - its reassuring to know that a single failure of coordination like this is not, in and of itself the equivalent of failing the standard of care.