The much-anticipated revamping of the AIA’s new family of design-build contract documents released in December 2004 is now available in AIA Contract Documents software. The 2004 design-build documents—which replace the set premiered in 1986 and last revised in 1996—introduce several new directions in design-build delivery that provide great flexibility in how a given design-build project is to be delivered; make clear the responsibilities of all parties; and fairly balance the interests of the owner, design-builder, architect (who may or may not be the design-builder), and independent consultants to the owner.

Also now available in AIA Contract Document software are six new scopes of service to work in conjunction with AIA Document B141™-1997 agreement between architect and owner and a new document, the AIA Document G716™-2004 standard form for owners, architects, and contractors to request further information from each other during construction.

Design-build documents stress flexibility and fairness
More than a simple update, the new family of AIA documents takes on a whole new approach to design-build delivery. The AIA 2004 design-build family “is a much-improved set of forms over the 1996 edition,” says G. William Quatman, FAIA, Esq., of the law firm Shughart Thomson & Kilroy.

“It will take a few projects to get used to the formatting, the exhibits, and the new terms and certifications, but over time, the new 2004 forms will likely become the primary contracting forms for design-build, maintaining the AIA’s leadership in the standard-form-contract market. Congratulations to the AIA Documents Committee for developing a flexible and updated set of contracts tailored to today’s design-build project delivery. The wait has been worthwhile,” notes Quatman, who is a member of the AIA Design-Build Advisory Group.

Among the changes from the 1996 documents to those released in December 2004 are two new documents: a wholly new agreement between owner and consultant and a new form for acknowledgement of substantial completion. There are many other revisions, as well:

• The new family abandons the two-part format of the 1996 documents, which required owner and design-builder to enter into an agreement for the preliminary design and then develop a separate agreement for final design and construction. Instead, the 2004 family provides one agreement covering both design and construction. If owners wish to terminate the contract before or during construction for reasons other than the design-builder’s default, they must pay for work completed, costs of termination, and overhead and profit for work not completed. In return, owners may use the existing design and documents to carry on the work with another design-builder.
  
• In the new family of documents, the design-builder and owner choose from among three methods of payment: stipulated sum, cost plus a fee with a guaranteed maximum price, and cost plus a fee without a guaranteed maximum price.
  
• The 2004 design-build family departs from currently published AIA agreements in its approach to dispute resolution. The family continues to require mediation as a condition precedent to any other form of dispute resolution, but if mediation does not resolve an issue, the new documents require the parties to choose among three binding methods for resolution—binding arbitration, litigation in court of competent jurisdiction, or a third method of their own election. Certain of the documents also introduce the concept of a neutral party whom the parties may or may not appoint to decide design/construction-related disputes.
  
• The new family departs significantly from the 1996 documents by not relying on AIA Document A201™, General Conditions of the Contract for Construction. The agreement between owner and design-builder contains its own terms and conditions as Exhibit A to the agreement, as does the agreement between design-builder and contractor.

“The new AIA Design-Build Documents were designed with the owner in mind,” said Howard G. Goldberg, outside counsel to the AIA Documents Committee. “These new contract forms have been in development for more than four years and are revolutionary, not evolutionary. They were developed with one principal goal: to create a family of design-build agreements that address the concerns voiced by the owner community in response to the standard design-build forms created by all of the organizations that have published such forms over the past 15 years.”

Scope of architects’ services documents
When B141, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect, was revised in 1997, the scope of services section of the document was separated from the agreement section. The result was B141 Part One, the agreement, and B141 Part Two, the scope of services. This was done to recognize that not all architects perform traditional design and construction services, and some projects do not require those services. Until recently, owners and architects were left to create their own alternative scopes-of-services documents. Now, the AIA has released six new scope documents for use with the B141 Part One agreement or any other owner-architect agreement.

Highlights include:

• The six scope-of-services documents will make it easier for architects to offer, negotiate, and perform services in the specialized areas of historic preservation, value analysis, security evaluation and planning, facility support, commissioning, and LEED™ certification
  
• The AIA will release other scope-of-services documents in 2005, covering services such as site evaluation and planning, interior architecture, and expanded contract administration
  
• The 2004 scope-of-services documents follow one of two formats—a fixed scope of services, to which the parties may add or amend, or a variable or “menu” list of services, from which the parties may choose.

Request-for-information form
Architects and contractors agree that requests for information (RFIs) are out of control on many construction sites today. Architects complain that contractors request information that can easily be found on the drawings, and contractors complain that due to poor drawings they are forced to spend time generating RFIs. In response, the AIA has developed its first RFI form, which architects, owners, and contractors can use to request information from each other and receive a response on the same form.

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