Historic Resources Committee

Hello,

We are trying to get a hold of record drawings from the local municipal on behalf of the building owner.

We have the Building Owner's permission but the city is requiring the Professional of Record permission as well.

Unfortunately, the building was built in the 50's so the Professional of Records are likely dead. Typical past municipals we dealt with only required Owner OR Professional of Record permission to release but NOT both.

Does anyone know of any language written in law books somewhere where it stipulates who has ownership of drawings and who is required to give permission to record drawings? 

We are in California if that helps.

Thank you!

Yilin

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Yilin Lu
Project Manager
dsk architects
Los Angeles CA
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Apparantly, the State of California requires both. This has been enforced here in San Francisco now for a few years. Very annoying. You are obligated to make a reasonable attempt to locate the Professional of Record (i.e. searching the Architect or Engineering Boards for their license) and send a letter to their last known address and waiting 30 days for a response.

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A. Atkinson AIA
Proprietor
A. Gordon Atkinson, Architect
San Francisco CA

Original Message:
Sent: 09-01-2016 14:24
From: Yilin Lu
Subject: Local Municipal - Release of Drawings

Hello,

We are trying to get a hold of record drawings from the local municipal on behalf of the building owner.

We have the Building Owner's permission but the city is requiring the Professional of Record permission as well.

Unfortunately, the building was built in the 50's so the Professional of Records are likely dead. Typical past municipals we dealt with only required Owner OR Professional of Record permission to release but NOT both.

Does anyone know of any language written in law books somewhere where it stipulates who has ownership of drawings and who is required to give permission to record drawings? 

We are in California if that helps.

Thank you!

Yilin

------------------------------
Yilin Lu
Project Manager
dsk architects
Los Angeles CA
------------------------------

Copyright law protects architects in theory for 75 years after the date of
publication. This applies to the drawings you are seeking as well as to
those you are creating yourself. The copyright law protects all of us from
other architects going to the building department and checking out our
drawings to copy and use in ways that we specifically prohibit others from
doing to us in our contracts. Publication is not a clear concept in
architecture and may or may not occur when we print and distribute our
drawings. The only certain way to set the beginning of the 75 years is by
filing for copyright.

It may be annoying to architects coming along decades behind us that our
drawings are protected but few architects would willingly forfeit the scant
protection afforded by the copyright law. The records offices that require
releases are doing the right thing and should be lauded for their protection
of our rights. As the owner of a firm with rights to drawings of hundreds of
historic buildings designed by the office we are solicited continuously
(often arrogantly and aggressively) by new owners of our buildings and other
architects who wish to use our drawings to avoid having to create as-builts
or to modify the original work. Many do not realize that we have no
obligation to allow them to copy the work or what copyright law allows.
Others, including academic institutions who should know better have tried
aggressively to go around our back and steal our intellectual property. We
work hard to educate others about and protect our intellectual property and
I believe other architects should do the same.

Ethan Anthony, AIA, ICTP; Principal
Cram & Ferguson Architects llc
Phone: (978) 451-0900 
www.cramandferguson.com
www.facebook.com/cramandfergusonarchitects


Original Message------

Apparantly, the State of California requires both. This has been enforced here in San Francisco now for a few years. Very annoying. You are obligated to make a reasonable attempt to locate the Professional of Record (i.e. searching the Architect or Engineering Boards for their license) and send a letter to their last known address and waiting 30 days for a response.

------------------------------
A. Atkinson AIA
Proprietor
A. Gordon Atkinson, Architect
San Francisco CA
------------------------------

Original Message------

Hello,

We are trying to get a hold of record drawings from the local municipal on behalf of the building owner.

We have the Building Owner's permission but the city is requiring the Professional of Record permission as well.

Unfortunately, the building was built in the 50's so the Professional of Records are likely dead. Typical past municipals we dealt with only required Owner OR Professional of Record permission to release but NOT both.

Does anyone know of any language written in law books somewhere where it stipulates who has ownership of drawings and who is required to give permission to record drawings? 

We are in California if that helps.

Thank you!

Yilin

------------------------------
Yilin Lu
Project Manager
dsk architects
Los Angeles CA
------------------------------

Original Message------

Typically the architect of record owns the drawings unless a contract is specifically stating otherwise.  The architect's name would be on the drawings, so it should not be hard to find out who that is and if they are still alive.

Edward J. Cazayoux, FAIA