While I agree with the statements regarding how to handle the contractor, at some level, the architect should be able to review the calculations and design and suggest economic improvements to the project well before the contractor reviews the drawings. The stated role of the architect in our common AIA agreements takes responsibility for all of the components in the project whether or not a consultant is hired. I find that the older generation of architects are better suited to this most likely due to experience, but also, perhaps, education. Having taught structures to architects at the university level, I continue to see the abandonment of technical abilities (like being able to check a consultants work or even setting out the conceptual or diagrammatic building systems diagrams) for the more subjective "design" or even worse, purely digital methods. This loss of fundamental skills cuts across the entire building science spectrum and while I am not advocating becoming only technical or abandoning the use of good consultants, a working knowledge of building systems is paramount to proper building. We, as architects, continue to lose ground to others who are willing to fill this gap.
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William Shepphird AIA
Architect
Shepphird Associates
Los Angeles CA
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