I appreciate the single minded drive that many have to purge old project files and avoid warehousing all that 'stuff.'
I'd like to take a slightly contrarian view based on 2 (of many) experiences.
In the 1990s, while working at a great multi-office national AEI firm, I lead a major renovation of a hospital the firm had designed and executed 25 years prior. The hospital provided copies of their well maintained and marked-up record drawings. I asked our headquarters if they had any archived info from the original construction. The firm's main offices included a huge basement, which they subdivided for their archives. They owned the building, so the cost of archiving was minimal.
Not only did they find the original mylar drawings for all trades (the plans were color pochéd and duct work, for example, shown to proper dimension with mounting heights annotated), they had bound specs printed on color papers per trade - not seen very often these days. Then I received boxes of the original construction submittals which included many obscure products.
This proved a god-send because part of the renovation required adding new windows to match the existing triple glazed operable sliding windows. None of us had ever seen such windows before and the manufacturer was unknown to us. Our archive had all the info including the product catalog and recommended details. To our surprise, the company existed, still made those windows, and could match the existing units. The new frames were available with two lines of thermal breaks and each line of glazing could be single or double glazed.
There was a wealth of info about the existing construction that delighted the team and vastly facilitated the design work and construction.
I suppose an historian of architectural technology would be thrilled to see this level of info.
My second example, from another firm, was different. The firm decided to completely purge the old files - locked in steel shipping containers. If any material was over 7 years old, it went into the dumpster - drawings, sketches, renderings, as well as specs, files, submittals, manuals, codes, etc. Only the contract and financial information was kept.
Eighteen months later we were engaged to extensively renovate a hotel which the firm had designed and renovated many times starting in the 1950s. The various owners had neglected to keep any drawings or documents for the sprawling facility, not even MEP or fire protection. The discovery process for renovation design and construction was almost nightmarish. Sadly, I remembered seeing the documents for this hotel as they were tossed into the dumpster.
There is no simple solution to archiving, but microfilming or scanning is a great option.
Regards,
Drake
------------------------------
G. Drake Jacobs AIA
Melrose MA
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 07-21-2021 11:11 AM
From: Charissa Durst
Subject: Archiving and Document Retention Policy
Our attorney recommended keeping only what is impacted by your state's statute of limitations, and add 2 years for safety. In Ohio, the statute of limitations is 15 years so we only keep hard copies of projects dating back to 2004, and discard anything earlier after scanning what we want to keep for reference or posterity.
Charissa W. Durst, AIA, LEED AP
President
Hardlines Design Company
4608 Indianola Avenue
Columbus, OH 43214
Tel: (614) 784-8733
Fax: (614) 784-9336
mobile: (614) 906-3113
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
Original Message:
Sent: 7/19/2021 11:42:00 AM
From: James A. Coan AIA
Subject: Archiving and Document Retention Policy
Does anyone have any guidance on archiving project materials and data files (design drawings, construction submittals and samples, record drawings, CAD files and BIM Models). Our off-site storage costs are significant and we need to provide clarity to the staff regarding what needs to be archived for legal reasons and future project reference. Often we have staff putting all project related drawings and documents in banker's boxes and tubes and sending it off to storage. Our network files are loaded up with all sorts of project files and should be reviewed for what to retain and delete.
I understand that a document retention and destruction policy would be helpful in this regard .
Your comments and suggestions on how to proceed would be appreciated.
Thanks,
James A. Coan AIA
James A. Coan, AIA, CSI, LEED AP BD+C
Senior Director, Architectural Practice & Building Science
D: (860) 581-2712
M: (860) 575-3732
coan@centerbrook.com
Centerbrook Architects & Planners
67 Main Street, PO Box 955
Centerbrook, CT 06409
(860) 767-0175
centerbrook.com twitter facebook
Sent from Mail for Windows 10