Architect of record is the architect or architecture firm whose name appears on a building permit issued for a specific project on which that architect or firm performed services. Building permits are issued by a government agency with the authority in a certain jurisdiction to regulate building construction and enforce building codes. Generally, the building contractor submits the application for the permit to the regulatory authority, along with a building project's drawings and specifications (called collectively "construction documents"). But in some jurisdictions, the architect is required to submit the construction documents needed to obtain the building permit. And with some construction projects, more than one building permit is issued. That occurs when several different architects perform services on discrete parts of a single building project. More than one architect of record, therefore, would exist in such a case.
When an architecture firm from one location is working on a project that is outside of their geographic location or range of expertise, the firm can also work with an architect that is either local to the project site or skilled in a particular area. In this case, the primary architect works with the local architect in order to complete the project, and the local architect becomes the "architect of record." This type of working relationship is common when brand-name architects win competitions but find themselves in need of architects with more practical skills or knowledge of local conditions. Or more pragmatically, the brand-name architect simply needs an architect who is local to the project site, facilitating quicker site visits and project oversight.
For so called local architecture firms that are responsible for corresponding with city agencies about code compliance, tender documents, client communication and creating up to 90 percent of the construction documents and carry out construction inspections should be referred as Executive Architect.
Famous quotes containing the words architect and/or record:
“It was always the work that was the gyroscope in my life. I don’t know who could have lived with me. As an architect you’re absolutely devoured. A woman’s cast in a lot of roles and a man isn’t. I couldn’t be an architect and be a wife and mother.”
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“... many of the things which we deplore, the prevalence of tuberculosis, the mounting record of crime in certain sections of the country, are not due just to lack of education and to physical differences, but are due in great part to the basic fact of segregation which we have set up in this country and which warps and twists the lives not only of our Negro population, but sometimes of foreign born or even of religious groups.”
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