Who is responsible for coordinating owner's consultants?
Hi,
On AIA B101, item 5.8 says the owner shall coordinate the services of its own consultants with those services provided by architect. However, item 3.1.2 says the architect should be responsible for coordinating with owner's consultant.
I'm confused... who should be responsible?
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Let me use this example to explain so you can understand:
In a traditional project, the architect is responsible for coordination of the CLSEMP consultants of his own team, but these consultants also need to coordinate their portion of work with other architect’s consultants. The architect is looking at the overall picture and coordinating all the consultants.
In your example, the owner hires his/her own consultants and separate contractors, so the owner is responsible for the coordination of the owner’s consultants’ and contractors’ work. The architect is just one of the owner’s consultant. However, the architect still has the obligation to coordinate his portion of the work with other owner’s consultants. The owner is looking at the overall picture and coordinate all consultants (including the architect) and contractors.
Gang Chen, Author, Architect, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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You are welcome!
Gang Chen, Author, Architect, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Gang, I'm still confused. When asked point blank: is the architect responsible for coordinating the services of owner's consultants per B101, what is the correct answer?
This post makes a distinction between coordination of services vs activities of consultants, which I understand, but this distinction is not explicitly made in B101.
B101 4.1.1.20 does indicate Architect's "coordination of the Owner's consultants" as one of the Supplemental Services (the word "service" is missing here). So would I be right to assume that, per the linked post above, the architect as part of its basic services, coordinates services of owner's consultants, but not coordinate owner's consultants? Any help in clarifying this would be greatly appreciated.
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In one sentence, if the owner is hiring owner’s consultants, the owner is the team leader and is responsible for coordinating the owner’s consultants, and the architect. The architect is responsible for coordinating the owner’s consultants work, but only for the portion related to the architect’s team’s work. This is part of the basic service for the architect. Just like a structural engineer still needs to coordinate with EMP consultant for the portion of the EMP work related to structural work, even though the architect is the leader of the architect’s team, including SEMP consultants.
B101 4.1.1.20 lists coordination of the Owner's consultants, but you fail to mention the blank after this item. Owner should be filled in this blank as the responsible party for this item for a typical project. If the owner wants the architect to act as the team leader and do this work, it will become a supplemental service, and the architect can charge extra fees.
Gang Chen, Author, Architect, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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