Regardless of any ethical concerns it's fairly standard practice in New York for a licensed professional to rubberstamp plans prepared by others; all the same I'd like to know more about what kind of liabilities can be incurred or which pitfalls to avoid. Any input appreciated.
Pitfalls include losing your license, fines and additional civil penalties, all of which are best avoided by not rubber stamping. On the other hand, if you were to do it you, you might make a tiny bit of money and learn not to undervalue your services...
I"ve been working in NYC for 20 years, with my own practice for 14. It is not "standard practice" for a licensed architect to rubberstamp plans.
There are architects who act as architect of record, but they do their due diligence, making sure the design meets code requirements.
Rubberstamp strongly implies that you're going to stamp whatever is put in front of you. To be frank, you'd be an idiot to do this.
Let's say the project doesn't meet handicapped requirements, but DOB misses this, and the project is approved and built. 2 years later, the owner is sued under ADA. Guess who else gets sued?
During construction, a worker falls off a ladder and experiences "back pains." Guess who gets sued?
They build a railing that doesn't meet code, and a 4 year old climbs up/over it, and falls to their death. Guess who gets sued?
The design doesn't meet egress requirements. 3 years later there's a fire and 2 firemen die trying to rescue people. Guess who get's charged with contributing their deaths?
Are all these extreme scenarios t varying degrees? Yes. Do they happen? Yes, once in a while.
If you want to review a 'designers' drawings, draw them up properly, and act as architect of record, go for it. But rubberstamping someone's drawings is moronic.
If you're dumb enough to do this, even if at the same time you're smart enough to have professional liability insurance, I'm not sure your insurance company would help you with any claim where you exhibited such willful disregard for basic professional standards and the law. Aas opposed to unintentional negligence, in this case, you intentionally are acting contrary to the law.
Other than that, it's a great idea! What could go wrong?
There is lots of criticism of rubber stamping plans from an outside firm. A small office I used to work for basically hired another firm to stamp our plans. They did not review the plans at all. Everyone in town knows they do this, but never get "caught". Or maybe they are just paying off the right people.
The firm I work for now has one of the principles stamps on the plans depending where the project is located. For the most part these principles have never seen any phase of the project.
From what I have seen in several offices, the things that could most get someone in trouble are relegated to the newest least experienced person. This work is seldom checked by anyone until it is rejected by a building official.
Luckily, at least some of the people care enough in the design phase to get basic ADA and exit/occupancy issues worked out. But I have seen instances where someone without knowledge to work on plans could work unsupervised for weeks before someone else comes to the project and finds it in a state of disarray.
Don't see the problem with plan review and stamping. You would have to be a total moron to just stamp a plan without extensive review, but if you review it carefully then what's the problem. Engineers do it all the time. If you are trusted to uphold certain ethics with the hsw of the public then why aren't architects trusted to come to their own judgements on this. To paraphrase something i remember reading.."Lets face it, if some little guy wants a plan stamped for a small project the bloodhounds all bark, but if some starchitect comes to town to build they roll belly up waiting for a tummy tickle."
At least in California, plan review alone is not sufficient to meet the "responsible charge" requirement of the practice act - one needs to actually perform some portion of the work, usually meaning CD level drawing development.
In order to stamp plans and act as Architect of Record in NYState, is it necessary to have a contract directly with the owner, or can the AoR work through the design architect?
Jul 18, 14 12:48 pm ·
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pros and cons of rubberstamping plans in nyc
Regardless of any ethical concerns it's fairly standard practice in New York for a licensed professional to rubberstamp plans prepared by others; all the same I'd like to know more about what kind of liabilities can be incurred or which pitfalls to avoid. Any input appreciated.
pros: CA$H!
cons: being a con :'(
all the liabilities.
jail time I hope
Pitfalls include losing your license, fines and additional civil penalties, all of which are best avoided by not rubber stamping. On the other hand, if you were to do it you, you might make a tiny bit of money and learn not to undervalue your services...
I"ve been working in NYC for 20 years, with my own practice for 14. It is not "standard practice" for a licensed architect to rubberstamp plans.
There are architects who act as architect of record, but they do their due diligence, making sure the design meets code requirements.
Rubberstamp strongly implies that you're going to stamp whatever is put in front of you. To be frank, you'd be an idiot to do this.
Are all these extreme scenarios t varying degrees? Yes. Do they happen? Yes, once in a while.
If you want to review a 'designers' drawings, draw them up properly, and act as architect of record, go for it. But rubberstamping someone's drawings is moronic.
If you're dumb enough to do this, even if at the same time you're smart enough to have professional liability insurance, I'm not sure your insurance company would help you with any claim where you exhibited such willful disregard for basic professional standards and the law. Aas opposed to unintentional negligence, in this case, you intentionally are acting contrary to the law.
Other than that, it's a great idea! What could go wrong?
There is lots of criticism of rubber stamping plans from an outside firm. A small office I used to work for basically hired another firm to stamp our plans. They did not review the plans at all. Everyone in town knows they do this, but never get "caught". Or maybe they are just paying off the right people.
The firm I work for now has one of the principles stamps on the plans depending where the project is located. For the most part these principles have never seen any phase of the project.
From what I have seen in several offices, the things that could most get someone in trouble are relegated to the newest least experienced person. This work is seldom checked by anyone until it is rejected by a building official.
Luckily, at least some of the people care enough in the design phase to get basic ADA and exit/occupancy issues worked out. But I have seen instances where someone without knowledge to work on plans could work unsupervised for weeks before someone else comes to the project and finds it in a state of disarray.
Don't see the problem with plan review and stamping. You would have to be a total moron to just stamp a plan without extensive review, but if you review it carefully then what's the problem. Engineers do it all the time. If you are trusted to uphold certain ethics with the hsw of the public then why aren't architects trusted to come to their own judgements on this. To paraphrase something i remember reading.."Lets face it, if some little guy wants a plan stamped for a small project the bloodhounds all bark, but if some starchitect comes to town to build they roll belly up waiting for a tummy tickle."
At least in California, plan review alone is not sufficient to meet the "responsible charge" requirement of the practice act - one needs to actually perform some portion of the work, usually meaning CD level drawing development.
In order to stamp plans and act as Architect of Record in NYState, is it necessary to have a contract directly with the owner, or can the AoR work through the design architect?
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