The AIA Certificate of Substantial Completion reads: "The Work under Contract has been reviewed..." I assume it refers to Work under the contractor agreement and not the architect agreement, correct?

If so, this would mean that the Architect could be certifying Substantial Completion of work that may not be contracted directly with the Architect, e.g. civil engineering work or landscape. I mean, technically, the Architect is certifying the contractor agreement scope of work with each Pay App regardless of who the work/design is retained by.

This would also mean that the cost estimate for any scope of work that is incomplete at Substantial Completion, including work not directly retained under the Architect, should be rolled into the Certificate of Substantial Completion so that the owner may retain the typical 150-200% to complete that work. 

Am I understanding this correctly? And in your experience, do civil engineers perform their own punch lists which get attached to the Certificate of Substantial Completion or would the Architect perform the civil engineering punchlist? How about for landscaping?

Much appreciated! 

Al