At the end of a May 17 continuing education session on the new American Institute of Architects agreements for fully integrated project delivery, the AIA documents committee member presenting asked, “Any questions?” His answer was a chorus of laughter from the roomful of attendees at the AIA Convention 2008 in Boston. They had lots of questions, reflecting concerns about the legal, liability, insurance, payment, risk and reward-sharing aspects of the radical delivery system, which joins the owner, architect and construction manager in a limited liability corporation to collaborate on a project.
The questions included: How do you quantify intellectual property? Why would we want to have all these other companies benefit from our good ideas? Will traditional insurance cover this? Will we have to keep working without compensation if the cost goes above the target cost set in the contract? With risk-sharing, isn’t there a potential for a conflict of interest on the part of the architect if things aren’t going well? What do the lawyers say? Will we have to carry the job if we don’t get profit until the building’s completion? What about all the years working toward value-based compensation for architects?