Affordable Housing Design Advisor

The AIA Documents, developed by the American Institute of Architects, are standard forms of agreement, first developed in the 1880's, that have been carefully reviewed, court-tested, and modified over many years. Widely used by and accepted in the construction industry, they present a current consensus among organizations representing owners, lawyers, contractors, engineers, and architects. The documents are readily available from most local AIA chapters or from AIA national headquarters in Washington, DC.

The AIA's complete suite of documents contains close to 70 different forms of agreement, covering everything form owner-contractor relationships to geotechnical services to certificates of final completion. For the purposes of the Design Advisor, the key documents are those in the "B-Series" which relate to various forms of agreement between an owner and an architect for professional services.

Within the B-Series the two documents most directly applicable to affordable housing developments are:

B141	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect with Standard Form of Architect's Service - a comprehensive document applicable to virtually any design project.
B181	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect for Housing Services - a more specialized document targeted primarily at multi-unit housing projects.

Additional documents that may also be relevant for affordable housing projects include: B151, B155, B163 and B188.

Both of these documents provide frameworks through which an owner can contract with an architect for a set of services. B141 is far more comprehensive and, as a consequence, more complicated. It is also more precise and has the potential to clearly spell out a wide range of roles and responsibilities between the owner and the architect.

Such precision can be extremely important in affordable housing, especially for first time developers, because many services critical to successful projects - like programming, site analysis, budget-driven redesign, etc. - are not always within the scope of standard architect's services. This is the case in B181, which is far simpler than B141 but which does not explicitly address many of the services a first time developer might need from his or her architect.

It is extremely important, therefore, that both the architect and the owner have a clear understanding of their mutual responsibilities on a project. Who, for example, will be responsible for: progamming; site analysis and selection; existing facilities surveys and measuring; site surveys; redesign due to budget overruns; and community participation in the process. These are outside the core scope of the B181, yet are often critical for affordable housing.

Community participation is a particularly important example. Virtually none of the AIA documents directly address it and yet it is an integral part of most affordable housing development processes. If it is considered part of the architect's responsibility, this must be explicit in the owner-architect agreement. If it is the owner's responsibility, the architect needs to know how the results of the community process fit into the design process.

The bottom line is that the documents alone will probably not cover all the services that are required on an affordable housing project. It is therefore critical that the owner and architect, as early as possible in the process, jointly identify all the services required, agree to the scope and definition of these services, agree to who is responsible for each, and develop a contract document that reflects these agreements. The result will be a development process that is more systematic, less confusing and, in the end, more rewarding for all concerned.

For information on the full range of possible services available from an architect, consult B163 which is the most comprehensive AIA owner-architect agreement of all. It clearly describes 83 different services that could be provided over the course of a given project, each of which could be contracted for by an owner. Because of its precision, B163 can be very useful in delineating clear areas of responsibility between an owner and an architect. However, this very precision can make B163 unwieldy for projects where architects are providing full design services, rather than a specific subset of these services. It is for this reason that B141 and B181 are more commonly used for housing projects.

Additional advice on architectural contracts and affordable housing development can be obtained at the Enterprise Foundation web site - www.enterprisefoundation.org - and at the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal web site - www.dhcr.state.ny.us. For additional information on the AIA documents, visit the American Institute of Architects web site at www.aia.org.

B141	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect with Standard Form of Architect's Service B141 is a flexible contracting package that allows architects to offer a broad range of services to clients spanning the life of a project, from conception to completion and beyond. It is structured in a multipart format consisting of an agreement form, the Standard Form of Agreement, that contains initial information, terms and conditions and compensation; and a service form, the Standard Form of Architect's Services: Design and Contract Administration, that defines the architect's scope of services, one that approximates the level of services I the prior edition of B141. The separation of the scope of services from the rest of the owner-architect agreement allows users the freedom to choose alternative scopes of services. The AIA intends to publish additional scopes of services that correlate to the terms and conditions of B141. Click here to see a sample version of the B141 document.
B151	Abbreviated Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect AIA Document B151 is an abbreviated standard form of agreement between owner and architect intended for use on construction projects of limited scope where the complexity and detail of AIA Document B141, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect, are not required, and where services are \based on five phases: Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, Bidding and Negotiation, and Construction. This document may be used with a variety of compensation methods, including percentage of construction cost, multiple of direct personnel expense and stipulated sum. B151 is intended to be used in conjunction with A201, General Conditions of the Contract for Construction.
B155	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect for a Small Project AIA Document B155 is a standard form of agreement between owner and architect intended for use on a small project: one that is modest in size and brief in duration. It is one of three documents, including AIA Documents A105 and A205, that comprise the Small Projects family of documents and is not a substitute for other documents that are typically applicable to more complex projects.
B163	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect for Designated Services B163 is the most comprehensive AIA owner-architect agreement. This three-part document contains, among other things, a thorough list of 83 possible services divided among nine phases, covering pre-design through supplemental services. This detailed classification allows the architect to more accurately estimate the time and personnel costs required for a particular project. Both owner and architect benefit from the ability to clearly establish the scope of services required for the project, as responsibilities and compensation issues are negotiated and defined. The architect's compensation may be calculated on a time/cost basis through use of the worksheet provided in the instructions to B163. Part One of the document deals with variables typical of many owner-architect agreements, such as compensation and scope of services. The scope of services is delimited through use of a matrix that allows the parties to designate their agreed-upon services and responsibilities. Part Two contains detailed descriptions of the specific services found in Part One's matrix. Part Three contains general descriptions of the parties' duties and responsibilities.
B181	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect for Housing Services This document has been developed with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal housing agencies, and is primarily intended for use in multi-unit housing design. B181 requires that the owner (and not the architect) furnish cost-estimating services. B181 is coordinated with and adopts by reference AIA Document A201, General Conditions of the Contract for Construction.
B188	Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect for Limited Architectural Services for Housing Projects Unlike B181, B188 is intended for use in situations where the architect will provide limited architectural services in connections with a development housing project. It anticipates that the owner will have extensive control over management of the project, acting in a capacity similar to that of a developer or speculative builder of a housing project. As a result, the owner or separate consultants retained by the owner likely will provide the engineering services, specify the brand names of materials and equipment, and administer payments to contractors, among other project responsibilities. B188 is not coordinated for use with any other AIA standard form contract.