Christine--

Fred's message is the foundation for how best to address and manage 
architectural records/drawings. Prior to my current position I worked for 
an architecture-construction firm that needed a records program, in part 
to be able to defend itself in court, but also to manage project records 
going forward.

In response to your questions:

Does your company have a records retention schedule and if so, how long do 
you keep your construction documents? From my memory, as-builts and 
as-proposed were retained permanently. Shop-drawings had a threshold where 
most had a short life-span but certain complex or costly redesigns would 
become part of the as-builts.
Is your company keeping all of their records electronically? Or are 
electronic records converted to a particular format for long-term 
stabilization and storage? Nearly all electronic drawings were also 
printed to paper for presentations, field work, and meetings. Normally a 
"file" set was produced at major milestones; these would be retained for 
the long term. I was eventually able to persuade the architects and 
designers to conform to a set of descriptive standards for their drawings 
and iterations, and to develop a systematic structure for storing them 
securely.
If so, are you using a particular system to store your records? Have you 
planned for hardware and software obsolescence? The firm had it's own 
warehouse where it stored the records, not ideal, but climate controlled 
and reasonable. They had invested heavily with OpenText LiveLink to manage 
all electronic information. While I was there, it had only been rolled out 
to HR, Accounting and IT.
Are you able to keep records stable long-term? Or are you asking that the 
business submit the records in hard-copy for storage and preservation? 
This goes directly to Fred's message.
Have you had any access problems over time? As mentioned, the firm had 
serious problems accessing ESI for past projects due to obsolescence, 
inconsistencies in how/where data was stored, and in naming conventions 
that made it difficult to impossible to ascertain originals from copies or 
derivative versions.
Has there been litigation related to construction that would require your 
company to submit records in a particular format? Don't think so, but I 
wasn't directly involved at the time.
Do you provide records to clients as a service? A set of physical records 
was provided to clients.

This firm was surprising in that nearly all their records were maintained 
electronically. The file cabinets and map drawers were almost all empty, 
save for some sketches or watercolors used in presentations and client 
briefing books. That being said, employees were extremely proprietary and 
not prone to sharing. The result: mass duplication of records. While the 
name could be an exact duplicate, there were enough instances where 
designers took another designer's drawing, made changes and then saved it 
to another location with the original name. This happened over and over, 
making it impossible at times to determine which was the final (and 
approved) drawing.

Stephen Cohen
MetLife
New York NY


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