Washington, D.C., July 21, 2016 — CSI and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have announced CSI’s endorsement of three AIA Contract Documents for use by owners and consultants. This endorsement follows a thorough review of the documents by the CSI Technical Committee, which analyzed the documents for good industry practice, consistency, and alignment with CSI core technical values.

“This endorsement speaks to the relevance and usefulness of our owner-consultant documents” said Deborah DeBernard, AIA, NCARB, Architect AIBC, LEED BD&C, Senior Vice President of Global Innovation at the AIA. “Consultants—particularly land surveyors and geotechnical engineers—play important roles in the pre-design phase of most building projects. Our owner-consultant agreement and scope of service exhibits for land surveying and geotechnical engineering represent a modernization of the outdated request for proposal model of hiring consultants.”

The endorsement by CSI includes the following AIA Contract Documents:

•  AIA Document C103™ – 2015, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Consultant without a Predefined Scope of Consultant’s Services
•  AIA Document C201™ – 2015, Standard Form of Consultant’s Services: Land Survey
•  AIA Document C202™ – 2015, Standard Form of Consultant’s Services: Geotechnical Engineering

“CSI is pleased to endorse these agreement and scope forms that provide a stable and consistent framework that benefit owners, consultants, and the architects and engineers that rely on the owner to provide these services,” said Lane Beougher, CSI’s 2015-2016 president. “Collaboration works best when project risks are allocated to the party most suited to manage that risk, and AIA’s owner-consultant agreements elegantly accomplish that objective.”

CSI has previously endorsed the AIA’s Digital Practice and Design-Build families of documents.

All of the documents the CSI has endorsed are available for purchase in the latest version of the AIA Contract Documents software, and through AIA Documents-on-Demand®, and AIA Documents-on-Demand® Plus.

About The American Institute of Architects

For over 150 years, members of the American Institute of Architects have worked with each other and their communities to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings and cityscapes. Members adhere to a code of ethics and professional conduct to ensure the highest standards in professional practice. Embracing their responsibility to serve society, AIA members engage civic and government leaders and the public in helping find needed solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation and world. Visit www.aia.org.

About CSI

CSI is a national association dedicated to improving the documentation, management and communication of building information as used by the construction community. CSI accomplishes its mission through the development of construction standards and formats such as MasterFormat and UniFormat; the promulgation of those formats through master guide specifications and building information management (BIM) software; training and certification programs, including the Construction Documents Technology (CDT) and Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA) exams; publication of The Construction Specifier magazine; and an ever-expanding membership of decision-makers who identify and specify building product solutions. CSI members include a cross-section of specifiers, architects, contractors, suppliers and other construction project professionals who are touched by construction documentation. For more information, visit www.csinet.org, or call 800.689.2900.