I have a commercial project in the office currently. The developer (my client) made a decision to switch architects. One member of the developer team has a long relationship with another architect and they wish to use them for the construction documents. I can't blame them as the other firm has a long history of commercial projects. The project also started as a unique design and has since moved to a much more bland and generic commercial building due to zoning requirements and cost. Which means I'm much less motivated to work on it and the other architect is probably a better fit having done many of these generic commercial buildings. The client asked me to send them all my electronic files for this other architect.
Has anyone been in a similar type of situation? I am debating the liability risk of transferring my drawings to another architect (even with a signed release of liability and payment for my electronic files in hand). The client has PDF and print copies of the SD pricing set already. I'm debating saying that I'm not interested in transferring any electronic CAD files at all. However, I don't want to burn the bridge or make a mountain out of a mole hill.
I should note that the developers are "shrewd" businessmen and I made sure they paid me up front for my work as I did not trust them to pay if things didn't pan out they way the intended. Besides some cash I don't seem to gain much in the transaction. Maybe there would be some future work with this developer, but most of their work is not the type of design I'm interested (strip malls) and their style of business isn't always on the up and up. not exactly what I'm looking for.
Jan 24, 14 11:36 pmI don't think there is any risk involved in transferring your files to a new architect.
I'm sure there is a long e-mail and paper trail leading up to the transfer in question, and you should just explicitly state that your role in the project was through schematic design, which has not been reviewed for zoning/building code compliance and any work moving forward in DD-CD capacity is not in your scope.
I think this is fairly common. In addition, if the new architect already has PDF files, they can just convert them to CAD files in illustrator or trace the files. Anyway you look at it they are going to start with your original schematic design. Giving them the CAD files just makes their lives easier.
If you want to give give original developer and new architect a mild "fuck off" , then you should withhold the files.