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[Music] the a201 general conditions document is in my opinion one of the most important if not the most important construction contracts that you are likely to encounter on a united states design or construction project and while i don't have any empirical data to back this up it's my strong belief that it is probably the most frequently used contract document and it's because of the role that it plays in projects where the owner separately hires the architect in one contract and the contractor in another contract the general conditions document is the document that sort of explains how the three parties the owner of the architect and the contractor are going to play nicely together in the sandbox the owner architect agreement is going to have the business terms of the business deal how much the architect is going to be paid what they're going to do and the same thing is true with the owner contractor agreement the owner contractor agreement is going to have the business terms in it but the general conditions document is that sort of bridging document that lives in the background and explains specifically how is the owner and the architect and the contractor going to play together throughout the project and interact with one another in a constructive way so that everyone's expectations can be met and so that the project can be claimed free and because the a201 general conditions document is incorporated by reference meaning it is something that the owner architect agreement refers to and the owner contractor agreement refers to and it's not something that is signed or explicitly negotiated all that often it's oftentimes forgotten about and it's been my experience in many times when i will be brought into a claim and i'll say let me see your contract and i'll get from the architect a b-101 owner architect agreement or i will get an a101 owner contractor agreement and i'll say great can i see the general conditions and everybody will scratch their heads and they'll look through their files and they'll say well there never really was one for this project and that's a mistake because even though you may not have it attached to your contract even though you might not have signed it it is incorporated by reference and it is very much a part of the owner's obligations and the architect's obligations and the contractor's obligations when you're using aaa contract documents and importantly and this is the hallmark of when the general conditions applies when the owner separately contracts with the contractor and the owner separately contracts with the architect the general conditions document is the one that sort of turns it into a triangle and it's worth understanding because it's 39 substantial pages that covers important things like warranty indemnity the process for submitting shop drawings and other submittals change orders delay and dozens of other key concepts that are simply not addressed in the owner architect agreement or the owner contractor agreement they're addressed in the general conditions the word architect appears more than 300 times in the general conditions document there are almost two entire pages of text that are dedicated to the architect and its obligations and the architect's obligations are sprinkled throughout the rest of the document as well there's even more use of the word contractor the word contractor appears over 550 times in the general conditions and the document dedicates almost five entire pages to talking about what the contractor's obligations are the owner for its part is mentioned over 400 times in the a a-tool in general conditions and there are nearly two entire pages that are dedicated just to the owner's obligations and i do not mean to imply by saying that two pages for the architect and five for the contractor and two for the owner is all you need to be concerned with this is 39 substantive pages where the words owner architect and contractor just mix throughout and again this is the document that explains how they're going to play nicely in the sandbox together now it's technically part of the owner contractor agreement but that is more about timing than anything see the architect is typically brought on first and so when the owner and the architect negotiate their b101 contract it might be six months or a year or more before a contractor is in the picture and if that's the case the owner of the architect can't exactly go negotiate the a201 general conditions document because the contractor that's eventually selected may have objections and so typically in the b101 owner architect agreement it says that the architect and the owner are going to fulfill the role that's set out for them in the general conditions and should the owner and the contractor when the contractors eventually selected decide to vary the a201 general conditions from the standard off the shelf document that the aaa publishes those changes don't govern they don't apply against the architect they don't change its obligations unless the architect agrees contractually at that time to those modifications and so technically the a201 general conditions is part of the agreement between the owner and the contractor but that is really just a matter of timing of course because the general conditions references the architect more than 300 times to be sure the general conditions is chock-full of information and obligations and things that the lead design professional needs to be cognizant of because again it is going to explain how the three parties are going to play nicely together in the sandbox it doesn't address business terms it doesn't talk about fee it doesn't get signed it is a document that is incorporated by reference with no signatures and it has in addition to those key concepts that i mentioned a bunch of key definitions what does the phrase the contract documents mean what is the phrase the work mean what is the phrase the drawings or these specifications mean well those things are included in the a201 general conditions so if there is only one contract document out there that people are going to invest time to study in the design and construction industry right now in 2020 in the united states i believe that they should focus their time on understanding aaa document a201 2017 which is the most recent version of the general conditions of the contract for construction because you are most likely to encounter it on a united states construction project and because it is full of important obligations for the owner the contractor and the architect to understand so that everyone can fulfill their role they can have their expectations met and they can have a successful construction project [Music] you