The list of private and public sector organizations that are trying to rewrite the rules and pass on risks to architects seems to be literally growing by the day. The City of Burlington in Ontario tried to do it, with its Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design of a new pavilion building. So too did the City of Kingston when it issued an RFP for a community centre. Educational institutions such as Ryerson University and the Colliers Project Leaders in Fort Frances had a go at it as did the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. And that’s apart from the biggest culprit, Infrastructure Ontario, a Crown Agency that has been the subject of untold spirited discussions among the architectural community. All told, the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) issued half a dozen warnings over the past year to its 4,000 strong members about RFPs that were plagued with inappropriate, unfair and unreasonable conditions and expectations that unnecessarily subjected architects to unacceptable and uninsurable contract conditions.

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