The OAA developed several standard contracts for use with clients and with consultants. To ensure the contracts balance the needs of the parties, the OAA consulted with, and had the contracts reviewed by, representatives of various client and several legal firms that work for public and private owners, as well as consultant groups.

OAA 600-2021 A Standard Form of Contract for Architect’s Services

This contract supersedes both OAA 600-2013 and 601-2013. A significant difference is that OAA 600-2021 combines the strengths of the previous versions by including tables of service for “basic” and “additional” services as schedules attached to the contract which can be used as-is, or replaced by custom user developed schedules.

The OAA 600, Standard Form of Contract for Architect’s Services, was first published in 2005. The most recent update of this contract is OAA 600-2021 A. The OAA recommends the use of the most recent version of the standard documents.

Some of the features of the updated version are:

• New terms and conditions in response to common RFP terms and conditions;
  
• compatibility with the Construction Act, including prompt payment and adjudication;
  
• user-friendly as a single fill-in-the-blanks PDF for the base contract with user-editable/replaceable schedules and appendices;
  
• compatibility with CCDC contracts, including CCDC 2-2020; and
  
• client-friendly revisions included for a fair and balanced contract.

The OAA 800-2011, Standard Short Form of Contract for Architect’s Services, derived from OAA 600 for use on less-complex projects, will shortly be replaced by OAA 800-2021 A.

The OAA 900-2014, Standard Contract Between Architect and Consultant, for use with engineers, architects, and other consultants being retained by an architect, will shortly be replaced by OAA 900-2021 A.