Design professional of record

The design professional of record is the licensed architect or engineer whose seal appears on the drawings. The seal is a statement of professional responsibility: this person stands behind the design and is accountable to their licensing board for it.

When a sealed design is required

Thresholds are set by state law and vary considerably, but the common triggers are:

• Commercial buildings, essentially always
• Structural work beyond what prescriptive code tables cover
• Buildings over a certain size or occupancy
• Work in high-wind, seismic, or flood hazard areas
• Anything the local department decides warrants it

Much one and two family residential work does not require a sealed design, which is why small remodel permits can be filed with owner-drawn plans in many jurisdictions.

State licensure

The seal must come from someone licensed in the state where the project is built. Licensure is not portable, and an out-of-state seal is rejected regardless of the designer's qualifications.

Multiple records on one project

Larger projects have several: an architect of record for the building, a structural engineer of record, and often separate mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and civil engineers. Each seals their own discipline's drawings and answers the comments on them.