HANDBOOK FOR S O U T H D A K O T A BUILDING OFFICIALS AND DESIGN PROFESSIONALS Engineering and Architecture Registration Laws South Dakota State Board of Technical Professions 2525 West Main Street, Suite 211 Rapid City, South Dakota 57702 Phone 605/394-2510 Fax 605/394-2509 Revised 11/2017 0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents . 1 Forward . 2 Introduction . 3 Definitions . 4-5 Exempt Structures . 6 Multiple Occupancy Formula . 7 Professional Work: Architects and Engineers. 8 Seals on Professional Work . 9-10 Suggestions for Plan Submissions. 11 Suggestions for Required Drawings/Documents . 12-13 Frequently Asked Questions . 14-19 Appendix A: Letter of Assurance . 20 1 FORWARD This handbook has been published by the South Dakota Board of Technical Professions to aid building officials and other governmental entities in understanding the laws governing the practice of architecture and engineering in South Dakota. Among other requirements these laws identify when a licensed design professional is required for construction projects. Please note that all construction in South Dakota is required to adhere to the most recent State of South Dakota adopted building codes, even if a licensed design professional is not required. The definitions and opinions expressed in this handbook are based upon the interpretations of the Board and should not be relied upon as being conclusive. Specific situations should be referred to your own legal counsel. This handbook is a guideline intended as a source of basic information and does not attempt to address all questions concerning the practices of architecture or engineering. The last portion of the manual addresses questions frequently asked. If you need further information or assistance concerning requirements of the Board, please write or telephone: Executive Director South Dakota Board of Technical Professions 2525 West Main Street, Suite 211 Rapid City, South Dakota 57702 Phone (605) 394-2510 FAX (605) 394-2509 email: [email protected] First Printing: June 1993 Second Printing: September 1995 Third Printing: September 1999 Revision: November 2017 2 INTRODUCTION Building codes and professional registration or licensure laws are meant to work together. Building officials and the South Dakota Board of Technical Professions (“Board”) each exist to protect the public against unsafe practices. The Board protects by insuring that all licensed design professionals have proper education and training and pass rigorous examinations on technical and practice issues. Building officials enforce building code requirements that are intended to protect the public's health and safety. While our state has limited exemptions permitting unlicensed persons to prepare plans for residences, farm buildings and other structures of limited square footage based on occupancy, it is clear that public policy in our state, and indeed all states, mandate that structures of significant size or complexity and for specific public use, must be designed by licensed design professionals. If building officials require all plans for significant structures to contain the appropriate seal of a licensed architect and engineer, then the registration system will share responsibility for protecting the public. This manual has been prepared in the spirit of service to the public and to assist building officials in better understanding the professional requirements of our law and codes. Please note that the handbook contains reference to specific sections of State of South Dakota Codified Laws Chapter 36-18A, Administrative Rules Article 20:38 (example SDCL 36-18A-2) 3 DEFINITIONS SDCL 36-18A-2 defines the practice of architecture and SDCL 36-18A-3 defines the practice of engineering as follows: “Practice of architecture” defined. For the purposes of this chapter, the term, practice of architecture, means the practice or offering to practice any service in connection with the design, evaluation, construction, enlargement, or alteration of a building or group of buildings and the space within and surrounding such buildings, which have as their principal purpose human occupancy or habitation. Such service includes consultation; evaluation; planning; providing preliminary studies; designs; overall interior and exterior building design; preparation of drawings, specifications, and related documents and other technical submissions; construction administration services which include the review or observation of construction for the purpose of determining whether the work is in general accordance with the design, drawings, specifications, codes, and other technical submissions; and coordination of services furnished by the architect, licensed professional engineers, and other consultants as they relate to architectural work in connection with the design and construction of any private or public building, building project, or integral part or parts of buildings, or any addition or alteration thereto. The term also includes representation of clients in connection with the construction administration services entered into between clients and contractor and others. “Practice of engineering,” “design coordination” and “engineering studies” defined. For the purposes of this chapter, the term, practice of engineering, means the practice or offering to practice of any service or creative work, the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences to such services or creative work. Such service or work includes consultation; investigation; evaluation; planning; design; and design coordination of engineering works and systems; planning the use of land and water; land-use studies; teaching of advanced engineering subjects; performing engineering studies; and the review or observation of construction for the purpose to determine whether the work is in general accordance with drawings, specifications, and other technical submissions. Any such service or work, either public or private, may be in connection with any utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, work systems, projects, and industrial or consumer products, or equipment of a mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or thermal nature, insofar as they involve safeguarding life, health, or property, and including such other professional services as are necessary to the planning, progress, and completion of any engineering services. For the purpose of this section, the term, design coordination, includes the review and coordination of those technical submissions prepared by others, including consulting engineers, architects, landscape architects, land surveyors, and other professionals, working under the direction of the engineer. The term, engineering studies, includes all activities required to support the sound conception, planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of engineered projects, but excludes the surveying of real property for the establishment of land boundaries, rights-of-way, easement exhibits relating to land boundaries, and the dependent or independent surveys or resurveys of the public land survey system. 4 A person is construed to practice or offer to practice engineering if the person practices any branch of the profession of engineering, if the person, by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents himself or herself to be a professional engineer, or if the person through the use of some other title implies that the person is a professional engineer or that the person is licensed under these provisions, or if the person holds himself or herself out as able to perform or does perform any engineering service or work or any other service designated by the practitioner which is recognized as engineering. SDCL 36-18A-1(1) defines “Alteration,” for the purpose of determining exemptions, any remodeling, renovation, or reconstruction to a building which changes the use, occupancy classification, or occupant load, or the exiting, structural, mechanical or electrical systems of a building as defined by the building code. SDCL 36-18A-1(6) defines “Building or floor area,” as the sum of the areas of all of the floors of a building, including basements, mezzanine, and intermediate tiers, and penthouses of headroom height, measured from the exterior faces of exterior walls or from the center line of the wall separating buildings. The building area does not include such features as pipe trenches, exterior terraces or steps, chimneys, vent shafts, courts, and roof overhangs. The floor area of enlargements shall be added to the existing building area. A fire or area separation wall is not an exterior wall for the purposes of this definition. SDCL 36-18A-13 "Incidental cross-practice by architects and engineers.” An architect may engage in the practice of professional engineering, or a professional engineer may engage in the practice of architecture, but only to the extent that such practice is incidental or of minor importance to a project or service being legally performed under this chapter. (Please refer to #17 in “Frequently Asked Questions” for the Attorney General’s opinion on the definition of “incidental”) SDCL 36-18A-46 “Construction administration services to be provided by architect or engineer.” No person other than an architect may provide construction administration services on an architecture portion of a project that is not exempt pursuant to § 36-18A-2. No person