Paul
Dietrich and Brad Gow
The architecture and engineering
professions are undergoing a period
of unparalleled change brought about
by rapid advances in computing and communications. Technology has
transformed everything from project
design to client communications in
the daily practice of the design professions. The effects of these extraordinary
changes are being seen publicly in
daring new skyscrapers around the
world and more subtly in the use of
new materials and in more efficient manufacturing
and industrial processes.
In architecture, the use of computer-aided
design has enabled imaginative designs
such as the proposed twisting structure
of the Freedom Tower on the site of
the World Trade Center in New York
City.(1)
Computer design software has allowed
architects to move from two-dimensional
blueprints to three-dimensional visualizations.
Now, architects can take their clients
on computerized room-to-room tours
long before construction begins and
escort them through virtual lobbies
to show off the planned interiors
in minute
detail.
For engineers, design software allows
modeling and testing of virtual prototypes
before anything is built. Engineers
can view sophisticated three-dimensional
renderings of complex parts or systems
with critical design information.
Manufacturers a world away can take
those three-dimensional renderings
and use them as virtual parts in their
own designs. Technology has enabled engineers to collaborate remotely
on designs with colleagues in other
cities, with client companies, and
in other countries.
The huge advances in information
technology that have brought about
new and more efficient ways of working,
however, also have created pitfalls
for unwary architectural and engineering (A&E)
firms where risk management strategies
have failed to keep pace. A&E
firms now face exposures in areas
such as intellectual property and
software copyright that have been
viewed as the province of multimedia
or technology companies. They bear
new responsibilities in terms of network
security, especially in a post-September 11 world where plans for infrastructure
projects can be high-value targets
for terrorists.
Management of the new risks, however,
is complicated by the fact that the
new exposures often are not addressed
in standard insurance policies for
A&E firms. While the insurance
industry has built up a great deal
of expertise both in the A&E sector
and in the technology sector, the
expertise in one field may not be
brought to bear in the other. That
means that A&E firms need to recognize
the new exposures, to manage their
risks accordingly, and to communicate
their best-practice efforts to underwriters.
In this article, we will talk about
the emerging exposures faced by architectural
and engineering firms that have been
brought on by new technology; the
actions those firms can take to protect
themselves; and how traditional industry-specific
insurance policies may fail to address
the new risks.
New Technology and New Risks
Regulation of the building and design
professions has a history almost as
long as civilization. Professional
liability for builders was first addressed
4,000 years ago by King Hammurabi.
In his code of laws, the Babylonian
king specified death for builders
as well as repayment for any damage
to property if the faulty construction
of a house led to the death of its
owner.(2)
As building technology has progressed
over the centuries — from adobe
bricks to stone arches in Roman and
Medieval times, iron bridges in the
Industrial Revolution, and today’s
steel-framed, glassclad skyscrapers
— a more modest and varied set
of penalties for design faults by
architects and engineers has evolved
into contemporary law. The insurance
industry, for its part, has developed
comprehensive coverage for those professions
in their traditional areas of responsibility
— designing buildings, infrastructure,
machinery, and industrial processes.
The rise of new technology, however,
has brought new liabilities.
Compared with the very long histories
of architecture and engineering, the
development of information technology
has been astonishingly rapid. The
computer age dates to Valentine’s
Day, 1946, when the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC,
was dedicated at the University of
Pennsylvania. That first electronic
digital computer, developed to calculate
artillery firing ranges for the U.S.
Army, had 18,000 vacuum tubes and
filled a large room.(3)
Just over two decades later, the Internet
age began in 1969 when researchers
at UCLA hooked up a computer to a
switch the size of a refrigerator,
the first step in getting two computers
to talk to each other.(4)
A communications revolution was launched
20 years later when the World Wide
Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee,
who also developed the first browser
in 1990.(5)
Since those initial milestones, the
world has been transformed as rapidly
increasing processing power has been
combined with massive growth in networking
capabilities. For example, a 3-pound
laptop today has 1000 times more computing
power than the 30-ton ENIAC and can
communicate wirelessly to systems
around the world.
continued
on next page>>
1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8
|
