Florida Architect seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them

No. FBPE licenses engineers under Chapter 471, F.S., and its seal rule is Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G15-23.002. Architects are registered by the Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design under Chapter 481, Part I, F.S., and their seal is described in Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G1-16.002 — a different board, a different chapter of the statutes and a different division of the administrative code. Nothing in the engineer's rule, including its 1-7/8 inch minimum diameter, has any application to an architect's seal. (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G1-16.002; Ch. 481, Part I, F.S.; cf. R. 61G15-23.002)

Approximately 2 inches in diameter. Rule 61G1-16.002(1) says the seal shall be approximately 2 inches, so the figure is neither a floor nor an exact dimension — unlike the engineer's 1-7/8 inches, which is expressly a minimum. The same approximate 2 inches governs the interior designer's seal, which is hexagonal; the architect's is the circular one. (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G1-16.002(1))

No. The words the rule requires are "registered architect", and they sit at the bottom between the two circular lines, with "State of Florida" at the top between the same two lines; the name of only one architect and the registration number go inside. Florida registers architects rather than licensing them. The rule's one concession to older wording runs the other way and does not reach architects: seals reading "Licensed Interior Designer" lawfully obtained before January 1, 2015 may continue in use. An architect who is also a registered interior designer does not carry two seals — one seal containing both registration numbers is required. (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G1-16.002(1), (2))

Not to satisfy this rule. Rule 61G1-16.005(2)(b) requires the signature to be "[c]apable of verification within the native software and without use of a third-party" — the reverse of the engineer's digital route, where a third-party certification authority is contemplated. It must also be under the architect's sole control and invalidated if any data in the document changes, each signed file must carry an authentication code defined as a message digest under FIPS 180-4, and a scanned image of an original signature may not be substituted for a digital or electronic signature except under the narrow allowance the rule wrote for governmental entities that specifically required it during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G1-16.005(1)(a), (2), (3))

It depends on how the set travels. Rule 61G1-16.003(1) requires all drawing sheets and pages to be signed and sealed, with the signing and sealing of the specification index sheets treated as adequate for specifications, and states that a corporate seal alone is insufficient. Rule 61G1-16.003(2) then allows a digitally signed and sealed set transmitted electronically as a single bound and secured set to carry the signature and seal on the cover or first sheet alone — but only if that sheet includes an accurate Index of Drawings listing every architectural sheet with its sheet number and latest revision date. (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G1-16.003(1), (2))