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

No, and that is the whole answer. 32 M.R.S. § 225 says only that each licensed architect or landscape architect shall upon licensure obtain a seal "of such design as the board authorizes and directs." The Maine State Board for Licensure of Architects, Landscape Architects and Interior Designers publishes no seal specification in any chapter of its rules — no legend, no diameter, no layout — so there is no primary source behind the 1-3/4 inch "Licensed Architect / State of Maine" artwork sold for Maine architects. What § 225 does fix is when the seal may be used: technical submissions prepared by or under the direct supervision of the licensee must be stamped during the life of the license, and stamping after the license named on the seal has expired or been revoked is unlawful unless it has been renewed or reissued. (32 M.R.S. § 225)

No. The 1-3/4 inch diameter that Maine calls Size #1 comes from the Approved Seal Format published by the State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers, under the authority 02-322 C.M.R. Ch. 2 § 9(1) gives that board to prescribe the size and design of its licensees' seals. Architects answer to a different board under a different statute, 32 M.R.S. § 225, which delegates the design to the architects' board and states no diameter at all. Putting the engineers' dimension on an architect's seal is copying a rule that was never written for it. (32 M.R.S. § 225; Board Approved Seal Format under 02-322 C.M.R. Ch. 2 § 9(1))

That legend belongs somewhere else. 02-288 Ch. 12 § 6 requires an architect to display the legend "Maine Licensed Architect" in all advertising and promotional materials relating to architectural services for Maine-located projects, and on the architect's business card and beneath the architect's name on all professional correspondence, proposals and solicitations. It is a display-of-license-number rule for marketing and correspondence. The seal is governed by 32 M.R.S. § 225, which prescribes no wording whatever, so Maine has not adopted the advertising legend as a seal legend. (02-288 Ch. 12 § 6; 32 M.R.S. § 225)

Only in two defined situations, and a review after the fact is not one of them. Under 02-288 Ch. 18 § 1 an architect may not seal technical submissions that were prepared in fact by another person unless the submissions are prototypical building construction documents whose preparation the sealing architect reviewed and integrated into the architect's own technical submissions, or — for non-prototypical documents — the architect familiarized themselves with the client's goals before further preparation, coordinated preparation or had significant and controlling personal involvement or integrated the work, and thoroughly reviewed the submissions on completion. The rule then states plainly that a review, or a review and correction, of completed technical submissions by a licensee who has not met those conditions does not satisfy it. Section 2 adds a duty to retain records of the review and integration for at least five years after signing and sealing. (02-288 Ch. 18 §§ 1, 2)

The architects' rules do not describe how to apply a seal electronically; what they do is authorize relying on one. 02-288 Ch. 18 § 3 provides that an architect, landscape architect or certified interior designer may rely upon technical submissions in electronic form, for example portable document format, including the seals reproduced thereon, to the same extent as their physical counterparts. No encryption, authentication or tamper-evidence condition is attached. The electronic-signature provision often quoted for Maine, 02-322 C.M.R. Ch. 2 § 9(3) with its reference to 10 M.R.S.A. § 9402, is the engineering board's rule and governs engineers. (02-288 Ch. 18 § 3; 32 M.R.S. § 225)