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

No. MCL 339.2007(1) requires a licensee, on licensure, to obtain or adopt a seal in a form authorized by the appropriate board bearing the licensee's name and a legend indicating "licensed architect". The statute preserves as acceptable a seal that exists on September 1, 1992 and bears the legend "registered architect", but that saving clause attaches to that one already-existing seal rather than to the wording as such, and no seal generated today can fall under it. Any seal made since must indicate "State of Michigan" and "Licensed Architect" in the legend surrounding it under R 339.15404(1). (MCL 339.2007(1); Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1))

No. R 339.15404(1) requires the seal of an architect to include the licensee's name and full license number as shown on the state-issued architect license, to indicate "State of Michigan" and "Licensed Architect" in the legend surrounding the seal, and to have a design substantially equivalent to figure 404 in the rule. Neither the rule text nor the figure states or annotates a dimension. The 1-5/8 to 1-3/4 inch range quoted for Michigan seals appears nowhere in the Administrative Code. (Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1) and figure 404)

Michigan does not require it. MCL 339.2007(2) requires the licensee to apply the seal and signature to a plan, specification, plat or report issued by the licensee and filed with a public authority — seal and signature, with no date and no instruction about where the signature sits relative to the seal. R 339.15404 adds nothing on either point, and MCL 339.2008 addresses which documents carry the seal rather than what must accompany it. Dating is good practice and many reviewers expect it; it is not a Michigan legal requirement. (MCL 339.2007(2); MCL 339.2008; Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404)

The statute names them one by one. MCL 339.2008(1) provides that a plan, plat, drawing, map and the title sheet of specifications, an addendum, bulletin, or report — or, if a bound copy is submitted, the index sheets of a plan, specification or report — shall carry the embossed, printed, or electronic seal of the person in responsible charge, where the document is prepared by a licensee and required to be submitted to a governmental agency for approval or record. That same phrase settles electronic sealing: an electronic seal is one of the three forms the statute names, and MCL 339.2007(3) defines it as a seal created by electronic or optical means and affixed electronically, with no encryption or authentication conditions attached. (MCL 339.2008(1); MCL 339.2007(3))

Where the professions overlap, yes, within a limit the statute states. MCL 339.2008(2) provides that if the overlapping of the professions of architecture and engineering is involved in a project, a licensed architect or licensed professional engineer who seals the plans, drawings, specifications and reports may perform services in the field of the other practice if the services are incidental to the architectural or engineering project as a whole. "Incidental" is the whole of the test, and MCL 339.2008(3) still forbids sealing any document not prepared by the licensee or under the licensee's supervision as the person in responsible charge. (MCL 339.2008(2) and (3))