OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



189 



functions ordinarily performed by a "con- 

 tractor ;" provided only that "his remun- 

 eration is an openly stated compensation 

 received from his client for services ren- 

 dered and not a speculative profit on ma- 

 terials or labor employed." 



As I understand it. the essentially dis- 

 tinguishing feature of "speculative profit" 

 or "commercial profit" in this connection 

 is that the amount of such profit is in- 

 determinate, is not accounted for to the 

 party who pays it, and may be increased 

 to any extent by which the energy, skill 

 or luck of the contractor enables him to 

 keep the cost of the work or materials or 

 both below the amount for which he con- 

 tracted to get the results accomplished. 



It is clearly unprofessional for a land- 

 scape architect to take a "lump sum con- 

 tra<?t" or a "unit price contract" or any 

 other form of contract for the furnishing 

 of "materials" or the supplying of "labor" 

 by which he becomes obligated to pro- 

 duce a result for a certain price and is en- 

 titled to whatever margin of profit there 

 may be between the actual cost of achiev- 

 ing that result and the price for which 

 he contracted to produce it. It is not in 

 itself essentially and inevitably unjjrofes- 

 sional for him to undertake a "cost plus" 

 contract, by which he agrees to act as the 

 agent of the client in bringing about the 

 execution of his plans, provided his com- 

 pensation over and above his reimburse- 

 ment for authorized and accounted for ex- 

 penditures on behalf of the client is a 

 known amount, which may be either a 

 lump sum, or a fee based upon time (such 

 as a per diem charge or other periodic 

 charge or salary) or an agreed percent- 

 age. There are some objections to fixing 

 that compensation by a percentage on the 

 cost of the work, but it cannot be said 

 that such a basis is in itself unprofes- 

 sional. 



To make the matter clearer I will set 

 forth successive extensions of the field of 

 activity under an agency contract. But 



first let me remove a frequent source of 

 misunderstanding in the use of the words 

 "contractor" and "contracting." and point 

 out the essential nature of an agency con- 

 tract as distinguished from the specula- 

 tive type of contract of which the familiar 

 "lump sum contract" is representative. 



A contract is "any agreement between 

 two or more parties for the doing or the 

 not doing of some definite thing." Ever}' 

 professional man enters into a contract, 

 expressed or implied, whenever he ac- 

 cepts employment : and is therefore 

 strictly speaking a contractor. But the 

 words "contractor" and "contracting" are 

 often used, more or less colloquially, to 

 connote a particular kind of contract. 

 Unfortunately when used in this limited 

 colloquial way their connotation is apt to 

 be diflferently understood by different 

 people. Some people habitually under- 

 stand them as referring only to "lump 

 sum contracts" and "unit price contracts," 

 especially for the execution of buildings and 

 works of engineering- and landscape archi- 

 tecture ; but many whose main business is 

 "contracting" in this limited sense, also 

 undertake similar works under "agency 

 contracts," especially under contracts of 

 the "cost plus percentage" type ; and 

 there are some who do such work ex- 

 clusively under "agency contracts" and 

 who are nevertheless colloquially called 

 "contractors." 



Under an agency contract the contrac- 

 tor, so long as he acts within the limits 

 of his authorization, need assume no fi- 

 nancial responsibility on his own account 

 and acts strictly as an agent of his prin- 

 cipal. Any claim for payment on account 

 of services rendered or requested, or 

 goods delivered or ordered, or damages 

 sustained, as a result of his action as 

 agent (within the scope of his authori- 

 zation by his principal) is a claim not 

 against him personally but against his 

 principal, by whose authority and on 

 whose account he acts. His authoriza- 



