Plans for the Future: Is Your Archive Ready for a Repeat Client, A Lawsuit, Or Posterity?(Practice‪)‬

elliOtt Elliott Norelius Architecture, founded in 1994, exemplifies the technological trajectory of many small firms. During the first eight years, architects Matt and Libby Elliott, Blue Hill, Me., focused on getting the business up and running while continuing to hand-draft their designs. Last year, though, they made the leap to computer-generated drawings. One reason for the change was to attract and keep the firm's electronically savvy younger members. Another was to deal with the daunting scene in the barn--a growing stack of drawings and hard-copy project files stored in Rubbermaid containers. "We'll start archiving our drawings on CD-ROM now," says principal Bruce Norelius. "At some point around the five-year mark it reaches a critical mass where it's difficult to find an old drawing if we need to."