Ownership after the fee is paid
Do architects own their drawings? The statutes and the appointments
Updated
Paying an architect does not usually buy the copyright. The statute decides who owns a design first, and the appointment decides what the client may do with it.
Ask about my practice's archive Most appointments leave copyright with the architect, and most tools leave the files with you. Tell us how the archive was built and we will write back about your own projects.
What the law protects
US law defines an architectural work as the design of a building as embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings, covering the overall form and arrangement of spaces but not individual standard features. In the UK, artistic works include a work of architecture, being a building or a model for a building.
Source: Who owns an architect's drawings, by statute and appointment
Who owns it first
Copyright under US law vests initially in the author, and joint authors are co-owners. A practice therefore owns what its own staff draw, and a joint project with another firm may need that firm's signature too.
Source: 17 U.S.C. chapter 2
What the owner may still do
Owning the copyright does not stop the building's owner altering or demolishing it: 17 U.S.C. 120 lets the owners of a building make alterations and destroy it without the architect's consent, and in the UK reconstructing a building does not infringe copyright in it or in the plans it was built from.
Source: 17 U.S.C. 120