For practices that have to keep drawings for half a century, by law and by good sense.
Architectural practices, engineering consultancies, and design firms use Archively.AI for the work liability and IP demand: long-retention working drawings, project files with specifications and tender correspondence, construction photography, and the practice administrative archive — all in one searchable catalog.
- Drawing retention
- 50+ years
- Material
- Working / Presentation / Models
- Tenants
- 1 practice / many projects
What you'll actually do with it.
Concrete use cases — not generic pitch bullets.
Hold every working drawing for the full retention period.
50+ years from project completion is standard, often longer. The catalog tracks retention schedule per record so the legal team and the design team see the same dates.
Catalog oversize drawings without flattening them.
Pencil-on-trace, blueprints, watercolour presentation drawings, CAD final-issue sets — all preserved at archival resolution with the original sheet dimensions in metadata.
Tie drawings, photographs, and project files into one record.
A 'project as event' surfaces the working drawings, the construction photography, the tender correspondence, and the post-completion review as a single timeline.
Run a heritage-conservation sub-practice on the same archive.
Existing-fabric record drawings, intervention scope, and post-completion review are first-class — and retain the regulator's approval correspondence (English Heritage / equivalent) alongside.
Defend liability claims with a chain of evidence.
Specifications, tender correspondence, contract administration, and the post-completion review on every project — searchable across decades.
Run an anniversary book without rebuilding the archive.
75th-, 100th-, 125th-anniversary commemorative books routinely re-use historic creative. Tag the projects once, surface them as a curated 'Heritage' collection on demand.
Ashbrook & Pike Architects — Project Archive
75 years of British civic and conservation architecture — working drawings, presentation drawings, project files, site photographs, and physical models across 280 commissioned projects. Working drawings retained 50+ years per the practice retention schedule. The strongest demonstration of long-retention oversize-format material in the deployment.
- Items
- 15 + padded
- Series
- 5
- Retention rule
- 50+ years on drawings
Recommended modules
Where most of the work happens for your type of institution.
Items
Oversize drawing support — sheet count, medium, retention schedule on every record.
Learn moreCollections
Series-level finding aids — drawings, project files, photographs, models, administration.
Learn moreAccess & security
Per-project access for client-confidential material; open archive for the practice's heritage record.
Learn moreStart with one collection. See it working.
We'll help you scope a pilot that proves the value inside six weeks.