As a professional an architect in New York state is responsible to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the public. And given the fact that both the construction superintendent and the owner are okay with using lower strength concrete for a project that specifies strong concrete, needs to decide whether or not to sign off on this concrete for the Department of buildings.
As I said before an architect responsible to protect the public, and signing off on concrete that doesn’t meet the local building code would conflict with this responsibility. Not to mention that it’s morally wrong, seeing as how it could lead to the loss of life, given that it’s not designed to withstand the amount of loads it would have if the concrete was stronger. The right thing to do would be to confront both the owner or superintendent and show them that this decision to use weaker concrete is wrong or to report it to the department of building so that the appropriate actions can be taken.
