What Are Construction Documents? What the Permit Set Has to Show in Oregon

By Erik Tishenko, Modern Northwest · Published November 4, 2026

Construction documents are the dimensioned drawings, written specifications, calculations and reports that describe a building in enough detail to get a permit, price the work and build it. The architect and engineers prepare them, the building department reviews and stamps them, and the contractor builds from the approved set. Here is what goes in a set, what the 2025 Oregon building code requires it to show, and what happens when something changes after the permit.

The submittal package listed in Section 107.1 of the 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code.

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Construction documents, the set vs the phase

The term means two things. It is the name of the last design phase, after schematic design and design development, when the architect finishes the set; our guide to the design phases covers that. It is also the set itself: the package that goes to the building department and to contractors. This article is about the set, and what the Oregon code says it has to contain.

What the Oregon code requires in the set

Section 107 of the 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code sets the rules for every commercial permit in the state:

• The whole package. Construction documents, a statement of special inspections, a geotechnical report, design calculations and any other data needed to show the design meets the code, in two or more sets or in digital form where the city or county asks for it.
• Prepared by a licensed professional where Oregon's architect and engineer licensing laws (ORS 671 and 672) require it.
• Clear and dimensioned. The documents must be drawn to show the location, nature and extent of the work in enough detail to prove it meets the code.
• Means of egress. Every part of the exit path, all the way to the public way, and in most occupancies the number of occupants on every floor and in every room. See means of egress and occupant load.
• The exterior wall. Details of the wall assembly, including flashing and where it meets other materials.
• A site plan to scale, with the new and existing buildings, distances from the lot lines, and street and finished grades.
• Structural information as listed in the code's structural chapter (Section 1603).
• Fire protection shop drawings, such as sprinkler and alarm layouts, which have to be approved before that system is installed.

The building official can ask for more when conditions call for it, and can waive plan submittal when a review is not needed to check compliance. Cities and counties can also add their own requirements on top.

How the set gets reviewed and approved

When the permit is issued, the construction documents are approved in writing or stamped "Reviewed for Code Compliance." The building department keeps one set. The other goes back to the applicant and has to stay on the job site, open to the inspector. That stamped set is what inspections are checked against, which is why it should never be swapped for an unstamped copy in the field.

For commercial projects, Oregon law (ORS 455.467) requires plan review that lets an applicant defer plans for one or more phases and get a permit for each phase once its review is approved. So an early phase can be permitted and started before the rest of the design is finished, but the job cannot go beyond what has been approved. Some pieces, like trusses or specialty stairs, can also be designed later as deferred submittals, if they are listed on the original set.

When the building changes after the permit

Work has to be built the way the approved documents show it. Under Section 107.4, any change during construction that does not match the approved set has to be resubmitted for approval as an amended set. On the job, those changes usually start as a request for information to the architect, and some jurisdictions run them through their own RFI process before the work can start. Every change also ends up on the as-built drawings at closeout.

What owners should check before the set goes out

• Is it complete enough to price? Gaps in the set turn into allowances, assumptions and later change orders.
• Has a builder looked at it? A contractor review during preconstruction catches what is hard to build before it is permitted.
• What is deferred? Know which pieces will be designed later and by whom, since they affect the permit schedule.
• Who draws it? Under design-build, the set comes from the same team that builds it. That is how we delivered the ground-floor spec suite at Elevate Towers in Hillsboro, where design and construction were one contract. See design-build vs design-bid-build.
• Is a phased permit worth it? On a larger job, ask whether permitting the work in phases would let construction start sooner.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

Construction documents are the full package of drawings, specifications, calculations and reports a building is permitted, priced and built from. In Oregon, Section 107 of the building code sets what they must show, from the exit path and exterior wall to the site plan and structure. The stamped set stays on site, and any change that does not match it goes back to the building department as an amendment.

Modern Northwest has built commercial projects across Portland and Southwest Washington since 2005. More construction terms are in our commercial construction glossary. Tell us about your project.