Managing Design

Managing Design

by Michael LeFevre
Released June 2019
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119561767

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Book description

Offers state-of-the-art principles and strategies gleaned from high-profile projects to help readers manage design

This guide to managing design process within the commercial design and construction industry addresses a growing pain point in an industry where collaborative approaches to project delivery are outpacing the way professionals work. It synthesizes issues by investigating the “why,” “how,” and “who” of the discipline of managing design, and gives the “what” and “when” to apply the solutions given various project delivery and contracting methods. The book features candid interviews with over 40 industry leaders—architects, engineers, contractors, owners, educators, technology evangelists, and authors—which present a broad look at current issues and offer paths to future collaboration and change.

Managing Design: Conversations, Project Controls and Best Practices for Commercial Design and Construction Projects is a self-help book for design and construction that provides aninsider’s look at the mysteries of managing design for yourself, team, firm and future. It tackles client empathy; firm culture; owner leadership; design and budgets; dealing with engineers, consultants, and contractors; contracts; team assembly; and much more. 

  • Features eye-opening interviews with 40 industry luminaries
  • Exposes issues and poses solutions to longstanding industry ills
  • Offers a project design controls framework and toolset for immediate application and action
  • Includes best practice tips, process diagrams, and comparative analytical tables to support the text

Written in a relatable style, Managing Design: Conversations, Project Controls and Best Practices for Commercial Design and Construction Projects is a welcome resource for owners, contractors, and designers in search of better ways to work together.

“Managing Design blends practical advice from the author's five decades in architecture and construction with wisdom from more than three dozen luminaries in the design, delivery, ownership and operation of the built environment. The result is an extraordinary guide to integrating practice across disciplines.”

—Bob Fisher, Editor-In-Chief, Design Intelligence

“Managing Design peers into the soul of a contentious industry as it grapples with change—a deep dive into the design and construction process in the words of those doing the work. I enjoyed the engineers and contractors’ pleas to be made parties to design process early on. The questions—as interesting as the answers—are both here in this book.”

—Richard Korman, Deputy Editor, Engineering News Record

“Managing Design hits many of the design and construction industry’s ills head-on with insightful interviews by new and established leaders and real-world tactics on creating better teams, better communications between players, and—most vitally—better project results.”

—Rebecca W. E. Edmunds, AIA, Editor, Author and President, r4 llc

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Preface
    1. It's Time
  3. Foreword
    1. The Question
    2. Managing Design Is Different from Managing Construction
    3. So How Do You Manage Design?
    4. Design Isn't What It Used to Be
    5. Why a Book of Conversations?
    6. Why Now?
    7. One Well-Connected Author
    8. The Never Futile and Always Sisyphean Task of Managing Design
    9. Will Reading These Conversations and Ideas Help Us Work Together?
  4. Introduction
    1. Premise
    2. Mission
    3. Methods
    4. Issues
    5. Context
    6. Themes
    7. Movement
    8. Notes
  5. PART 1: PERSPECTIVES
    1. CHAPTER 1: The Interviews
      1. Thought Leaders: Current Realities and Future States
      2. Topics
      3. Chapter 2 Client Empathy: Listening, Collaboration, and Expertise
      4. Chapter 3 Owner Leadership: Programs, Users, and Talking
      5. Chapter 4 Building Learning Organizations: Knowledge, and Research
      6. Chapter 5 Firm Culture: Management and Attitudes
      7. Chapter 6 Strategy: Early Questions, Planning Horizons, and Socialization
      8. Chapter 7 Process: Lean Scheduling – Agile and Efficient
      9. Chapter 8 Collaborators: Performative Design (Better Together)
      10. Chapter 9 Design and Budgets: Architect/Contractor Collaboration and Trust
      11. Chapter 10 Strategy: Early Questions, Planning Horizons, and Socialization
      12. Chapter 11 Engineers and the Consultant's Mindset: Leading From Behind
      13. Chapter 12 Contractors: Risk and Design Assist Expertise
      14. Chapter 13 Technology: Leveraging Data
      15. Chapter 14 Entrepreneurship: Vertical Integration and Value Propositions
      16. Chapter 15 Change Agents: Advocacy, Equity, and Sustainability
    2. CHAPTER 2: Client Empathy: Listening, Collaboration, and Expertise
      1. Client Intimacy and the Creative Continuum or “Snow Cards, Squatter Sessions, and Goody-Goody Talk”
      2. Specialization and Generalization or “Orchestrating the Post and Beam Crowd”
      3. Note
    3. CHAPTER 3: Owner Leadership: Programs, Users, and Talking
      1. Collaboration and Communication or “Teaching Masochists”
      2. Programs versus Projects or “Savvy Owners”
      3. Paying Utility Bills, Fixing Leaks, and Dictating Design, or “How to Get Less”
    4. CHAPTER 4: Building Learning Organizations: Knowledge and Research
      1. Building Design Futures: Courage For The Future Or “Moving The Laggards”
      2. Knowledge Management, Design Culture, Research and Credibility, or “Going It on Your Own”
      3. Integrated Education and the Role of the Academy or “Wearing Three Hats”
      4. Note
    5. CHAPTER 5: Firm Culture: Management and Attitudes
      1. An Integrated Approach: Avoiding Voluntary Misfortune or “Doomed to Be Successful”
      2. The Regional Model or “Sittin' Around the Table”
      3. AIA Reflections or “Breaking Boundaries”
      4. The Known Unknown: Keys to Change Readiness or “Weeding and Nurturing”
    6. CHAPTER 6: Strategy: Early Questions, Planning Horizons, and Socialization
      1. Post-Pasture Value Propositions or “Three Horizons?”
      2. Strategic Business Planning or “Asking the Right Questions”
      3. Team Building and Project Planning or “Last Exit”
      4. Note
    7. CHAPTER 7: Process: Lean Scheduling – Agile and Efficient
      1. Standardized Methods or “Leaning in, Softly”
      2. Self-Determined Lean Work Planning and Career Paths or “Playing Cards”
      3. Notes
    8. CHAPTER 8: Collaborators: Performative Design (Better Together)
      1. On Collaboration or “We're Better Together”
      2. Sharing Expertise, Trust, and Owner Engagement or “Assume This”
      3. Performative Design or “Welcome to the Machine Age”
      4. Note
    9. CHAPTER 9: Design and Budgets: Architect/Contractor Collaboration and Trust
      1. Pressing Schedules or “Are We Done Yet?”
      2. Meeting Budgets or “How to Work with Contractors”
    10. CHAPTER 10: Art and Architecture: Design Leadership and Conviction
      1. Cultural Understanding, Design Tools and Ideas or “We're Still in Charge”
      2. Art and Beauty, Architecture and Building, or “Instinct, Innovation, and Respect: Managing Ourselves”
    11. CHAPTER 11: Engineers and The Consultant's Mindset: Leading From Behind
      1. Aligning Objectives and Optimizing Systems or “Catalog Engineering”
      2. Managing at the Point of Attack: Anticipating Outcomes or “The Waiter and the Old Man and the Sea”
    12. CHAPTER 12: Contractors: Risk and Design Assist Expertise
      1. Trade Contractor Expertise or, “My Friend the Architect”
      2. Planning and Trade Contractor Design-Assist Mindsets or “We Need You Onsite Tomorrow”
      3. “Eyes-Wide-Open” Leadership and Design Ownership or “Stretching the Market: The Chain”
      4. Contracts, Collaboration, Construction, and “Chasing Design”' or “Fear the Unknown”
      5. Notes
    13. CHAPTER 13: Technology: Leveraging Data
      1. Mining the Data, Counting Your Blessings, and Seeing Clearly or “Life Is Just a Game”
      2. Manufacturers, Knowledge and Building Relationships or “Can the Internet Buy You Lunch?”
      3. Reusing Data or “The Technology Problem”
    14. CHAPTER 14: Entrepreneurship: Vertical Integration and Value Propositions
      1. Rethinking Relationships, Delivering Value or “Giving Them the Business”
      2. Integrating Vertically, Changing the Market or “We Do Different Things”
      3. Notes
    15. CHAPTER 15: Change Agents: Advocacy, Equity, and Sustainability
      1. Sustainable Practice: Tools and Data, Proof & Persuasion or “Doing Right, Good and Well”
      2. The Advocate or “To Be Continued”
  6. PART 2: PROJECT DESIGN CONTROLS: A FRAMEWORK FOR BALANCE, CHANGE, AND ACTION
    1. CHAPTER 16: Project Design Controls: A Framework for Balance, Change, and Action
      1. Origins: Looking, Seeing, Borrowing, and Common Sense
      2. Navigation and Adoption: Internalization and Sharing
      3. Toolmaking: What Gets Measured Gets Done
      4. Boundaries, Limits, and Constraints: Enemies or Friends?
      5. The Litmus Test: Project Design Controls
      6. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 17: Level 0: Subsurface (Contractual/Forming)
      1. Project Design Controls
      2. Supporting Collaboration
      3. Other Resources
      4. Note
    3. CHAPTER 18: Level 1: Foundation (Planning/Organizing)
      1. Goals and Objectives
      2. Roles and Responsibilities
      3. Communication Protocols
      4. BIM/VDC/Digital Infrastructure
      5. Programming and Research
      6. Project Analysis Kickoff Meeting
      7. Project Definition Package (PDP)
      8. Notes
    4. CHAPTER 19: Level 2: Structure (Measuring/Baseline)
      1. Tangible, Measurable Project Design Controls: The “Structural” Baseline
      2. Notes
    5. CHAPTER 20: Level 3: Systems (Relating/Collaboration)
      1. Owner, Architect, Contractor: The Team
      2. Notes
    6. CHAPTER 21: Level 4: Enclosure (Leading/Strategic)
      1. Change
      2. Options and Value Analysis
      3. Decision Support: Issue Tracking and Completion
      4. Consultant Coordination
    7. CHAPTER 22: Context: Supply Network, Market Forces, Emerging Technology
      1. Supply Network
      2. Market Forces
      3. Emerging Technologies
      4. Other Considerations
      5. Note
    8. CHAPTER 23: Understanding and Using the Framework
      1. Order and Logic: “Visual Onomatopoeia”
      2. Processes: Repeatable, Shared, One Off?
      3. Causes and Effects, Actions and Reactions
      4. When Does Design Management Happen?
      5. Problems (and Solutions)
      6. How to Know
      7. How to Coach
      8. Self-Evaluation Quiz: Managing Design Litmus Test
      9. Note
    9. CHAPTER 24: Case Studies
    10. CHAPTER 25: Actions
      1. What Works
      2. In Search of [Design] Excellence: [Designed and] Built to Last
      3. Forty Questions
      4. My Take
      5. Where to Focus: Drivers
      6. It's Up to You
      7. The Ideal Project
      8. Take Action
      9. The Team
      10. A Final Request
      11. Notes
  7. Epilogue
    1. Future Vision
    2. Prognostications and Advice
    3. Organizational Systems Thinking: The 7-S+1 Model
    4. Reach and Closure: Design Futures Council Summit on the Future of Architecture, 2018
    5. Continuing
    6. Constants and Encouragement
    7. Answers
    8. Notes
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. About the Author
  10. Bibliography
  11. Photo Credits
    1. Interview Photos
  12. Illustrations
    1. Figures
    2. Tables
  13. Index
  14. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Managing Design
  • Author(s): Michael LeFevre
  • Release date: June 2019
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119561767