Managing Design Conversations, Project Controls, and Best Practices for Commercial Design and Construction Projects

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

Michael Alan LeFevre, FAIA Emeritus, is a Principal with DesignIntelligence Strategic Advisors and a member of the Design Futures Council. He was formerly Vice President, Planning & Design Support at Holder Construction in Atlanta, GA. As an award-winning architect he frequently speaks on the topic of design-construction collaboration. He and has been an advisory board member and guided curricula development for academic programs at the University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Purdue. In his groundbreaking tenure at Holder he worked with many of the world's leading design firms on high-visibility projects such as the Apple Park Headquarter Campus, and the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. He now consults nationally and internationally with leading design and construction firms.