Building Design and Construction (eBook)

An Architect's Perspective

Sam Andras (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
415 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-394-37350-5 (ISBN)

Infos

Offers experience-driven guidance on navigating the full building design and construction process

Building Design and Construction: An Architect's Perspective provides the foundational knowledge necessary to lead complex projects with confidence. Drawing on over 40 years of combined experience in both construction and architectural practice, author Sam Andras delivers a comprehensive understanding of how building projects succeed-beginning with a clear grasp of the roles, responsibilities, and collaboration required among all stakeholders. This highly practical resource fills a crucial gap between academic instruction and real-world application-connecting professional principles to actual project experiences through detailed case studies and lessons learned.

Rather than simply explaining processes, the author provides a roadmap for decision-making at every stage-from concept to completion. Readers will gain insight into key delivery methodologies, contract structures, and design phases while learning how to evaluate and select the best approaches for each unique project. Throughout the book, practical examples underscore how missteps were corrected, or could have been avoided, through cooperation, collaboration, and shared goals, helping students and professionals alike avoid common pitfalls.

With a clear, step-by-step structure and emphasis on collaborative success, Building Design and Construction: An Architect's Perspective:

• Features a dedicated 'Roadmap to Success' chapter that integrates key lessons from preceding chapters while setting the foundation for the integration and understanding of post-chapters
• Explains industry-standard terminology, tools, and documentation to build a shared understanding among project stakeholders
• Includes clearly defined processes for selecting project teams, delivery methods, and contractual frameworks
• Provides strategic approaches to troubleshooting project challenges, including key aspects of project planning that directly impact long-term project outcomes

Addressing both design intent and construction execution to demonstrate how integrated thinking drives project success, Building Design and Construction: An Architect's Perspective is ideal for architecture, engineering, and construction management students. It is also a valuable reference guide for owners and project managers seeking a working understanding of what drives successful project delivery.

Sam Andras is a licensed architect with over four decades of combined experience in construction and architectural practice. He is the co-founder of 2WR + Partners, where he led the expansion into government and institutional markets. A graduate of Florida A&M University, Andras has served in key leadership roles throughout his career, offering expertise in strategic planning, project execution, and professional service delivery. His practice and teaching emphasize the collaborative nature of successful building projects.

Textauszug

Preface

Curly

If the permit man ever comes back, you give me a call, and we'll come back and finish the job.

Walter

When I do get the permits, how long will the job take?

Curly

Two weeks.

Walter

Two weeks? Two weeks?

Curly (laughing)

You sound like a parakeet there. “Two weeks! Two weeks!”

Walter

Two weeks. It's amazing!

Curly

Amazing nothing. It'll be a regular miracle.

Tom Hanks as Walter, in The Money Pit (1986)

This book will address something I care about deeply as an architect and a business owner. The human element is a primary factor in anyone's work, but in mine, it has a massive impact on results. There is a need, and I have seen that need crop up with every potential client who walks into my firm, whether they are a project development veteran or totally new to the game. That need is for fundamental background knowledge and a full understanding of the process they're getting into.

It takes six and a half years, absolute minimum, to become an architect in the United States five years to get your Bachelor of Architecture degree at an accredited University and three years of IDP, which can begin after your third year of school, but that is just the academic skeleton on which you build years of practical experience in the field. That, of course, is why we hire a professional when we need something built.

But what about the person who wants to develop a project ‐ the architect and contractor's client? Even if they have built things before, they often have had no training at all, their knowledge is simply based on limited accomplishments. Does the client really want to go into a project cold when they are investing not only their money but their hopes, dreams, and visions of the future? Or, if it is a project owner who is responsible for funds, operation, and/or future growth on behalf of a large institution or business, they are being relied upon to be responsible for the work, budget, schedule, and overall accomplishment of the organization's goals and vision. Do they want to be at the mercy of the expertise and suggestions of others? Others, I might add, who may have conflicting agendas?

This book is written to enable the reader to act with confidence and authority at every stage of their project. When we combine the expertise of the architect and design team, the skill and knowledge of the construction team, the proven approach implemented by a project owner and/or an owner's representative, then we are unstoppable. This book provides the foundation for understanding, overseeing, and implementing the collaborative process.

Throughout my career I've had the opportunity to work with many Owners and Owner's Representatives. I've found there are only two kinds of individuals: those who are dedicated to the clients they serve and those who aren't. Those who aren't bring minimal value, at best, to the team. To these individuals, success is less about the team and more about fulfilling their individual needs and desires. Let me say right here, no individual makes a project a success. Project success comes from every person working together, doing their part, and accomplishing shared goals. Success is collaborative and TEAM‐driven. As the saying goes, there is no “I” in team. The “I” that exists in the word “TEAM” can only be found when looking in the a‐hole. No one should ever want to be the a‐hole!

Everyone is familiar with the cliché about construction projects ending up well past their proposed deadlines and costs, burning holes in the pockets of the owner. Look no further than the VA Hospital in Denver. A project that when started, had a completion date established as February 2014, yet took until January 2018. Along with the delayed opening comes the inflated price tag. What began as a $602‐million project now carries a $1.8‐billion price tag. That's why the “we're running a little behind schedule” line is immortal and comical. I have been in and around the construction industry since I was 12 years old – you could say it's in my blood. I have learned established and proven methodologies are the core to success. The most successful methodologies focus on empowerment and value of team members, are supported through exceptional communication and documentation, established and defined responsibilities, defined milestones for schedule conformance, and include extensive reviews for quality, functional, cost, and vision adherence. I have learned that “understanding” equals “success” and have figured out ways to communicate my experience into each chapter: thereby providing my readers a firm understanding of the basics as well as a simple to follow roadmap.

No one wants to fail, right? That unsuspecting “Mr. Blandings” who starts off with wide eyes and a puffed‐up chest, thinking he's the master planner and then learning once it's too late that he's not the one in control; that the project is running them. Worse yet, is that individual who never accepts their inability to organize and lead the team has led to failure. This is the “smartest person in the room” syndrome. In reality, the smartest person in the room is the leader who knows the background, experience, capabilities, and expertise of their team and implements a process by which each is properly assigned responsibilities supporting the team in the proper delivery of the project. My reader will become the truly smart and savvy client who generally comes off as a winner, NOT because they never fail, but because they tend to make wise, informed decisions, while overseeing the team they've assembled.

The reader of this book is the kid who grew up with a passion for the ocean, who loved the smell of salt in the humid summer air, the sparkles of the moon dancing on the wind driven ripples, who bought a sailboat to embark on a journey. This is someone who respects the sea and understands their safety relies on knowing the strengths and limitations of their vessel. They invest the time necessary to learn about their boat, the terminology, rigging, handling, equipment, and systems. Long before they embark on an offshore journey, they sail along shorelines in various degrees of weather to understand the boat's performance and limitations, to feel the sheets pull in their hands as wind fills the sails and the boat lists to its leeward side, with water churning beneath her hull. This individual also understands the success of their journey relies on the experience and expertise of others. They talk with others who have experienced the sea, taken the journeys, know the oceans, ports, marinas, and the experienced professionals to assess critical structural components of the boats upon which they fulfill their dreams.

This book is for the executive of the company that hires architects, owner's representatives, and builders all the time; to create offices, hospitals, schools, or many other vast types of facilities; who desires to expand their knowledge and understanding, or understand a different perspective which can assist in delivering greater results and the highest level of success. This book is also for the student who is just beginning their journey into the amazing world of development.

These people have something in common. If they are starting something new, they take the time to learn. They don't just expect to be sailors before ever stepping foot on a boat. They understand, as Oscar Wilde stated, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”. They understand the implications of their own mistakes and thereby desire to educate themselves on how to avoid them. The reader of this book is self‐aware: he/she knows what he/she doesn't know. He/she understands the saying: good at all things, master of nothing. Most importantly, this individual understands success is a collaborative endeavor that only happens with careful planning and proper implementation.

There are many stages in the development process, and many people are involved. Many relationships are established and relied upon throughout for the overall success of the project. In this book, I will explain why every person on the project is important. From the owner to architect, to civil engineer, to the construction project manager, to the subcontractors providing the installations during the construction stage. Each are important as you never know where the best solutions will come from. I've worked with architects and engineers who believe what they put on paper is law, that there's no other way to skin the cat. This egotistical outlook is counterproductive to delivering the best solution to design alignment of a client's vision.

Throughout this book, I will teach the reader about the hidden roles played by team members and the impact those relationships have on your project – things that come from 40+ years of experience. I will share a new language with the reader and an understanding of the dynamics that it has taken me my whole career to learn, a career that has spanned a lifetime. This book will provide project owners with a step‐by‐step education on what to do, a roadmap to success covering the full spectrum of options at each stage of the process, and how to...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.9.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Architektur
• Schlagworte: architecture construction process • building project design • built environment project delivery • construction design process • Construction Management Guide • construction management textbook • construction project delivery
• ISBN-10: 1-394-37350-3 / 1394373503
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-37350-5 / 9781394373505