Addressing the out-of-control delays and cost overruns of construction projects across the nation, prominent construction attorney LePatner builds a powerful case for change in an industry that consumes $1.23 trillion and wastes at least $120 billion each year.

Across the nation, construction projects large and small—from hospitals to schools to simple home improvements—are spiraling out of control. Delays and cost overruns have come to seem “normal,” even as they drain our wallets and send our blood pressure skyrocketing. In Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets, prominent construction attorney Barry B. LePatner builds a powerful case for change in America’s sole remaining “mom and pop” industry—an industry that consumes $1.23 trillion and wastes at least $120 billion each year. With three decades of experience representing clients that include eminent architects and engineers, as well as corporations, institutions, and developers, LePatner has firsthand knowledge of the bad management, ineffective supervision, and insufficient investment in technology that plagues the risk-averse construction industry. In an engaging and direct style, he here pinpoints the issues that underlie the industry’s woes while providing practical tips for anyone in the business of building, including advice on the precise language owners should use during contract negotiations. Armed with Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets, everyone involved in the purchase or renovation of a building or any structure—from homeowners seeking to remodel to civic developers embarking on large-scale projects—has the information they need to change this antiquated industry, one project at a time. “LePatner describes what is wrong with the current system and suggests ways that architects can help—by retaking their rightful place as master builders.”—Fred A. Bernstein, Architect Magazine “Every now and then, a major construction project is completed on time and on budget. Everyone is amazed. . . . Barry LePatner thinks this exception should become the rule. . . . A swift kick to the construction industry.”—James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal

A comprehensive overview of the shocking state of our nation's infrastructure and what must be done to fix it

Building Lean, Building BIM is the essential guide for any construction company that wants to implement Lean Construction and Building Information Modelling (BIM) to gain a strategic edge over their competition. The first of its kind, the book outlines the principles of Lean, the functionality of BIM, and the interactions between the two, illustrating them through the story of how Tidhar Construction has implemented Lean Construction and BIM in a concerted effort over four years. Tidhar is a small-to-medium-sized construction company that pioneered a way of working that gave it a profit margin unheard of in its market. The company's story serves as a case study for explanation of the various facets of Lean Construction and BIM. Each chapter defines a principle of Lean and/or BIM, describes the achievements and failures in Tidhar's implementation based on the experiences of the key people involved, and reviews the relevant background and theory. The implementation at Tidhar has not been a pure success, but by examining their motives alongside their achievements and failures, readers will learn about what pitfalls and pinnacles to expect. A number of chapters also compare the experience of Tidhar with those of other companies who are leaders in their fields, such as Skanska and DPR. This book is highly relevant and useful to a wide range of readers from the construction industry, especially those who are frustrated with the inefficiencies in their companies and construction projects. It is also essential reading for Lean and BIM enthusiasts, researchers and students from a variety of industries and backgrounds.

A veteran New York Times reporter dissects the most spectacular failure in real estate history Real estate giant Tishman Speyer and its partner, BlackRock, lost billions of dollars when their much-vaunted purchase of Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village in New York City failed to deliver the expected profits. But how did Tishman Speyer walk away from the deal unscathed, while others took the financial hit—and MetLife scored a $3 billion profit? Illuminating the world of big real estate the way Too Big to Fail did for banks, Other People’s Money is a riveting account of politics, high finance, and the hubris that ultimately led to the nationwide real estate meltdown.

As it currently operates, the commercial real estate construction industry is a disaster full of built-in waste. Seventy-percent of all projects end over budget and late. The buildingSMART Alliance estimates that up to fifty-percent of the process is consumed in waste. Almost every project includes massive hidden taxes in the form of delays, cost overruns, poor quality, and work that has to be redone. Building new structures is a fragmented, adversarial process that commonly results in dissatisfied customers and frequently ends in disappointment, bitterness, and even litigation. The industry must change—for its own good and that of its customers. But while the industry has tried to reform itself, it can’t do it alone. Real change can only come from business owners and executives who refuse to continue paying for a dysfunctional system and demand a new way of doing business. The Commercial Real Estate Revolution is a bold manifesto for change from the Mindshift consortium—a group of top commercial real estate industry leaders who are fed up with a system that simply doesn’t work. The book explains how business leaders can implement nine principles for any project that will dramatically cut costs, end delays, create better buildings, and force the industry into real reform. The Commercial Real Estate Revolution offers a radically new way of doing business—a beginning-to-end, trust-based methodology that transforms the building process from top to bottom. Based on unifying principles and a common framework that meets the needs of all stakeholders, this new system can reform and remake commercial construction into an industry we’re proud to be a part of. If you’re one of the millions of hardcore cynics who work in commercial construction, you probably think this sounds like pie in the sky. But this is no magic bullet; it’s a call for real reform. If you’re an industry professional who’s sick of letting down clients or an owner who’s sick of cost overruns and endless delays, The Commercial Real Estate Revolution offers a blueprint for fixing a broken industry.

While architects have been the subject of many scholarly studies, we know very little about the companies that built the structures they designed. This book is a study in business history as well as civil engineering and construction management. It details the contributions that Charles J. Pankow, a 1947 graduate of Purdue University, and his firm have made as builders of large, often concrete, commercial structures since the company's foundation in 1963. In particular, it uses selected projects as case studies to analyze and explain how the company innovated at the project level. The company has been recognized as a pioneer in "design-build," a methodology that involves the construction company in the development of structures and substitutes negotiated contracts for the bidding of architects' plans. The Pankow companies also developed automated construction technologies that helped keep projects on time and within budget. The book includes dozens of photographs of buildings under construction from the company's archive and other sources. At the same time, the author analyzes and evaluates the strategic decision making of the firm through 2004, the year in which the founder died. While Charles Pankow figures prominently in the narrative, the book also describes how others within the firm adapted the business so that the company could survive a commercial market that changed significantly as a result of the recession of the 1990s. Extending beyond the scope of most business biographies, this book is a study in industry innovation and the power of corporate culture, as well as the story of one particular company and the individuals who created it.