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Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry
Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry
Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry
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Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry

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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  
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 15, 2008
ISBN9780226472706
Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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    I am a little surprised at the low rating Broken Buildings gets here. Perhaps I am so favorably disposed to it because LePatner cites my own work about 50 times (that is flattering). I do agree that LePatner is rightly criticized for being overly redundant and for a lawyer's bias toward his clients, namely owners as opposed to builders and designers. But for all that, his book is an exceptionally vigorous exposition of the ailments of and possible cures for the failure and litigation-ridden building industry. To my knowledge, no one else has taken on the organizational failings which underlie the structural failings of our "broken buildings" with such focus and energy. I read Broken Buildings cover to cover in a couple of sittings and with an increasing excitement and hope that here, finally, was the beginning of a solution to the problem of building failure, which wastes billions of dollars and staggering quantities of material and energy every year. Even though Le Patner's repetitiveness and prejudices can be a bit off-putting, I recommend the book highly. It gets you thinking.

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Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets - Barry B. LePatner

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