Architect's Essentials of Negotiation - (Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice) 2nd Edition by Ava J Abramowitz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Where do you turn if you are an architect or student wanting to deepen those skill sets that will make you a more successful professional? Well, taking a look at Ava Abramowitz's new book, "The Architect's Essentials of Negotiation" will be a step in the right direction."
--Robert Greenstreet, Dean, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning

This is an essential guide for architects and their clients and consultants who need professional advice on negotiations, from design development to agreements and fees. Contractors will want to read it, too, especially if they are involved with Integrated Project Delivery. This new edition offers updated insights related to negotiation, with references to the AIA Contract Documents, communication, collaboration, and handling disputes, change, and claims.

From the Back Cover

A guide to crucial negotiation skills for design professionals

Architect's Essentials of Negotiation, Second Edition prepares practitioners for negotiating design issues, fees, and contracts, as well as handling risk, disputes, change, and claims. It offers valuable insights on how to hone communication, collaboration, and team-building skills to successfully navigate today's design-driven, client-centered world.

This new edition demystifies complex aspects of negotiation by breaking the process into a series of simple steps. The book explains how to:

• Dissect and analyze agreement language
• Identify key issues in a negotiation
• Address owners' contractual concerns
• Enjoy the benefits of managing risk

Complete with guidance on developing an effective personal negotiation style, this candid, practical guide is an indispensable resource for architects, landscape architects, interior designers, engineers, contractors, clients, and anyone else who needs to master the skills of negotiation in the design and construction setting.

"Ava Abramowitz has written a book that should be an essential part of every design professional's library. It gives us the knowledge and skills to properly start a project and develop a client relationship that will, in the end, bring forth wonderful design."
--M. Arthur Gensler Jr., FAIA, FIIDA, RIBA, Chairman, Gensler

Review Quotes

"Supposedly architects don't need negotiating skills along with other communication skills because great design "sells itself". How lovely that an AIA legal counsel created this definitive book to shatter that thin myth. I'll assert that only a critically-positioned outsider to the profession could have written a book with this valuable slant. If you're involved in any way in architectural education, be subversive and recommend this book as the first assigned reading for entering students. This is what the world - of architecture and everything else - needs now." (Norman Weinstein, ArchNewsNow, June 5, 2009)

About the Author

AVA J. ABRAMOWITZ, ESQ. HON. AIA, lectures nationwide on negotiation, risk management, and assertive practice. She teaches negotiations at George Washington University Law School and Catholic University's School of Architecture and Planning, and serves as a mediator in the federal courts in Washington, D.C. Formerly AIA deputy general counsel, she is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council and a founding fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers. She is currently the public member of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.