Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation (The Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice) [Paperback]

Ava J. Abramowitz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471443654 | ISBN-13: 978-0471443650 | Publication Date: April 9, 2002 | Edition: 1

For architects, negotiation is explicit in every aspect of practice, just as it is implicit in every aspect of design. And now you can develop or refine the negotiation skills you need with the help of this concise, easy-to-follow guide. Written by an acknowledged expert in the field, this volume in the Professional Practice Series offers accessible, practical coverage of contract negotiation essentials related to growth, expansion, new management, internal transitions, mergers, acquisitions, liquidations, retirement, and more. Also, like all the books in this series, the information you'll find here is expressly tailored to the needs of the design professional.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"We would not suggest that Ava change a single word of the text. Instead, we invite her to write an engineers' edition, a contractors' edition, and an owners' edition. We do not think it will be necessary for Ava to draft a separate lawyers edition. Even experience construction lawyers can learn about communicating and negotiating with and for their clients just by reading The Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation." (Construction Lawyer, May 02)

Every construction law library should have this book in its arsenal. Ava provides valuable insight into the elements of successful negotiations. It is easy to read and follow, yet offers so much to anyone involved in a construction practice. Although the title of Ava Abramowitz's book would lead one to believe that it was written exclusively for architects, that would be a wrong conclusion. If you are an owner, a contractor, an engineer, a project manager, an acquisition specialist, a lwawyer, or involved in almost any other activity pertaining to development or construction you can get valuable insights from this book written by a world-class negotiator and teacher. (C. Allen Gibson, Jr., Buist, Moore, Smythe & McGee, PA)

"After reading Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation, I now realize that my extensive library was lacking." (AeproNet, April 2003)

From the Back Cover

Easy access to crucial business information for design professionals

Find the concise, practical business information you need right now in the Architect’s Essentials of Professional Practice Series. These authoritative guides quickly make you an instant expert on the best business practices crucial for success in today’s design and construction professions. Each portable, affordable, user-friendly volume gives you:

• Authoritative advice from leading national figures
• Flip-and-find access to critical business information
• Bulleted lists and callout boxes for quick reference
• Clear, insightful explanations of complex business topics

Architect’s Essentials of Contract Negotiation demystifies the complex aspects of contract negotiation for today’s design professionals. Breaking the entire process into a series of simple steps, it presents a flexible array of options and methods for reaching a well-negotiated contract. The book also discusses how to be an expert long-term negotiator–invaluable advice given the long life of most architectural contracts.

Complete with guidance to help you find an effective personal negotiation style, this candid, practical guide is an indispensable resource for architects, landscape architects, interior designers, their clients, and others who need to master the skills of contract negotiation.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471443654
• ISBN-13: 978-0471443650
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #789,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Student review, June 13, 2002

By 

Matthew R. Herb (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation (The Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice) (Paperback)

Negotiation is critical factor of basic, daily human interactions, but how often do you think about what you are doing? Have you ever asked yourself the basic questions: Am I getting what I really want? Am I as effective and persuasive as I could be? Are both parties benefiting from this agreement?

Negotiation is something we do every day but seldom give much thought to it. In her new book, The Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation, Ava Abramowitz succeeds in outlining and explaining the critical components for successful negotiation. In an easy to read and sensible manner, she outlines the principles, tools and techniques needed for successful negotiation.

The book is divided into easily accessible chapters focused on key components of general negotiation, contract understanding and practice exercises. The book is arranged in such a manner that it may be used as a quick reference guide or read full through, with each chapter building on the next.

An example of the materials addressed, is the chapter on different types of negotiation, hard, soft and principal based. In this section Ms. Abramowitz analyzes negotiations techniques of soft (participants are friends), hard (participants are adversaries) and principled (participants are problem solvers). This tackling of old ideas and presenting new, research based techniques is what really gives this book its edge.

Written for a wide audience, The Architects Essentials of Contract Negotiation is an essential read for any student interested in improving basic negotiation skills or understanding contracts. In its comprehensive yet sensible manner, Ms. Abramowitz sheds light on a highly valuable subject years before students are exposed to it in formal academia.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential for Every Architect's Library, July 18, 2002

By 

Charles E Nelson AIA FRAIA (South Melbourne, VIC Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation (The Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice) (Paperback)

The operative word in this third volume of Wiley's new series called "Architect's Essentials" is in the title: "essential".
Art Gensler, in a thoughtful, glowing Introduction, sums it up with: "Ava Abramowitz has written a book that should be an essential part of every architectural professional's library and a must-read for every student taking professional practice courses". I couldn't agree more.

My first reaction to this book is as a technical writer: Ava has produced, quite simply, the most accessible technical book that I have ever read. If you have been in one of her workshops, you will remember that she knows how to keep a room full of architects wide awake for two hours after lunch, and that most there will give her presentation a five out of five rating.
Well, she writes like she talks. We architects are famously words-averse; we prefer pictures. Ava paints rich word pictures, then cannily grabs you by the necktie and puts you in the middle of the picture. Reading her book is as close as you can get to a face-to-face conversation in print. Her writing style is what the thriller publishers call a "page-turner" - but you won't read more than a dozen pages without putting it down and thinking hard about some aspect of your practice.

For those of us who write for the severely right-brained, the bar has just been raised about a foot. Tough act to follow.
Now, my reactions as an architect: This is primarily a book on contract negotiation, as the title says - particularly about professional services agreement negotiation. But it is much more than that - contract negotiation is just a doorway to her vision of the future of practice.

Every authoritative writer in our field that I know of agrees that our professional is in the midst of the most profound change in its 4,000 year history. If you sense these winds of change, and your reaction is one of your practice and your profession being victimized and marginalized, then don't buy her book - you are a buggy-whip maker looking at a Model-T Ford, and you might as well keep practicing until your business dies of irrelevance.
But if you sense these winds of change and are sure there must be a new and better way, her work is the Swiss Army knife that will get you out of the James Bond torture chamber. She marches you step by sure step from the mentality of a service provider whose output can be bought as a commodity to one who is the client's trusted advisor, whose value can't be measured. She calls this "assertive practice". I won't attempt to summarize the details, for this, buy the book.

Her principles of negotiation are as clear and easy to understand as the best. Her section on communication is short, sharp and precise. Her five phases of dispute resolution and six steps for managing change are without equal for simplicity and clarity.
Throughout, she richly illustrates her points with personal anecdotes from her years as Deputy General Counsel to the AIA, Vice President of Victor O. Schinnerer & Co., and her current involvement as owner/developer/restorer of some 30 buildings on a Virginia farm.

If you are a young architect starting out in business, and could only afford five books in your professional library, this has to be on your short list. If you are a seasoned veteran of the practice wars, you will agree with Gensler: "I truly wish I had had the opportunity to read The Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation years ago." If you are in between, say an associate level architect with aspirations for leadership, the skills Ava teaches so eloquently will propel you to partnership faster than anything else you could do short of marrying the chairman's ugly son or daughter.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wow!, May 9, 2002

By 

Randall S. Deutsch (Winnetka, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation (The Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice) (Paperback)

Wow! I picked up a copy of Contract Negotiations the other day and despite being in the middle of 5 or 6 other books, it is ythis one I keep returning to. Because of the casual tone and informal style reading it feels as much like a good conversation as a good read. I've enjoyed her writing in the Handbook in the past, but here she has given ample room to explore the subjects more thoroughly and enjoyably. And Ava is able to sustain a level of high energy and interest throughout. Simply amazing to me, given what is usually treated as such a dry and reserved subject.
I have a year old architecture practice in Chicago, teach at U of Illinois Chicago in the Architecture department, and wrestle every day with the issues you describe in the book, whether with owner/clients, my own employees or grad students. If I ever get to reach my dream of teaching professional practice (in addition to the current building science/design) in the coming years, I will certainly make this book required reading. Until then I will set to memory so much of the wisdom therein and spread the word amongst colleagues and clients. What a real joy, to involve myself in the rewarding conversation that is this book.