The first thing you need to realize when trying to stay on budget is that every idea or concept for the design that you’ve ever had in your entire life is over budget. All of your ideas. Every one of them. Do I need to mention the rain screen phase you went through in college?

The next thing to realize is that all your client’s ideas or concepts for the design are also over budget. However, your client believes that all their ideas are under budget.

So, the trick is to convince the client that your ideas were their ideas in the first place, and therefore will be perceived as being under budget. Of course, these ideas are over budget. But that can be dealt with later, and most likely blamed on the contractor.

Budgets are more of a vague construct anyway. A goal to be aspired to. An ideal realm full of possibilities and fulfillment and possibly puppies. This is not the real world that architecture exists in. This is a realm exclusively reserved for clients, real estate developers, and politicians. This is a realm in which anything is possible, brick veneer is the same cost as siding, glass is free, and square footage equals profit. It’s a candy-coated world of gold leaf and grand vistas, without a structural support in sight. Avoid this realm. It will seduce you.

But those who still believe in budgets can be managed. Always point out the savings that can be achieved with your design idea. Quickly skipping over the potential costs. The glass wall on the south side of the building will reduce the cost of heating in the winter. This is a good thing. This will help the budget. That glass wall in the summer is someone else’s problem (ie. it’s the contractor’s fault). So, add as much glass as you want. Put it on the east and west sides too.

Remember, a budget is just an imaginary framework on which to hang your designs disguised to appear as if they are clients designs. Spend abundant time refining the “client’s” designs to fit within the clients “idea” of a budget. You must maintain the illusion of being on budget at all times until your contract with the client is completed. Then have the contractor price the project and blame them for the cost overruns.

Then sit back and enjoy the value engineering.