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Early decisions have the greatest impact.

Decisions and assumptions made just days or weeks into a project—regarding end-user needs, scheduling, the size and shape of a building footprint, and so on—have the most significant impact on design, feasibility, and cost. As decisions are made later and later in the design process, their influence decreases. Minor cost savings sometimes can be realized through value engineering in the latter stages of design, but the biggest cost factors are embedded at the outset, in a project’s DNA.

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