Designing the Design Firm

New book by NBBJ's Jim Jonassen examines how to create practices that are capable of producing superior design work.

Unless they improve their performance, design firms will lose their relevance in society and their corresponding ability to shape the environment positively. This is the warning James O. Jonassen sends in his new book Designing the Design Firm: The Quest for High-Performance Design.

Yet very few firms get around to designing their own practices for high performance.

What follows is a discussion about how to create a design practice that is capable of producing design that awakens the human spirit, transforms the user experience, and makes places better than they were before. This is what Jonassen calls high-performance design.

Leveraging his 40-year (and ongoing) quest to design a high-performance professional practice, Jonassen shares hard-won insights that are practical and at times controversial. Readers will delight in joining him on his enlightening journey.

About the Author

During his 40-year career at NBBJ, James O. Jonassen led the firm from a 100-person Seattle office to the 850-person international practice it is today. His far-reaching leadership has advanced the practice of architecture, helping ensure the viability and prominence of architects in tomorrow's practice models.

Jonassen is recognized for his innovative approach to delivery methods and contracting vehicles, his enormous impact on health care design, and his business development and leadership. His projects have received numerous design awards and have been widely published.

He has been a prolific speaker on the future of architecture, practice development, and design performance. He has authored many articles on architecture, health care futures, and architectural technology.

About Designing the Design Firm

Author: James O. Jonassen
Publisher: Greenway Communications LLC
Number of pages: 212
Binding: Paperback
Published: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9846136-4-9
Cover price: $39.95
Retail orders: http://www.di.net/store/dtdf