Buildings and other public facilities can have very long and productive service lives, providing efficient shelter and serving a wide range of activities. To do so, however, these facilities must be managed effectively, in a manner consistent with key design decisions.

A variety of political and technical obstacles to effective management raise the public's total cost of ownership for these facilities, particularly when actions to deal with short-term government budget deficits have long-term, high-cost consequences.

This book identifies obstacles to controlling the costs of ownership and suggests ways these obstacles can be overcome.