“Value Engineering” is the technical term for “holy —-, we are way over budget!” It’s not unusual for construction costs to exceed an owner’s budget. So the ‘value engineering’ process begins, where the design team, contractors and owner review the plans and try to wring dollars out of the design– and where the owner has to make hard choices about what goes and what stays. As I participate in these meetings, my feelings are all over the map: energized and fascinated, impatient, all the way to thoughts that I would prefer a root canal.