LCI Lean in Design Forum Speaker Spotlight: An Interview with Stan Chiu, AIA, NCARB, DBIA, LEED

We were thrilled to speak with Stan Chiu, AIA, DBIA, LEED AP, Director of Integrated Project Delivery for HDR, 2025 LCI Design Forum Co-Chair—and one of the 2025 LCI Lean in Design Forum speakers!

Stan is a presenter for the session TVD: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Providing More Predictable Outcomes, along with co-speakers James Pease, UCSF; David Wyatt, Brasfield & Gorrie; Christian Pikel, The ReAlignment Group; and Annmarie Thurnquist (Panel Moderator), Jacobs.

Enjoy this session sneak peek—and don’t miss the full panel discussion at the 2025 Lean in Design Forum, April 30-May 1 in Chicago! Register today.

We discussed the impact of cost as an input for design in TVD (Target Value Delivery).

During our conversation, Stan noted that “the big idea behind TVD is to set cost targets before doing the design. That’s great but the big question is how exactly does it guide the design? If you have that clear cost understanding ahead of designing, how is that an input into the design? Am I supposed to keep track of linear feet of walls for a certain area? Is it counting how many sinks? That’s where the rubber can hit the road in TVD. Just thinking about the cost impacts of what you are drawing helps you draw to those cost impacts. That’s a pretty good first step.”

Constructability input into design can positively impact project cost and schedule.

“Constructability can drive cost and schedule. In TVD, as we’re drawing things, it’s understanding how things get built, which has a big impact on cost and schedule. In a big room, instead of me guessing, I can turn to a builder and ask questions. We can go to a white board together and I can say here’s what I’d like to see on the outside and inside. And the builder will say can we move this bracket or rotate this screw this way, and I can draw it that way. That’s constructability as an input into design.

Constructability review after design is more typical. The old way, I would take a guess at how it will be built, submit that, get an RFI back from the builder asking for modifications, then we mark up the RFI, and so on. That’s lots of administrative burden, as opposed to a five-minute conversation upfront,” noted Stan.

We dove into the importance of trust and communication in TVD.

Stan shared that “where there is a high level of trust and communication, and it’s comfortable enough where a builder can say to me, can you move that bracket, and I can ask back, do you mean pivot it 10 degrees, and you can go back and forth, that’s great. When we are comfortable challenging or clarifying and can have collaborative conversations, that’s the ideal.”

He continued, “Trust is tough and a lesson we keep learning here. For example, if I’m a builder and you are a designer, I may say what I really need is a model that has all the devices on this wall with dimensions. If we have a strong degree of trust, you might say let me see what it takes to do that, or could I dimension it vertically or horizontally, and talk about my need. But if there’s a poor or mediocre level of trust, you may say, you don’t really need that, do you? You want to avoid that challenge response.

We are still working to achieve and sustain it. In some projects, we do a monthly or quarterly measure of factors including trust and communication. Last fall, we gathered a group of project leaders, 40 people around a big board, to rate the level of trust for the group at that moment from 1-5. Then we spent a whole day talking about it and finding ways to grow it. And at the end of the day, we did it again.

It’s easy to get caught up in the work and forget about maintaining and growing this stuff. It’s performance enhancing or inhibiting. When it’s poor, you need to work harder. But it’s difficult to balance working in the project and on the project.”

The session will cover tips to engage trades in doing TVD effectively.

Stan noted, “It’s common in TVD to do periodic big batch estimates to know how much something costs, and in between, make small adjustments based on risks and opportunities. For example, if you’re adding six windows, you adjust the estimate.

In that model, having the trades weigh in on intermediate estimates is key since they’re closest to the pricing. So, first, on milestone estimates, have the trades play a key role, and two, for every risk or opportunity, it’s best practice to have trades directly involved in how much, for example, those windows cost.

Another good practice is to have trades involved in identifying risks and opportunities—so even before they find out the cost of the six windows, to have already identified them as a risk.”

Perspectives on TVD may differ according to team roles.

Stan noted that on this panel, there is a Lean coach, an owner, a designer, and a builder, and they’ll all share their perspectives.
He offered that, “The builder perspective may be, why does the design keep changing? For me on the design side, it could be, how come the builder can’t keep up with the design in real time? For the user, it may be, why am I being asked to nail things down when I don’t know what I want at this point? It varies because of the roles on the project.

At our best, we know the overall goals. By knowing the schedule and key milestones we must hit, it’s not just the architect asking the user for a decision. It’s based on the schedule and commitments. If we are staying on schedule, we need to decide this.

As we go back to the overall project needs, the perspectives become less divergent. It’s all in service of the project and we have the fundamental schedule, budget, and quality agreements.”

Stan expects session attendees to gain empowerment.

Stan hopes attendees leave feeling empowered. He noted that, “It’s shifted from Target Value Costing to Target Value Design because you can set targets around anything.” These include:

The schedule
Cost of project—how much it costs to build it or operate it
Sustainability—such as how much carbon it will use in a year
And multiple other factors

He continued, “the big idea is to clarify what targets you have. The targets create a common understanding of what we are in service of together. Another big idea is breaking the project into pieces that are manageable, and staff the project pieces with cross-functional teams instead of siloes.

Here in San Francisco where I’m working, we have different street signs in our workspace that each represent a cross-functional team. You really can just turn around and talk to someone. We’re organized according to the part of the building we are working on.

TVD is about organizing the sequence of the work and the teams.”

The Lean in Design Forum plays a key role in driving innovation.

We asked Stan what he’s most excited about for this year’s Lean in Design Forum. He said it was “the idea of innovation and AI is a piece of that. Studies show that about 50% of all activities we do are wasteful and don’t make it into the final project. Innovation is the path to reduce waste and do things in a different way to deliver more value to the project and the planet. We could do better at building more hospitals and houses, and personally, I could get more time with my family, if it doesn’t take 60-hours a week to do 30-hours of work.

That’s what I’m most excited about. The opportunities to innovate. The interface with design and construction is rich with opportunity.”

“It’s such a pleasure to be with like-minded people looking for better ways to do things. The people who are newer to this have the benefit of beginner mind and can see things with a fresh perspective. Others have the benefit of experience to bring to the table. We are all equals with something great to contribute,” shared Stan.

Learn more at the Lean in Design Forum this spring.

We hope you’re looking forward to learning more from Stan and the entire panel during this enlightening session! Explore details on this panel and more in the interactive agenda.