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Today we are joined by Tim Spence, CEO of BSA, the top-rated healthcare, higher education, science and technology architecture firm providing comprehensive A/E/I/P services under one roof. Throughout his career, Tim has helped lead projects where long-term performance, resilience, and operational efficiency are as important as the buildings themselves. In this conversation, he shares why the most successful projects don’t begin with drawings or materials, but with thoughtful decisions that shape how a building will perform for decades. From managing risk and lifecycle costs to designing spaces that remain adaptable as needs evolve, Tim explains why the earliest stages of design often have the greatest impact on a building’s long-term value.
Q1: Many people judge a building by how it looks once it’s finished, but architects often talk about performance much earlier in the process. Why do the most successful buildings start long before construction begins?
Tim Spence: One of the biggest misconceptions is that performance is something you add later through better equipment or upgraded materials. In reality, most of a building’s long-term success is determined before construction ever starts.
Early decisions about site orientation, structural systems, circulation, daylight, flexibility, and mechanical coordination influence everything that follows. Once construction begins, many of those opportunities become significantly more expensive or impossible to change. In healthcare and higher education especially, we think in decades rather than years. Buildings have to support changing technology, evolving user needs, and different ways of working. That requires designing for adaptability from day one, not simply meeting today’s requirements.
One framework we often return to is asking whether each major design decision improves the building over its entire lifecycle, not just at opening day. When owners adopt that perspective early, they typically make stronger investments and avoid costly compromises later.
Q2: Every project involves balancing budgets, schedules, and competing priorities. How do you help clients distinguish between costs they can safely reduce and investments that create lasting value?
Tim Spence: One of the most important conversations we have is shifting the discussion from initial cost to total cost of ownership. Those are two very different things. It’s natural for owners to focus on construction budgets because they’re immediate and visible. But decisions that appear to save money upfront can increase maintenance costs, reduce flexibility, shorten a building’s useful life, or require expensive upgrades much sooner than expected.
We encourage clients to evaluate decisions through a lifecycle lens. Will this choice improve durability? Will it reduce operational costs? Can the space adapt if organizational needs change? Does it make the building easier to maintain? Those questions often lead to better long-term outcomes than simply comparing construction bids.
A red flag is when value engineering becomes synonymous with removing long-term performance features instead of finding smarter ways to achieve the project’s objectives. True value engineering should improve efficiency without sacrificing the building’s future.
Q3: BSA works on healthcare, science, and education facilities where buildings have to perform every day without exception. What lessons from those sectors apply to virtually every building project?
Tim Spence: Mission-critical buildings don’t leave much room for assumptions. Every decision has consequences for the people who depend on those spaces, so performance has to be intentional.
One lesson that translates across every project is designing for change. Whether it’s a hospital, research laboratory, university, or commercial facility, no building operates exactly the same twenty years later as it did on opening day. That means thinking about flexible infrastructure, accessible building systems, durable materials, and layouts that can evolve without requiring major reconstruction. Another lesson is that successful projects depend on coordination. Architecture doesn’t operate independently of engineering, interiors, technology, or operations. The earlier those disciplines work together, the more resilient the final building becomes.
Q4: Building performance is often associated with energy efficiency, but it seems to encompass much more than that. How do you define a high-performing building?
Tim Spence: Energy efficiency is certainly part of the conversation, but it’s only one measure of success. A high-performing building supports the people inside it while remaining efficient, resilient, adaptable, and financially sustainable throughout its life. It creates healthy indoor environments, operates reliably, accommodates future needs, and minimizes disruptions as organizations grow and evolve.
Ultimately, performance is about outcomes. Does the building help its occupants do their jobs more effectively? Is it comfortable? Can it respond to changing technologies? Does it continue delivering value years after completion?
Those questions are becoming increasingly important because owners are recognizing that building quality isn’t measured only by construction, but is evaluated daily on how it is used.
Q5: Looking back across your career, what’s one piece of advice you’d offer owners and project teams before they begin their next building project?
Tim Spence: Invest more time in defining the problem before trying to solve it. The strongest projects begin with clarity about long-term goals rather than immediate solutions. Understanding how an organization expects to operate, grow, and adapt over the coming decades creates a much stronger foundation for design.
I’d also encourage owners to involve the right expertise early. Bringing architects, engineers, planners, and other disciplines together from the outset leads to better coordination, better decisions, and fewer surprises during construction.
Finally, remember that buildings are long-term investments. Decisions made during the earliest planning stages often have the greatest influence on whether that investment continues delivering value well into the future.
