ixty years in the planning, long the subject of lively and sometimes acrimonious debate, an unusually complex design ordered up with an ironclad budget -- it had all the makings of a corporate headache. In fact, says construction executive Richard Lynch, it was an exciting, satisfying and remarkably smooth undertaking. The project was awarded jointly to J.H. Findorff & Son, a Madison company since 1890, and Stein & Company Program Managers of Chicago. Findorff Vice President Lynch and his colleagues worked with designers and owners for a solid year of construction preplanning before a shovel hit the ground. "We anticipated every potential problem we could think of so that as things came up, we had solutions in place," he says. "We also developed a method of dispute and conflict resolution that worked well under pressure. We never had to go all the way to the top, but were able to work out problems in the middle levels, where they belonged." Monona Terrace is built on 4.4 acres of landfill, spans six lanes of highway and a railroad corridor, and extends 90 feet over Lake Monona, all of which inspired heated discussion and added logistical and regulatory complexity to the job. The 683,000 square foot, five-level facility came with a firm budget of $67.1 million; there would be no allowance for cost overruns. The facility's unusual design, its downtown location, and its cantilevered presence over Lake Monona all raised critical issues that had to be worked out between designers and construction crews as the building took shape. Many concerns centered around balancing the building's special needs with cost constraints.