Ubuntu debates usability changes

There are a huge number of stakeholders in a significant building (the client, neighborhood, city government, tenants, etc) and they all want a say in the building's design. But if the building was actually designed by comittee, it'd be atrocious. So instead a single architect (or a small team) is hired to produce the best design for everyone.

Meetings are held with all the stakeholders and they provide their input, and the requirements are then turned over to the architect who tries to fulfill as many as possible while maintaining a unified design. During the process, designs are produced and shown to the stakeholders, who provide more feedback.

For very large or high-profile projects the architect is chosen through a design competition.

The idea is that even if everyone is not completely satisfied, they all had the opportunity to provide their input (assuming the process isn't railroaded, which doesn't always happen, of course) and therefore have some ownership, but the design-by-committee problem is avoided.