Design errors are a symptom of dysfunctional organizational and managerial practices that prevail within the construction industry. They significantly contribute to cost and schedule growth, and rework. Furthermore, they jeopardize safety and are major contributors to accidents that occur during and post construction. Significant failures were drawn upon to highlight the adverse role that errors and failures can have upon the safety of workers and the general public. Many of the failures that have occurred could have been prevented if design checks and reviews had been undertaken and appropriate managerial and project management practices had been implemented. Instead cost and time pressures appear to be prevailing nemeses contributing to errors and failures. A systemic learning framework is propagated to reduce errors and failures. It is suggested that an array of strategies should be implemented incongruence at a project, organizational, and people level. If such strategies are no adopted, then it will only be a matter of time before the next major construction and engineering failure occurs. Learning from the past is the first step toward attaining improvement. Taking action is an even bigger step, as it requires major cultural and behavioral change, which is urgently needed within the construction industry.