The paper presents the results of a study of design risks affecting the exploitation reliability of high-rise buildings. The aim of the study was to study and optimize risk management strategies. The relevance of the work is justified by the statistics of recorded violations in the design of high-rise buildings, which affects their quality in the process of exploitation, leading to disastrous consequences. Existing methods of risk assessment take into account natural and man-made hazards. The consequences of risk are human victims. Damage to risk is estimated from material losses. The paper suggests refinement to the methodology for assessing project risks. As a criterion of the consequences of risks, the deviation from the normative technical condition is proposed. As a criterion of damage, the value of operating costs, as well as the amount of costs for eliminating not the consequences of risks, but the costs of eliminating their causes at the design stage are proposed. The risk classification was carried out according to the design stages, according to the source of occurrence. The ranking of risk criteria was proposed to establish the priority of their elimination. The algorithm of risk management proposed by the authors can serve as an addition to existing quality control systems for the stage of designing high-rise buildings.