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Owners will drive use of expensive BIM technology

By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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WEST MICHIGAN — Construction today is done much the same way it has been for hundreds of years. Architects and engineers design a building. Construction crews build said drawing. Disagreements over the designs are hashed out on the job site, driving change-of-work orders that can delay construction.

However, a technology gaining wider acceptance within the construction industry is changing that dynamic. With building information modeling (BIM), architects and engineers render buildings in three dimensions, uncovering conflicts that would otherwise be found on the job site, when mistakes in engineering or design drawings can send construction over budget and drag it behind schedule, as well as predicting the performance of the building.

The technology, fueled largely by Autodesk’s Revit Architecture software, helps bring many players from designers, construction managers and subcontractors to the owners to the table to find problems early on in the construction process, said Paul Jacob, AIA, VP of planning for Lansing-based Christman Co.

“The benefits are quite tangible. By pulling a team together for coordination purposes early on, we reduce conflicts (and) eliminate surprises,” Jacob told MiBiz. “By constructing the building virtually, we are discovering the same problems we would on site, without material on site and staff standing around. We can move from the results of a BIM exercise and see that our certainty and ability to manage risk are increased significantly. The solutions we come up with by breaking down the silos, generally are optimized for better building performance.”

Christman has been using BIM for four years, slowly integrating the technology into its core business. With offices across the state, the firm has been able to devote staff members to integrate BIM into its projects, said Dan LaMore, West Michigan SVP for Christman.

“Most people think of this as a technical tool, but it has become a great leadership tool. We expect our contractors to do quality control, and this is a tool to improve that coordination,” LaMore said. “At the end of the process, it is a more user-friendly system for the owner when we leave.”

McGraw Hill, distributor of AutoDesk, thinks only around 50 percent of construction and design firms currently use BIM. If the design and construction trades are not yet incorporating BIM in their businesses, owners are starting to require it in their prequalification contracts language, according to many in the industry.

Area universities and hospital groups are turning to BIM to help manage the operation of their buildings, renovations and new construction, and it is frequently turning up in prequalification documents, said Kip Young, VP of Kal-Blue, a software and graphic support business for the architectural, engineering and construction industries. The company also sells and conducts training for BIM software. Young said owners are working with Kal-Blue to help integrate BIM into their facilities management.

“My concern is how we are being engaged by owners; that this trend will leave the local contractors behind and leave the door open for larger firms who have been the early adopters of this technology,” Young told MiBiz.

Facilities managers are drawing on Indiana University’s guidelines and standards documents that outline BIM’s role in awarding contracts. Young is concerned that while the large construction companies such as Christman have taken the lead in incorporating the new technology into their business strategy, smaller companies and local contractors and subcontractors have yet to use it to any wide extent.

Kalamazoo-based construction management firm Miller-Davis Co. has been waiting for the right project to make the move to BIM. The firm has used 3-D modeling on previous projects to good effect, finding conflicts in the steel construction designs for the Joyce Center on the campus of Notre Dame, but is waiting for owners to drive the push for BIM, said Michele Wreggelsworth, senior project manager.

“We see the advantages — you can shorten the amount of time on the job site. The biggest advantage for us is clash detection,” Wreggelsworth told MiBiz. “We feel the value of BIM is for the owner. At the end of the day, they have a 3-D as-built rendering of the building. This has to be driven by owners because as a (construction manager), it is like pushing a rope uphill.”

The largest issue preventing more widespread utilization of BIM, Wreggelsworth said, is conflict over the intellectual property associated with designs. Architects and engineers have been reluctant to allow widespread access to the Revit models, fearing the risks associated with changes to the design. A way out, according to industry experts, is to form a limited liability company with the building owner, owner’s representative, design and construction manager all on the formation documents with the owner taking control of the Revit models at the end of construction.

Christman’s LaMore agrees.

“We are seeing a lot of resistance from architectural firms as a way of controlling communication and their design liability,” LaMore said. “Now there are models out there to be altered, changes that otherwise would have been more controlled by the architect.”

Arnie Bunkley, owner of AB2 Architecture in Portage, said even for small firms like his, BIM has advantages. Bunkley has been advocating expanded use of BIM for the last eight years, and teaches courses on the technology.

“After bids are accepted, you send out drawings, but you are not able to make modifications to them readily during construction. With BIM, I am able to move around in that model and give clients and contractors a view of how these changes affect the building,” Bunkley told MiBiz. “I feel more a part of a team when I can show them the model and know it can work because I have built it virtually.”

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TAGS:

• 3-d modeling
• arnie bunkley
• bim
• construction
• dan lamore
• design build
• kip young
• michele wreggelsworth
• paul jacob
• western michigan