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Advertising supplement provided by American Institute of Steel Construction

By Larry Flynn

By shifting a significant portion of the effort, cost, and risk forward during the design phase, the savings to the project and the client is realized on the back end of the project, during construction, through significant increases in productivity, resulting in lower costs and early project completion. This must be communicated to the owner, who must accept the idea of increasing design fees and modifying risk structures, in exchange for lower construction costs through fewer change orders, and an earlier completion of the project.

The need for this reallocation also must be effectively communicated to the building team members, who must commit to the give and take integral to the BIM process. Decisions must be based on what is best for the team and the project. Throughout the course of an integrated BIM project, situations will arise that may require extra effort from team members. An appropriate level of trust and commitment must be built among the team members so that they are comfortable and supportive of the effort and can reasonably expect that somewhere in the course of the project they too will benefit from the process.

It is not necessary that a project utilize design-build project delivery to take advantage of the benefits of the BIM process. However, the greatest value will be achieved utilizing BIM on a design-build project. It is recommended that a firm’s initial foray into BIM be on a project characterized by a collaborative design-build culture, and a design-build project. The vertical integration of the structural engineer and steel detailer, fabricator, erectors on projects, such as the GM plant, Denver Art Museum, and Mt. Tahoma High School all utilized a design-build framework to increase productivity. In the steel industry, the formation of design-build alliances is flourishing, with more than 20 such partnerships having been formed throughout the United States in recent years. Such arrangements enable team members to share risk and maximize their effectiveness, resulting in even greater productivity gains to projects.

An expanded scope of project management is a significant issue for architects when implementing BIM. In defining a project earlier with the creation of a 3-D model, there is a need to front-load fees to account for the redistribution of the project management tasks. In this area, the architect must control the client’s expectations and the process early on, says SmithGroup’s Thoman.

Early integration of the design team, involving the architect, structural engineer, and specialty contractor is essential to BIM.

• The architect should work to bring the design team together, including members such as the steel fabricator, detailer, even the erector, who can add value to the design process, but who typically haven’t become involved in the project until the latter stages of design.
• Meetings should be arranged with the design team to layout the ground rules and decide on the process and workflow of the project.
• The purpose of the model and what level of modeling is required for the project should be established. If the team is overly ambitious and attempts to model every minute detail, the model may be at risk of becoming so large and cumbersome that its usefulness is diminished. “The thought used to be to do everything in the model,” says SmithGroup’s Mammen. “Now we say use the model to the best value.” Whatever level of modeling is decided upon, it is critical for the team to always maintain and update the model, says Douglas Steel’s Kruth.
• To reduce risk, contract language should designate ownership of the model, how the model will be shared, and who will manage the model at what stages of design. In some cases, there will be one model manager and in others there may be a transitioning of responsibility for the model from one team member to another as design progresses. This varies, depending on the project. On the Denver Art Museum expansion project, general contractor M.A. Mortenson was the designated “model manager.” SmithGroup’s Chicago office has hired a veteran architect as its dedicated “data manager,” responsible for coordinating the various computer files and models that are integrated into a BIM.
• Contract language should also address the issue of review and approval of 3-D shop drawings versus 2-D drawings. AIA is anticipating the release of exhibit documents to supplement its model contracts in late 2006. And other industry groups such as the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) are at work on contractual issues affecting the sharing of digital information. Another resource is AISC’s Appendix A: Digital Building Product Models of the Code of Standard Practice for Steel Buildings and Bridges.
• Collaboration, team integration, and communication are the key to any BIM project. Architects experienced with BIM in an integrated design team approach would argue that the risk involved to the team members is actually less than with a conventional delivery method, because of the collaborative environment and trust that is built into the process. “The risk actually goes down with integrated design because everyone has a stake in the process,” says J.R. Barker, P.E., S.E., of Structural Consultants Inc., Denver, the connection design firm for the Denver Art Museum expansion. Through integration and collaboration, issues are raised and resolved digitally, before they become larger problems later in the project, causing delays, increasing costs, and raising tensions.