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The kick-off meeting of New York City’s ad hoc BIM interest group and buildingSMART alliance™ members would have been sold out if tickets were sold. More than 40 people registered to attend the meeting at Parsons Binckerhoff’s Manhattan offices’ 40-person conference room. Others from around the country joined the meeting on the web.
Presentations on buildingSMART Alliance™ initiatives, case studies clearly outlining benefits and a highly informed discussion signaled that New York City is taking a leadership role in outlining the societal and business benefits of BIM (Building Information Models) and the processes it enables.
With buildingSMART Alliance Executive™ Director, Deke Smith, FAIA phoning in from a West Coast conference supported by the Alliance and members on a national web conference, the event demonstrated the use of collaborative tools that improve consensus decision making.
Highlights of the evening included the use of BIM in fire fighter training, road replacement and high rise design and documentation.
Stephen Thomson and James Vandezande and Rachel Arulraj all spoke at the presentation in Parsons Binkerhoff’s New York City offices.
Mr. Stephen Thomson, AIA Principal of Thomson Architects PC, started the formal presentation with a personal overview of the buildingSMART Alliance based on the PowerPoint available at MeetUp.com
Rachel Arulraj, PhD, Director of Virtual Design and Construction, Parsons Brinckerhoff, explained how BIM animations detailed precise tasks for a large road section that was cost-effectively replaced. The clear visuals assisted the consensus decision making required to achieve the cost savings.
James Vandezande, AIA, Associate, Digital Design Manager, SOM, New York, showed a road map for phased BIM implementation, which requires process changes along with tool set updates. While the map was specific to the firm’s goals, obvious financial benefits realized by SOM, it’s colleagues and clients were presented.
Case studies of SOM’s BIM projects on Manhattan high rises including Freedom Tower were used to illustrate clash detection benefits, communication improvements, schedule reduction and cost savings.
Paul Seletsky, AIA Digital Design Director for SOM New York, opened the discussions emphasizing the business process improvements possible with BIM.
The positive applications of BIM in fire safety and emergency response were pointed out in Barton Krauss’ description of advanced pre-incident planning software. Kraus is president of Fire Planning Associates, Inc.
Hosney Abdelgelil, Project Controls Director, Hill International, Inc., New York, noted the productivity lost when design models and construction models are not exchanged properly.
Web participants included buildingSMART Alliance members such as Hector Torres, Igor Starkov and “BIG BIM little bim” author, Finith Jernigan, who were among those networking online while the live New York networking session was occurring in the Parson Binkerhoff conference center.
Hosney Abdelgelil, who organized the event with Diaa Elmaddah, PE, Project Manager for Parsons Binkerhoff, added that interoperability of models, insurance and legal issues will be main threads through future discussions.
The second gathering is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18 at 5:30 pm. A meeting place that can accommodate more than 40 people and large-scale web links are being arranged to reduce carbon foot print in creating a large network.
Co-Founder
BIM Education Co-op™
BIMeducation.com
Board of Directors Member
Friends of Downtown - Chicago
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