BIM in Texas

BIM Shifts Construction Processes and Team Relationships

After working through the learning curve, Texas teams are finding savings and paradigm shifts in how the building team works together.

By Mary Lou Jay

Building information modeling is the new buzzword in construction and promises to make as significant an impact as LEED on design and construction practices.

Although some people use the terms BIM and 3-D interchangeably, a true BIM project goes far past modeling. The National Building Information Model Standard Project Committee, defines BIM as “a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility, forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life cycle, from earliest conception to demolition.” The committee adds that BIM is a “collaboration by different stakeholders to insert, extract, update or modify information.”

Collaboration was the key element when George Pontikes, owner of Satterfield and Pontikes Construction Inc., decided to use BIM to construct his headquarters building in West Houston. Each member of the team— Kirksey Architecture, Walter P Moore (structural) and TD Industries (mechanical), all from Houston—was already using 3-D modeling internally.

“What they had not had before was their information integrated in a full intelligent model like we used on this project,” says John Marshall, vice president of marketing at Satterfield and Pontikes.  The project team used NavisWorks to bring each company’s information into the single BIM model.

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“The way things work today, you would find that out when you get to the field.  With BIM, you’re able to resolve those problems ahead of time.” 

The BIM process worked so well that Walter P Moore made no RFIs once construction started. “When all the parties are using it, it just provides breakthrough results,” says Jim Jacobi, the company’s chief information officer. “There are so many coordination and collaborative issues that come to light. It’s stunning when compared to the traditional document approach.”

Automating the documentation directly from the BIM model helps reduce errors and omissions, says Russell Wooten, an associate with Kirksey. 

It also makes all processes—design, documentation and construction—more efficient. The 65,000-sq-ft Satterfield and Pontikes building, for example, was completed in less than 10 months.

“That kind of time frame for design, documentation and construction would not have happened if we had not had a BIM team,” Wooten says.

Obstacles to BIM acceptance

At present, one of the major drawbacks to BIM is the learning process that companies must go through as they use it.

 “This is not about buying some software licenses, sending your people to class for a week and then you’re in the new world,” Jacobi says. “It’s a transformational way of doing business, and it does take training and investment.”

“The learning curve is enormous because it’s such a different environment than what most people are used to,” adds Ron Meyer, project architect with HKS Inc. of Dallas. He is using Revit’s version of BIM (internally only) to design a hospital/physicians office project in San Antonio for the Christus Santa Rosa health care system. 

“Revit wants you to think in a different way,” Meyer says. “BIM contains so much more information than AutoCAD or any drafting programs before.”

After gaining experience on several BIM projects, HKS is beginning to show improvements in efficiency, productivity and quality, he says. “I think we’re about to turn the corner where it’s helping us out with our bottom line,” Meyer adds.

BIM also requires owners and building team members to rethink their traditional working relationships. “I think eventually it’s going to rewrite how we word our contracts with clients and contractors, and it’s going to rework our traditional phases from schematic design and design development through bid negotiations and the construction phase,” Meyer says. “The product enables all the industry players to work together.”

Rewards are real

There are more benefits than drawbacks for companies willing to expend the time and resources to learn how to work in a BIM.

First are the time savings. “I think it’s safe to say that we save 10%, and I’m hoping it will be more,” Meyer says.

Another advantage is better collaboration. When Los Angeles-based CO Architects designed a 125,000-sq-ft medical education at Texas Tech University using BIM, “one benefit we saw was the way that our team interacted with each other,” says Jonathan Kanda, senior associate and lead architect. “There was increased communication between team members here in the office because everyone was working on one model.” 

Experienced BIM partners can expect increased opportunities, Kirksey’s Wooten adds.  “We have built the relationships and have gone through the growing pains, so we know how to work together,” he says. “We’d like to see these relationships mature into other projects.”

 BIM will allow better communication with owners, Meyer says. “If the owner has difficulty understanding why we have to change something, it’s a lot easier if you can show him a three-dimensional view of why it has to happen than to explain it with pen and paper,” Meyer says.