Ron Klemencic, who at 6 ft, 6 in., towers over most people, may be afraid of heights but he certainly goes to great lengths to reach new ones, especially when it involves performance-based seismic design of tall buildings.
J. Patrick Kociolek, the lauded visionary behind the super-green reinvention of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, doesn’t let grass grow under his feet, at least not for long.
The new Green Building Certification Institutes, sister organization to Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council, is about to launch a total overhaul of the exam system for professionals seeking accreditation to design and build green buildings according to USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, known as LEED. The overhaul, announced at USGBC’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, Nov. 19-21 in Boston, creates a tiered-credential and specific tests for different types of buildings. GBCI, formed last month, will take over credentialing and building certification from USGBC in January. Peter Templeton, USGBC’s former vice president of education and research,
The Associated General Contractors BIM Forum is a wild success, attracting 1,600members in less than three years fromall areas of building design and construction.There is no cost to join, but that’s not whymembership is increasing daily, at a rate of30% each year. The forum is so popular becauseit is considered the best place for collaborationand collective action to relieve theaches and achieve the potential gains of theparadigm shift to building-information-modeling-enabled design and construction. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change Virtual Collaborative Charrettes Give Glimpse of Future Forum Tackles Teamwork Issues Strong Owner Leadership Can
First comes “lonely” BIM, when a firm begins to tool up for building-information-modeling-enabled projects. Then comes “social” BIM, when a firm collaborates with other firms using BIM. Next comes “intimate” BIM, when the owner, architect and contractor share risk and reward contractually via BIM-enabled integrated project delivery. Finally, when work gets heavenly, there is “cheruBIM.” Slide Show Photo: Onuma, Inc. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change Virtual Collaborative Charrettes Give Glimpse of Future Forum Tackles Teamwork Issues Strong Owner Leadership Can Optimize Project Collaboration Building Information Modeling Snags Don’t Dampen Spirits Lawyers Struggle with
Kimon Onuma keeps whipping up BIMStorms, his Web-based planning charrettes that can involve hundreds of building team members. The next BIMStorm will be live at the AECST Conference in Washington, D.C., from Dec. 8-11. Onuma, who uses the Onuma Planning System software to en-able the charrettes, plans to have a theater on the AECST show floor. There will be live interactions with teams involved in earlier BIMStorms—a word coined in 2007. For all of 2009, Onuma Inc., Pasadena, Calif., is planning an ongoing “low-carbon collaboration” BIMStorm. Photo: Onuma, Inc. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For
Startup advice to designers about to launch into building information modeling: “Jump in with both feet; halfway measures do not work best. Use BIM on an actual project with a technology-savvy team that won’t be intimidated by the software. Training works best if it is used it right away, so apply it as you go. Set up training sessions that use the actual project for work samples. Get outside help from a knowledgeable and effective trainer, perhaps found through your software vendor. Once started, stick with it. There will be some frustrations at first, but you’ll work through them. Set
Constructors, some of whom have been using building information models to help them build faster, better and for less money for several years, are still grappling with many of the same BIM challenges facing designers: software immaturity, hardware costs, training, reworking of traditional relationships and habits, and especially interoperability. Though contractors don’t have the same concerns about intellectual property, they have other issues. One big one is field acceptance of, and reliance on, BIM-enabled construction. Builders report resistance from their superintendents down the supply chain to tradespeople. Related Links: Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change Virtual