“From the executive level to the foremen, we see the more conservative types in our company—who are interested in seeing metrics that show its value—and others who are more visionary and believe in the benefits without metrics,” he says. “When we put those two groups together in the same room, we get some good direction and planning.”

But Cole says determining metrics is not a simple task, and it is unclear how to put a dollar value on benefits such as 3D visualization or how to quantify errors that were avoided in the field.

Still, the company is beginning to establish a list of compelling metrics. Linbeck is using BIM at the $250-million, 553,000-sq-ft expansion at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Having worked at the medical center for nearly a quarter century, Linbeck has a significant store of project data to draw from. The company built a similar tower at Cook Children’s in 2003, before it adopted BIM. Although the older tower was roughly two-thirds the size of the current tower, Linbeck expects to complete its BIM job in nearly a year less time.

The previous project also saw more than 600 requests for information. With the current tower at about the halfway mark, Cole says the company has only seen 24 RFI.

“That is a pretty simple metric,” he says. “It’s not perfect, but just by comparing the number of RFI to the duration of the project, the value is pretty clear.”

However, Cole says that going deeper into other uses of BIM can be a challenge.

“We’re not just blindly going at it and pulling everything we can from the goody sack of BIM—there needs to be really specific drivers behind it,” he adds. “We’re driven by economic reality. We could take the time to add additional scope of BIM just to improve our skill-set, but right now we’re focused on what we need to do to execute our projects.”

Gilbane is taking a similar view. Geoff Camp, virtual construction engineer in Gilbane’s southwest regional office in Houston, says that although the company has gained significant BIM skills in recent years, the value equation is a critical factor in its BIM planning.

“The economy definitely puts the question of return on investment under scrutiny,” he says. “Gilbane takes a pragmatic approach. We won’t do things just because we can. We’ll do things to enhance the building and improve the outcome for the client. With the economic conditions what they are now, people have to take that type of approach.”

Gilbane is using BIM at the $80-million Leland Federal Building in Houston, an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act project awarded by the U.S. General Services Administration.

Camp says the team took a targeted approach to its BIM plan, engaging key subs and designers early in the process to figure out how the team could best leverage its BIM capabilities.

“We worked closely with everyone, including GSA, to develop an execution plan that would set the framework for modeling and model-based coordination with our subs to figure out how to deliver it better,” he says. “That’s a critical piece to establishing what makes sense and what doesn’t.”

Camp says many public clients such as GSA are pushing for BIM use on projects. With public projects making up an increasing percentage of available job opportunities, widespread adoption of BIM is proving even more critical.

“Agencies such as the GSA are out front with requirements, and that’s good for development [of BIM],” he adds. “We don’t really see it as a choice at this point. People will need to make the move into BIM if they expect to survive.”