It's a BIM New World

MVE and its affiliated companies have been early adopters of Building Information Modeling (BIM), integrating this remarkable tool into the design, presentation and management of our most complex projects.

Architects used to use paper, pencil, and rulers, and small-scale models, to represent proposed construction. Then they used Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) to produce the same type of drawing they did with paper and pencil. But today, MVE architects "build" a building virtually on the computer in 3D onscreen, replete with the building structure, the building systems and the building components such as walls, doors and windows and much more - at times incorporating components specified by manufacturer name. That is BIM.

The information-dense BIM model then becomes the manual to guide construction, and can be easily updated at any time. MVE is on the forefront of this latest revolution in technology, working with REVIT, the architectural software produced by Autodesk and a leading firm in its use, development and implementation.

When it comes to BIM, we have a lot of reasons to take full advantage of its capabilities and push it too its limits.

BIM is not only useful in the creation of the documents for construction; it is peerless in the "imagineering" stage of architecture. In the increasingly complete and realistic virtual 3D world, we can easily manipulate architecture, and discover advantages and drawbacks of mutating designs, whether speaking to aesthetics or constructability.

The upshot of using BIM is a much tighter, coordinated set of construction drawings, and much-improved documentation. Guesswork and contractor innovations are being reduced, along with mistakes.

Design options can be more easily rendered for clients, or regulators, leading to accelerating the approval process, while increasing client satisfaction.

At MVE and MVE Institutional, we have implemented BIM on most projects. At the Performing Arts Center at Oxnard Community College, MVE Institutional is using BIM not only on the main structure, but to model the buildings structural and mechanical equipment, the lighting system, even the catwalks. This will help ensure that performance requirement equipment such as the lighting grids, etc. mesh with building operational requirements, and that the "facility" works, even before it is built. At Los Angeles Unified School District, MVE Institutional is using BIM to model the entire high school campus and taking advantage of the model to track and meet regulatory requirements for room sizes, while designing the school.

While learning, installing and implementing BIM at times is challenging, the architects and designers at MVE have also found it to be a liberating technology. Architects can spend more time developing design solutions, while BIM can be used to remind architects of client, engineering or regulatory mandates, and of costs incurred. As BIM supplants standard construction documents, we can expect tighter adherence to design at building jobsites.

Look out, it's a BIM new world.