Virtual Building technology drives community support

Muller & Caulfield Architects - Oakland, California, U.S.

The firm began creating designs for the Thousand Oaks Elementary School in 1994 and initially, all of their work was designed using AutoCAD. As Rosemary Muller, President and founder, explained, "We had an idea of how architectural software should behave and we knew that AutoCAD was not it. Our firm found the user interface both hard to work with and counter-intuitive." As a former systems engineer for IBM, Muller kept her eye out for a software that was user-friendly, efficient, and powerful and would help Muller & Caulfield continue to grow its successes as a firm and reach the more prestigious playing field she felt it deserved.

A new design course

The architectural firm first utilized ArchiCAD® on the Thousand Oaks School project in 1997. It was during this initial project that Muller & Caulfield truly began to conceptualize the impact the software would have, not only on the school project, but on the firm's future growth and success. A new member of the Thousand Oaks design team, seeing the challenges the project faced, decided to convert the entire AutoCAD-based project into ArchiCAD. This implementation would give Muller & Caulfield a significant advantage in designing the school by: offering them the capability to present their client with a visual model of the finished buildings; facilitating smoother communication; allowing them to show accurate implications of design changes; and allowing for a faster turnaround time when applying changes to the design document.

In the beginning of the project, the firm worked in conjunction with another architectural firm. Over time, it became obvious that the new school, a campus surrounded by an old residential neighborhood, faced severe opposition from a number of community and neighborhood associations. As the issues and turmoil reached a head, the co-designing firm dropped out of the project, making Muller & Caulfield the lead designer. "From the outset, we faced significant barriers. Neighbors, community organizations, local preservationists – none of them wanted the new school built. They even went as far as having the previous school declared a landmark because they didn't like the initial designs for the new buildings," Muller said.

Designs for the Thousand Oaks Elementary School consisted of seven inter-connected buildings, located on a gentle slope, all linked by covered walkways. The playground, for example, was accessible via the street by passing underneath the building, using the school building itself as a form of bridge. The intricate layout and detailed concept, however, were elements the client and community organizations were unable to understand or visualize. "There were a number of negative perceptions relating to the new school, but all this was before we presented the design in ArchiCAD," Muller explained.

Winning with vision

ArchiCAD's Virtual Reality interactive navigation was crucial to obtaining the support needed to complete the school project. By placing a series of virtual panoramic cameras in the building model Muller & Caulfield was able to generate a panorama walk through of the school to present to their client and opposing parties. "Initially, we had complaints from the neighbors and community associations, all saying they were not going to approve the design. All that changed, though, when we showed them the panorama walk through – they became extremely supportive. Those that at the beginning disagreed with our design ended out helping us to acquire the funding needed to complete the project," stated Muller.

ArchiCAD's Virtual Building approach allowed Muller & Caulfield to present the client with a walk through (a photo-rendered animation) of the model, giving them a better sense of what the campus would look like. Viewers first saw the buildings from across the street, then were walked down and into the campus, under the library bridge, and into the playground. They could turn around, view the other side of the school from the playground and walk up the stairs to visit one of the small upper courtyards.

Although the client and opposing parties had initially been shown design models, they had not completely understood what the campus would look like. The ability to move through the buildings and place them in their planned environment convinced them there would be no surprises and allowed them to completely grasp the look and feel of the finished product. "Now that the school is completed several people who saw the walkthrough commented that the school looks just as they had expected", Muller commented.

Delivering on alterations

During the design phase, Muller & Caulfield also received numerous requests from the school district to make changes to the new campus design. Because ArchiCAD provides software that is fully integrated, whenever the design document was altered, in either the two or three dimensional view, the changes were automatically replicated throughout the project's design and documentation set. This allowed for the firm to submit requested changes in a timely fashion and demonstrate the implications.

"There was a point during the project when the Berkley School district superintendent requested the classroom patios to be placed on the entry side of the classrooms, rather than on the opposite side. I was concerned that by moving the patios they would be shaded by the covered walkways for a majority of the day, receiving very limited sunlight. They didn't agree though, so we decided to run a sun study. The study showed me that there was actually enough sun early or late in the day, even though the patio was shaded at noon," says Muller. ArchiCAD's interactive 3D navigation capabilities within the Virtual Building enabled Muller & Caulfield to cast a shadow on the proposed patio during any point of the day, allowing the firm to demonstrate the effects of design changes in a timely fashion. This information was a critical factor for the client in making decisions about the building design and revisions to the original plans.

Muller & Caulfield completed construction at the Thousand Oaks Elementary School in 2000. Before even starting to build the campus, however, they won The ‘Project-in-Design' award from the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (C.A.S.H.) and the American Institute of Architects, California Council, because of the 3D ArchiCAD images and renderings they had submitted. Upon completion, the firm won another AIA award for their design and construction of the Thousand Oaks Elementary School.