Fear of...

by Dominic Gallello, CEO - Graphisoft

South Miami Cultural Center: The Tower Group

Fear is not a state of being that people like to talk about much. There are a lot of dictionary definitions of fear. A succinct one is, "a reason for dread or apprehension". I talk to principals from some of the largest architectural firms in the world who tell me in very subtle ways that they have two related fears. "Fear of not going to 3D" and interestingly enough, "fear of going to 3D".

The fear of "not going" to 3D is for many reasons:

Process - Architects know that their current production process is antiquated and filled with painful rework and coordination mistakes.
Customers - Further, they see owners now demanding designs done in 3D because of the time and cost savings for the owner. According to the FMI/CMAA Fifth Annual Survey of Owners, the time taken to complete key phases of construction runs 20-50% longer than planned. A key reason - incomplete drawings.
Risk - Perhaps the biggest fear for some architects is about liability that is increasing over time. Contractors are showing up at owners meetings with 3D models that point out all of the coordination issues that they found in the architects' 2D drawing set. This is becoming a kind of call to action to the architectural profession to provide better quality.
Competition - The competition is moving the a model based design environment fast. The implications are obvious for those who are having trouble making the move.

In our own construction services projects we build 5D models from 2D drawings sets. In every project of any size, whether it is in the schematic design, detailed design or construction documentation set, we always find hundreds of "discrepancies" where our modelers either find conflicts and omissions or simply not enough information to build the virtual model. Of course, if you cannot build the "virtual model" without trying to guess what the architect's intent was, it poses the same but more costly difficulty in building the real building.

In a recent survey we conducted, 0% of 2D users said their current process was good enough. However, the main reasons they cited as to why they have remained in a 2D environment were:

No time to change
3D (BIM) is too hard to learn
We may not be able to deliver drawings to clients in time if we go to BIM

If I don't call the above reasons fear, at least for the sake of argument, we can call them "apprehension".

My favorite quote about fear is from Rosa Parks who lived a humble life as a seamstress. Parks is famous for her refusal in 1955 to obey bus driver James Blake's demand that she relinquish her seat to a white man. She said about fear, "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear".

I believe in our industry, most people have made up their mind to go to 3D but there is still a mystery about what must be done. Since our customers have been implementing 3D Virtual Building projects for more than 15 years, I can see the best and worst practices. If I can summarize the best practices, they are:

Aurora Tower,
Courtesy of Cottee Parker Architects
and the Hensel Phelps Company
Executive commitment - Leaders in firms have to declare and support, period! Instead of hoping that individuals will just pick it up and transform the firm it has to be a top level decision. Make it a company commitment. It can only be a "agree and commit or a disagree and commit, but commit".
Champion - Find an internal champion. No champion, no success. If there isn't an internal champion committed to success, hire one!
Give the time - The companies that give their staff time to get proper training reap the results quickly. On the other hand, asking staff to do an hour of training here and there while they are in the thick of a project is almost always doomed for failure. Also, reward employees for taking their personal time to roll up their sleeves to learn a new work method. There are innovative self-placed learning tools that are available for free that have never existed in the industry before.

Ameristar Hotel,
courtesy of Ameristar Casinos
and the Hensel Phelps Company
The process manager - A 3D workflow is proven dramatically more efficient but it is nonetheless different There is a lot of new things to consider including project team size, communicating with other project team members, communication with partners, office organization, document management, file size, size of the 3D model, hardware requirements. To get more insight into these challenges, go to http://archicadwiki.com/Big_Building_Whitepaper
Mix it up to start - For a 5 person team, put 3 first time users with an experienced insider and if possible, an experienced outsider.
Real projects - with executive commitment and someone who has done it before to guide the new team members, pick an important project for the firm. It will get done!

So you now have made up your mind and you know what do to. Will it be worth it? Our customers who have done over 1 million completed projects have indicated loud and clear that it is. Fear no more...