Looking Ahead

How BIM Creates a Totally Integrated Vision of a High School’s Proposed Student Center

There are no walls in place. No floor joists assembled. The high school hasn’t even held a groundbreaking ceremony. But Judith Wimberg, president of Cincinnati’s St. Ursula Academy (SUA), has already been inside the school’s proposed commons facility. Wimberg got a look at the building via Building Information Model (BIM) technology from SHP Leading Design (SHP).

BIM software allows architects to model an entire building in a totally integrated approach. The technology covers geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information, and quantities and properties of building components, incorporating every element into a single, virtual, three-dimensional model.

Planning in Three Dimensions

Explains Dick Thomas, AIA, LEED-AP, vice president, SHP, “Up until very recently, our industry survived on the basis of a flat drawing with lines on it. With BIM, we’ve gone from drawing a flat line to using the computer to draw a line that has height, width, volume and texture. It allows us to draw a plan and immediately understand that plan in three dimensions.”

BIM allows the client to view interior renderings much earlier in the design process and evaluate them for functionality and aesthetics.

Learn More

AutoDesk Revit®, the software behind BIM, transforms information put into the floor plan into elevations, sections and rendering, allowing a complete visualization of the design concept in two and three dimensions. Clients get a better understanding of their design without having to wait weeks to see it, and can view changes almost as soon as they are made.

BIM mitigates the risk of error, thanks to increased coordination between those working on the design. Designers make changes to the same virtual model in real time. They can “check out” portions of the plan to make revisions offline, and then “check in” that portion once changes are complete. Thanks to this system, only one person is able to make revisions to a specific area at one time. BIM automatically verifies there are no conflicts between changes, reducing the potential for costly change orders.

“It’s really quite impressive,” Wimberg says. “They [SHP] told us they could create the picture of the building and give us all kinds of views of it, and they could change the building and let us see exactly how it will work. We can say, ‘Okay, let’s put the elevator here,’ and they can manipulate the space and give us an idea of what it’s going to look like.”

Every Change Accounted For

BIM allows designers to demonstrate how those kinds of changes will impact the overall building design and cost. It also allows designers to share /insitemag/images that cover more detail than simply where walls and doors will go, including placement of furniture and even artwork.

“I’ve got pictures of what the dining room could look like, with all these really pretty tables,” Wimberg says. “There will be a southern exposure to the windows, and a balcony, and I can see a view onto the back street.”

This kind of detail makes design solutions easier to explain. SHP proposed that the SUA commons project be constructed in a space flanked on three sides by existing buildings, including the school’s historic chapel. Just one problem: how would sunlight find the way through the new addition to the chapel’s stunning stained-glass windows?

“SHP recommended this location because it’s in the path of how the kids travel,” Wimberg says. “It really fits the use of the building better. But we can’t block all the light going into the chapel. You don’t want to have the windows opening up into another building.”

“The best solution was a large skylight situated in such a way to allow natural light to always be available to the chapel windows,” Thomas says. BIM let SHP demonstrate exactly how that light would look shining into the chapel.

“It adds some dimension to the new building, but also accomplishes the purpose of keeping the light going into the chapel,” Wimberg says.

BIM has the ability to provide the client multiple perspectives of the building within minutes—from the entire site layout, to a specific entrance, to adding an entire addition.

Learn More

Because BIM makes instantaneous visual representations available, such as stop-action or animated walk-through sequences, SHP could share how student traffic would flow from existing buildings into and through the new addition.

“We took school representatives on a couple of ‘walks’ through sequences in the building,” Thomas says. “Start at the ground floor, walk up the stairs, walk around and see all of the elements in real time, in real scale.” The virtual tour showcased the first-floor dining room, a mixed-use intermediate level and the upper-floor library.

BIM can also be used to demonstrate an entire building life cycle, from the construction process through facility operation. Quantities and shared properties of materials can easily be extracted. Scopes of work can be isolated and defined. The interoperability of requirements of construction documents includes the drawings, procurement details, environmental conditions, submittal processes and other specifications for building quality.

Seeing the Future

BIM can even help reduce construction schedules. “BIM enables us to develop solutions so well integrated and coordinated that it lessens the building time,” Thomas says. “By saving time and reducing error, we have more time to create inspiring designs for our clients. For an architect, it’s an incredibly powerful tool.”

The groundbreaking of the St. Ursula commons is still quite some time in the future—first the school must raise the money needed to fund the building. As it happens, BIM could prove to be a helpful tool for that part of the process as well. The in-depth look that BIM provides can increase excitement among potential donors. And should the budget change, BIM will also help SHP immediately update any resulting design changes.

But for now, SUA is staying positive. As Wimberg says, “We’re still going for the dream.”

A dream that is as easy to visualize as reality.