IMAGINiT Architectural Solutions Blog

Download BDC's 2008 Top Building Industry Firms Lists

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Daniel Hughes, ICE) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:07:28 EDT

Building Design+Construction released their annual 2008 Giants 300 List for the building design industry.

Download BDC's individual ranking lists (PDF) of this year's largest ranked design-construction companies.

Companies are ranked across six categories based on the volume of commercial, institutional, industrial, and multifamily residential building work they completed in 2007.

Architects-Top 50

Architect/Engineers-Top 50

Engineers-Top 50

Engineer/Architects-Top 50

Contractors-Top 75

Construction Managers-Top 25

More than 2 dozen individual rankings by sectors reports can be viewed from BDC's 2008 Giants 300 Report webpage. Top government, schools, healthcare, university, institutional, mixed-use and hotel design and contracting firms.

Here's a sample link from one of those ranking sectors: BD+C's Top 150 Building Team LEED APs

Congratulations to this year's firms!

ConsensusDOCS Addressing the "Legal-Ease" of the BIM Process

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Daniel Hughes, ICE) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:32:18 EDT

Contractually addressing the risk management of a BIM design process ALWAYS seems to be a hot topic during my association speaking engagements.

The most recent document I've encountered is the The ConsensusDOCS 301 BIM Addendum which was published on June 30, 2008.

What is ConsensusDOCS?

The quick answer is in this excerpt from an AGC of America March 13, 2008 Press Release titled; GROUNDBREAKING CONTRACT FIRST TO ADDRESS BIM

On September 28, 2007, AGC, in conjunction with 20 other construction associations representing designers, owners, contractors, subcontractors and sureties launched more than 70 collaboratively drafted construction contracts, called ConsensusDOCS. The release represented the first time that broad industry representation has had an equal voice in collaboratively drafting construction contracts. The unprecedented buy–in for these contracts reflects a genuine effort to identify and employ best practices to better the industry.

AGC Members can access/download these documents at a discount from the AGC-Contracts and Construction Law section of the website.

Engineering News Record (ENR) published a story on July 2, 2008; Industry Is Setting the Stage For BIM Collaboration regarding the use of the ConsensusDOCS BIM Addendum. An ENR September 2007 article; New Standard Forms Seek Unity on Fairness provides additional insight on the creation of the BIM Addendum.

McGraw-Hill Construction Video Library has a 2+ minute video interview with Richard Lowe, Attorney at Law, regarding the BIM Addendum. It's titled; BIM Bliss .

Who is Richard Lowe?

Richard Lowe, is a construction lawyer in the Philadelphia office of Duane Morris LLP, he is also chair of AGC's PIAC BIM Forum Legal Subcommittee and an active member of AGC's Contract Documents Committee.

I "found" Mr. Lowe last year after AGC Constructor Magazine featured his legal commentary; Buckling Up Risks (Jan/Feb 2007) regarding the Real Risks of Using BIM. I've referenced this article numerous times during my BIM educational lecturers.

I have also referenced a document created by the legal firm, Donovan Hatem in New York City. Their document; Design Responsibility in Integrated Project Delivery: Looking Back and Moving Forward was published in January 2008. I had the good fortune to attend one of their monthly breakfast Design Professional Roundtables while I was on assignment in New York City. They provide several Donovan Hatem monthly newsletters.

The Donovan Hatem document makes reference to the AIA's Integrated Project Delivery Guide (IPDG). The new AIA IPD contracts became available in May 2008.

Please reference my previous articles BIM: Download AIA Integrated Project Delivery Guide (IPDG) and AIA Webinar: Integrated Project Delivery-New AIA Contracts for more information.

Chicago Revit User Group Meets Autodesk Labs

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Daniel Hughes, ICE) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:29:06 EDT

Douglas Look, Senior Strategic Designer for Autodesk Labs was the guest speaker at the June Chicago Revit User Group meeting. As a graduate of IIT, Douglas has been a licensed architect for 20 years and is still licensed in New York.

Douglas is a contributor to the Autodesk Labs blog; " It's Alive in the Lab" Their blog posted details and photos from Douglas' presentation at the June Chicago Revit User's Group. Autodesk® DWF Composer (Now Autodesk® Design Review) and Autodesk® Architectural Studio were some of Douglas' early projects.

Autodesk Labs provides the public the opportunity to test what may be considered innovative, experimental and disruptive design technologies. Visitors can download and try Autodesk Lab Utilities through their website.

Download the MEP Analysis Extension for AutoCAD MEP/Revit MEP which is a recent extension from the Autodesk Labs website.

Download the STL Exporter for Revit Platform 2009 which creates 3D Prints of your Revit 2009 models; also from Autodesk Labs.

Don't be shy! Autodesk Labs is always looking for design organizations to test some of their experiments. You can almost hear Boris Karloff walking around in this virtual lab.

Photo from wikimedia.org website

Douglas mentioned there are a few Autodesk Labs YouTube Videos that may also define the work of Autodesk Labs.

Autodesk Design on Jeff Han's Perceptive Pixel Multi-Touch Wall

Publishing to Project Freewheel from Autodesk Design Review

Autodesk Labs Project Draw introduction

The Chicago Revit User Group meeting is held monthly in our IMAGINiT Chicago Loop office building at 55 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago.

Contact Tiffany Money , IMAGINiT Chicago Account Manager 312-431-0125 x23 for upcoming Chicago RUG meeting dates.

Download Revit Global Light Utility for 3ds Max

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Daniel Hughes, ICE) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:15:18 EDT

Download Revit Global Light Utility for 3ds Max

The free Revit Global Light Utility for 3ds Max Design, developed by IMAGINiT Technologies, globally turns ON lights coming from Revit. (These lights are OFF by default from Revit.) In addition to 'All ON/All OFF', the utility allows you to separate each specific kind of light (Daylight, Photometric, etc.) or Selected Lights.

More details are posted in our Revit / 3ds Max Design News Article.

I've been vacationing with my family the last 2 weeks in the Wild West. No email. No internet. No Sprint cell phone connections. Cheers to getting back in the saddle again!

CANSTRUCTION Design Competition Hits Chicago

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Daniel Hughes, ICE) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:36:59 EDT

I was greeted by the local CANSTRUCTION model competition as I entered my Chicago hotel lobby.

Canstruction® is the most unique food charity in the world!

A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction® is a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America.

It is a unique collaborative design sponsorship by architects, engineers, interior designers, contractors, building owners and facility managers that Compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food.

In September 2007, I posted a photojournal of CANSTRUCTION's national model winners from their national competition.

Visit my previous post to view past national model winners and see how you and/or your organization can participate.

CANSTRUCTION - One CAN Make a Difference

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:32:29 EDT | Permalink

Congratulations to all Chicago CANSTRUCTION participants. These and the remaining models will be on display through the weekend in the Sun-Times / Holiday Inn-Mart Plaza Lobby.