PSA-Dewberry Presents Building Information Modeling Case Study to the General Services Administration at the Southeast Sunbelt Region BIM Workshop
Kirk Stuaan and Gerry Guerrero of PSA-Dewberry recently presented the Rockford Federal Courthouse as a Building Information Modeling (BIM) case study at the General Services Administration (GSA) Public Buildings Service BIM Workshop entitled "Enhancing Constructability with BIM" in Atlanta, Georgia on March 6, 2008.
PSA-Dewberry, as Architect-of-Record, in association with Koetter/Kim & Associates Inc., completed the planning and design of the new, $54-million federal courthouse in 2003. In 2006, prior to the project being bid, GSA turned to PSA-Dewberry to construct a 3-D model using BIM as part of a pilot program through the Office of the Chief Architect. This 3-D model helped team members see how the complete building functioned. The design team used the building model to evaluate various systems and see how the disciplines connected and interacted in light of increasingly stringent federal requirements. BIM enabled PSA-Dewberry to create a proof-of-concept model for GSA to validate the systems and components for each discipline.
Gerry Guerrero estimated that using BIM on the project will possibly decrease the change order percentage by 60% related to construction issues and translates to a potential construction cost savings of 0.5 to 1%. PSA-Dewberry also anticipates the possibility of cutting a month or two from the project’s construction time line.
