Autodesk University is to us “ArchiNerds” what ComicCon is for those who speak Klingon. Once you arrive, you’re awash in a swirling cloud of excited chatter about APIs, Buzzsaw integration with Bluestreak and Navisworks, and Integrated Project Delivery.  Now, I don’t quite understand exactly what APIs are, but could nonetheless, grasp the gravity and fervor behind Autodesk’s latest efforts to support collaboration across professions, teams, and offices.

Classes about how to collaborate effectively using new innovations in Revit, AutoCAD, Buzzsaw, Navisworks, and 3D Studio Max, had people actually… well…collaborating.  You couldn’t eat lunch, or walk to a class without rubbing shoulders with civil engineers, software developers, architects, illustrators, structural engineers, manufacturers, and even Disney Imagineers, most of whom were involved in interdisciplinary discussions about how to better collaborate among themselves. 

At work we talk a lot about collaborating, but we fail to actually approach someone from another discipline with a problem or a question if we’re having difficulty, especially at the moment the problem arises. Autodesk certainly stepped up the resources that would make these sorts of things possible in an office, or between offices.

Imagine the architect in Fort Collins, and the engineer onsite in Portland, able to open the same Building Information Model on an iPad to review a detail in 3-D, make changes, then record the changes in a project “facebook-type wall” for anyone else in the team to be able to see, real time? That is practically a reality right now, and what’s more, firms are starting to use that technology to streamline their project delivery.

What I took away from AU this year is this: Where I work, we have been ahead of the curve. We’ve based our company on interdisciplinary collaboration. We deliver a quality product faster than the traditional design-build delivery, and it gives us a decided edge over our competition, but we can’t rest on our laurels either. We have to continue to take advantage of the advances that are being made at this very moment.

My last project started out with a two-day, in-person summit involving all of the major players in the building process: the superintendant of the previous building, the client, the architect, an interior designer, a drafter, and the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers. This sort of meeting would (in the world of architecture before integrated project delivery) have previously been considered a complete waste of time. Why talk when someone could be ‘Designing The Building’. What it actually accomplished was a solid idea to use going forward about what systems we were going to be using, what we were going to innovate, what required further research, when deadlines would be met, and of course, when we’d all sit down together again to talk about progress. It identified problems with coordinating systems early on, instead of waiting for the engineer to review a set of drawings completed entirely by the architect on assumptions about what the engineers would do. We avoided re-work, we put names with faces, we became a team for the client.

New software is taking the face-to-face summit, and pushing its possibilities farther. Our company now uses Adobe Connect to videoconference and share computer desktops real-time. Using Bluebeam Editor now allows anyone in the meeting to mark up plans via Adobe Connect as everyone watches, and distribute the redlines immediately for review. No printing, no paper, no waiting.

Integrated Project Delivery is much more than fancy software tools though. The Design-Build world has long understood that working together is better than one person working in isolation, and submitting for review. But Integrated Project Delivery pushes even that mentality to its further boundary. It encourages architects, engineers, and production staff to work hand in hand, minute by minute. Web conferencing, marking up plans over the Internet real-time, updating team members minute-by-minute of file changes using Project Bluestreak from Autodesk. Exchanging Revit files in seconds using Buzzsaw from Autodesk, uploading the Revit file from Buzzsaw to Navisworks, and getting feedback in hours instead of days… this is where we’re headed. What a wild ride. It’s a mental shift from working by yourself, and completing your vision of the project, to melding your vision with the vision of the entire team up front, and as you go. As one of my teachers at AU so eloquently said, ‘BIM isn’t a software, it’s a mindset.’

You can now ‘walk through’ your new building before a shovel of dirt has been lifted, climb stairs, or enter a lobby. This is Ben and Jody’s world. No longer are architectural drawings and cumbersome models with limited audiences the only ways clients can visualize and promote projects.  Today, computers have changed how architectural “models” are made and The Neenan Company is part of this revolution with a design team in-house who create and produce digital graphics.

Ben and Jody’s studio is completely full of the latest animation software and giant state-of-the-art computer screens. Ben trained in interior design and architecture, and Jody studied printmaking. Their backgrounds in art and creative problem solving along with years of computer experience have prepared them to work with designers, architects and clients to make short movies about Neenan projects. Using the same software used by the major motion picture industry, Ben and Jody animate architectural drawings, ideas and client dreams. These movies combine the best of movie making, commercials and architectural models in an exciting and riveting few minutes. State-of-the-art animation can make a building seem to appear out of thin air or unfold like an enormous Transformer toy. Viewers can soar through space and float through hallways and office spaces.  Using these videos, clients can also lease space before the first nail in the project has been pounded.

Keeping the design process in-house allows clients and Neenan staff to work collaboratively as they design spaces and communicate what those spaces will do. Working with architects and interior designers, Jody and Ben pay attention to minute details to create the interiors and areas surrounding a building. If you want to promote the location of other businesses in relation to your building project, they can place your project into context, right down to making sure that roads, trees and landscaping appear in place by using Google Maps. The finished digital product can then be propelled electronically around the globe.

With changes in the industry this year, we can expect everyone to leap towards such new tools and push for Integrated Project Delivery. Everyone will need to step up their learning to stay ahead of the curve.  One of the ways we can do this is to understand what new technologies and techniques are used by individuals and departments.  When we better understand what others are doing, we can support their initiatives and goals, as well as ask for input when we think they might have something for us.

As we can see, from state of the art animation to Autodesk University, it’s not just about the building anymore; it’s about working together to create better spaces and more intelligent places.  It’s also about discovering what we can all do, together, and finding the right tools to do it.