GSA to Require Building Information Models by FY 2006

[Scott D Davis]

Here's a link to an article from ENR (http://enr.com/news/informationtech/archives/050121.asp), which discusses GSA's (General Services Administration) (http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=0)decision to require BIM models by 2006.

Interesting read, all the big players (Autodesk, Bentley, Graphisoft) are involved.

[ajayholland]

Will someone please post the Construction Users Round Table report "Collaboration, Integrated Information and the Project Lifecycle in Building Design, Construction and Operation," referred to by Phil Bernstein in his “Vision” presentation? It was available for download on the CURT website (http://www.curt.org/1_0_home.html) for a time, but apparently no longer.

Highlighting that the construction process is hindered by lack of cooperation and poor information sharing, one review of the report quoted "The goal of everyone in the industry should be better, faster, more capable project delivery created by fully integrated, collaborative teams. Owners must be the ones to drive this change, by leading the creation of collaborative, cross-functional teams comprised of design, construction, and facility management professionals."

This goes hand-in-hand with the NIST report mentioned in the ENR article. Of the $15.8 billion costs due to the lack of interoperability, only a fraction is born by architects. Phil predicted that building owners (like the GSA) will eventually demand a solution to this problem.

In Refabricating Architecture (http://www.kierantimberlake.com/publications/pub_03.html) Kieran and Timberlake postulate that, by leading the industry toward new solutions, architects can reclaim a technologically evolved role as the “master coordinator” of building projects throughout their lifecycle.

~AJH