Are you seeing more BIM projects now than you were a year ago? If you do have BIM experience, what is your BIM software of choice?
BIM is not even on the radar of the commercial interiors market in NYC, nor do I see the cost/benefit for this type of work in the near future. It’s a great concept, but a standard platform has to be developed and the architectural community needs to embrace it before it trickles down to interiors contractors.
—Lee R. Zaretzky,
President, Ronsco, Inc.,
New York, New York
None whatsoever in Southeastern Virginia.
—Anonymous
Yes, I am seeing more BIM projects especially for green and sustainability, related projects that need that modeling and parametric info. Autodesk Revit and Chief Architect.
—Jamal Harrell, Owner,
JAMSHAR Consultants,
Willingboro, New Jersey
In the past two years our bidding went from 95 percent paper plans to 95 percent electronic files. We adapted to the change. We’ve yet to see a BIM file, so we haven’t adapted in any way.
—Andy Ritter,Vice President,
Pyramid Plastering Inc.,
Los Angeles, California
No increase and what little there is is still limited to structural and MEP.
—Anonymous
Yes, we are seeing more. And have not decided on software or if we will out source.
—Anonymous
I read somewhere that by now fully half of the architects in the country are using or investigating BIM.
We have not yet received job plans that were in BIM format. Several of the contractors with whom we work—the larger, national companies—are using it, but only on some jobs.
The potential is obvious. I taught a class in California a year ago, and the large drywall company I was teaching was learning BIM. They do a lot of large projects—casinos, hospitals, etc. Across the table from me was a project manager who was working on a hospital. The project was up to 7,200 RFIs. Next to me was a young architect who had moved from Atlanta to California. He had recently worked on a large job—$100 million, by his account—at Disney World with BIM. He said that by completion there had been only 10 RFIs.
That pretty much speaks to the value of BIM, from my perspective.
—Robert A. Aird, President,
Robert A. Aird, Ind.,
Frederick, Maryland
Not seeing any more BIM projects than previously—to do so would require that we are actually securing work in the first place. We elected to sub out any involvement that we have had. There is not enough to justify in- house software at this point in time. Our experience is that the main thrust of BIM seems to be with the “more important” scopes being involved, while the lowly drywaller is seen as a “low cost change order” and often not part of the conversation with the structural and mechanical geniuses. I mentioned to my therapist that this makes me feel slighted, to which he responded, “Looks like we’re out of time for today … ”
—Howard Bernstein, President,
Penn Installations,
Summerhill, Pennsylvania
