gsa goes macro bim: using 5d bim technology for feasibility studies

Beck Technology Innovation in all Dimensions

GSA Goes Macro BIM How Uncle Sam’s Landlord is

Using 5D BIM Technology

for Feasibility Studies


The federal government will soon undertake what the General

Services Administration, the landlord for all federal buildings,

calls the largest public building project since construction of the

Pentagon during World War II: consolidating the Department of

Homeland Security on the campus of the former St. Elizabeth’s

Psychiatric Hospital, a National Historic Landmark in

Washington, DC.

Planning is also in the works for renovations to the 43-year-old

Robert C. Weaver Building, the home of the Department of

Housing and Urban Development.

Bui ld ing in the New Normal case study: GSA Goes Macro BIM


The $3.4 billion, 4.5-million-square-foot DHS Campus project

represents the federal government’s first significant presence

in the District of Columbia’s neighborhoods east of the

Anacostia River. After its completion in 2016, the effort will

bring together up to 14,000 of the region’s 26,000 Department

of Homeland Security employees — now scattered in 70

buildings at 40 different sites — on the St. Elizabeth’s Campus.

The first project in the complex, the new $435 million

headquarters for the United States Coast Guard, is set to

begin construction in September. When it breaks ground, the

first of three phases of campus construction expected to be

completed by 2016 will begin.

Consolidating DHS Employees



Before any design decisions were made, a detailed feasibility

study was performed using macro BIM software. Macro BIM

describes a category of software that integrates conceptual 3D

modeling with cost estimating, integrated development pro

forma and space estimation and calculation. Developed to

address the limitations of "micro” building information modeling

solutions, “macro” solutions aide early decision making, in the

planning and conceptual design phases.

Dallas-based Beck Technology’s consulting group created cost

models for the feasibility study using its in-house developed

macro BIM software known as DProfiler.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_BIM

http://beck-technology.com/product_dp.asp


Because DProfiler macro BIM software offers of a database

connection to RSMeans’ latest quarterly construction cost

estimates for every zip code in the US, it can estimate costs for

hundreds of different building products. RSMeans includes

over 120,000 line Items and over 20,000 conceptual

assemblies that can be applied to components within a project

to determine a budget.


http://rsmeans.reedconstructiondata.com/


Working under global property developer Jones Lang LaSalle,

international architecture firm HOK and Beck Consulting

developed cost models for JLL’s feasibility study of the existing

St. Elizabeth’s Campus in 2008.

Seven different design concepts, all including multiple phases

of construction, historic preservation, anti-force protection,

renovation and rehabilitation were expressed in the macro BIM

model.

Repurposing St. Elizabeth’s Campus


http://www.joneslanglasalle.com/Pages/Home.aspx

http://www.hok.com/


.

Aerial view of the proposed DHS site,

the former St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric

Hospital



“We were brought on board to assist with HOK’s conditions

analysis as well as the seven new concepts they came up with

on how to repurpose that campus for DHS,” said Brent Pilgrim,

director of modeling services at Beck Consulting. “We used

macro BIM to capture not just all the costs associated with the

buildings that would be renovated —there are 100 different

buildings on the St. Elizabeth’s campus—but also which ones

would be demolished and what costs were associated with

that.”

JLL took that model information and put into their pro forma to

evaluate which of the seven design concepts was most viable.



“We (HOK) did our normal analysis on the project and then

Beck used their software to create the seven concept

alternatives and developed costs that were plugged into JLL’s

pro forma,” said Tim Barry, senior consultant for HOK Advance

Strategies. “Both capital and operating costs were included, so

construction and ongoing operation was known before ground

was ever broken.”

To accurately document and communicate the cost of the

various design solutions, hundreds of pages of cost data were

produced from the model as a backup to support higher level

costing assumptions in the executive summary of the study. All

supporting programmatic elements, including paving and other

civil costs were saved with detailed cost information in the

model and in the accompanying cost summary.



3D cost models were also used for conceptual visualization

and phasing plans. Simple massings and color coordination

mirrored the 2D architectural feasibility sketches created by

HOK and assisted in communicating the different components

of the study to GSA officials, local officials, members of

congress and other stakeholders.

The green buildings in the campus plan were coded to be

demolished, the pink buildings renovated with no additional

square footage and the yellow buildings show one or more of

the concepts where entirely new buildings or ones with

additional square footage were proposed.

Color Coding to Enhance Communication



3D cost models , color coded for conceptual visualization and phasing plans. Green

buildings would be demolished; pink renovated. GSA Goes Macro BIM



In the final tally, the GSA promised to restore 52 of 62 historic

structures on the site and demolish relatively few of the

buildings on the campus. It won approval in January from the

National Capital Planning Commission, a hybrid local-federal

agency that must approve all federal projects in the capital

region.

Funded partially by the American Recovery and Reinvestment

Act (known more familiarly as the stimulus bill) consolidating

DHS’ activities is expected to save the taxpayers $163 million

over the next 30 years.



In March of last year, HOK and Beck Consulting was awarded

a contract for the feasibility study of the Robert C. Weaver

Federal Building, the 1.2 million-square-foot home of the

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Built in 1968 and designed by famed modernist architect

Marcel Breuer, the HUD Building currently is home to 3,000

federal employees with 700 more scattered through the district

in leased offices. Although it is a historic building, its modernist

style is something that’s became dated in its only 43 years of

existence.

The HUD Building: Making Brutalism Less Brutal



HOK and Beck Consulting did an in-depth occupancy study to

fully understand the number of people in each department

within the organization. The existing space was modeled and

all occupancy information captured. Then HOK performed an

analysis which revealed the current space planning as

deficient.

The renovation proposes a maximized space plan

demonstrating that, with new workstations and space

configurations, all 3,700 employees could go back to the HUD

building and eliminate the cost of those leased offices to the

taxpayers.



Robert C. Weaver Building, the home of the Department of Housing and Urban

Development. Macro BIM model shows color-coded space analysis. GSA goes Macro BIM.



“Beck and HOK were brought in again to do our feasibility

study,” Barry said. “The intent was, again to completely

integrate our problem-seeking methodology. GSA asked us to

merge that with the latest BIM technology. We were

developing analyses that showed the conditions and capacities

of the building. As we developed alternatives, we were able to

model them and use the software to generate costs for the

different alternatives. This was at a macro level for the whole

building and at a micro level for the demonstration project.”



The team had adequate as-built information in terms of

infrastructure, interiors, and other conditions from the facilities

management staff in the Weaver Building. There are several

long corridors and rabbit warrens of spaces with no natural

light in the current configuration.

The goal is to open it up, utilize the space better for the

workforce and make it a more interesting and exciting place to

work. HOK used Ecotect to do a daylighting study of the

proposed renovation.

“HUD is trying to change how they work and collaborate as an

agency,” Pilgrim said. “If they’re going to do that, they need a

workplace that reflects that attitude.”



Weaver building’s interior atrium and renovation concepts to

enhance work environment and collaboration. GSA Goes Macro BIM



In November, the Beck Consulting/HOK team presented their

findings in a cabinet-level briefing to Shaun Donovan, U.S.

secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The project is

dependent on congressional approval to move past the

feasibility study stage.

Soon, a 25,000-sf demonstration project inside the Weaver

Building will give Donovan and other stakeholders a glimpse of

what a fully-renovated Weaver Building might look like on the

inside. A second briefing is currently being planned.

Pilgrim said the HUD project showed what macro BIM software

can do for a complex, existing building project beyond costs

and conceptual design.



“It was exciting for us because we got to use DProfiler in a way

it was meant for but isn’t always used for,” Pilgrim said. That’s

the kind of stuff we love, working with BIM on that nascent

portion of the project and knowing what the architect is

thinking, what concepts they’re exploring and documenting

and how space-planning relates to phase planning and

building information.”

“It was intended to be an experiment,” said Stephen Hagan,

FAIA, director of project innovation, engineering division at the

GSA. "GSA awarded 10 BIM IDIQ contracts at the national

level. Each was for $6 million a year for five years, so we will

definitely build on this experience."



About the Author

Jeffrey Yoders is a writer, covering news, technology and BIM

for the AEC industry. A former Senior Associate Editor of

Building Design + Construction, he is a chair at-large of the

Associated General Contractors of America's BIM Forum. Jeff

has won four American Society of Business Publications

Editors awards.



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