Design Intelligence - Revisiting the Design Enterprise Cycle

Great article of at DI.net...

Generating new work, organizing it efficiently, doing it well, and getting paid are still the building blocks of any great firm.
Our book How Firms Succeed: A Field Guide to Design Management, first published in 2004, proposed a simplified diagram to explain how the various complexities of design firm management are interrelated in a self-propelling process called the design enterprise cycle (DEC).


The DEC is like a four-cylinder engine. It comprises the basic functions of marketing, operations, professional services, and finance. Each part, when properly balanced and synchronized with the others, generates increasing momentum and value creation:


Marketing is the process by which firms attract and retain new work.


Operations deals with how work and the workers are organized.


Professional services constitutes the heart and soul of the enterprise; it’s where design value is actually created.


Finance provides the fuel to sustain and grow the organization, thereby attracting new clients and new talent to enable the cycle to renew itself.


....Continue Reading...

There is one part I found interesting about Marketing:

Marketing

• Use social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and the like) to stay in touch with existing clients and create new contacts. This is an especially useful way to engage multiple generations in the marketing and business development process.

• Use cross-functional, team-based marketing rather than chasing jobs as a single firm. Choose consultants carefully, building on previous relationships to present the strongest possible team. In other words, don’t try to be the smartest person in the room. Learn to sell the synergy that comes from collaboration.

• Upgrade your marketing collateral. Use desktop publishing, high-quality graphics, Photoshop, PowerPoint, and 3-D and 4-D imagery. Compelling images tell a compelling story, so take full advantage.

• Use the Internet for marketing research. Find out all there is to know about clients, their projects, key staff, business model, and growth plans. Use business metrics to show how your design expertise can contribute to clients’ bottom line.

• Use electronic outreach (e-mail newsletters, e-cards for holidays and other special occasions, and press releases) to keep in contact with clients and prospects. This will increase your audience tremendously.

• Build your brand to new levels of relevancy. The brand should be both distinctive and clear. Make sure clients know what you stand for and how you will deliver the goods.

What I find so interesting about these little bullet points is how EASY and CHEAP it has become to spread out information across massive amount of people.  My competitors are no longer simply the five or six firms in my area.... It truly is becoming a global market.  Can you compete?

BIM Video: How a Culture of Collaboration & Technology Enables Sustainable Design Excellence at NBBJ

I havn't posted much lately from Design Intelligence but I thought this was a nice video to watch.  Of course, I wish we were able to see the PowerPoint, but still a good video to take a look at.

At the 2010 Design Futures Council Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design, Steve McConnell, Managing Partner of NBBJ spoke about new technologies that are driving innovative sustainable design solutions at NBBJ. Using two projects currently under construction, Steve discusses the need for new models of collaboration to enable paradigm shifts in our industry.


Click here to see the post and video...

A New Practice Paradigm

I could read Design Intelligence articles all day long...

Preparing for a New Practice Paradigm
Stephen Fiskum

As the economic tidal wave begins to subside, many design professionals are scrambling for a safe haven. Going forward, successful architects and designers will consider marketplace opportunities in profoundly different ways than they have in the past. They will embrace and develop new skills while renewing and adjusting the things they are passionate about.

It was easier in the past, when most of us could readily adapt to the mild rhythms of economic adjustment we had become accustomed to. Creative disruption was relatively kind to our industry. The ebb and flow of the economy over recent decades, coupled with technological advancement, had resulted in incremental changes in design and construction processes. For example, many of us who practiced during the double-digit stagflation period of the 1980s recall when phased design and early construction document packages became a way of doing business. This approach enabled construction to commence much earlier and with substantial cost savings. Similarly, design-build and GMP contracts became more widely accepted as effective ways to deliver new buildings.

As the recent long period of economic expansion coincided with advances in technology, the design professions have evolved in new ways. People newer to our professions may find it striking that just a couple of decades ago, a pair of computer-aided design and drafting stations with a compatible plotter cost upwards of a half-million dollars. Within a few years, this early CADD equipment became worthless as it was replaced by inexpensive and increasingly powerful personal computers. These are but a few reminders of how creative disruption has continually changed our business. Most of us would agree that the transition points have been relatively smooth, notwithstanding the occasional intervals of modestly higher unemployment during the milder periodic recessions.... Continue to article...

Architecture and Brands

More from DesignIntelligence.

The Promise of Space: Branding and Architecture in Theory and Practice
Christine Astorino

If the early 1990s marked the so-called “death of the brand,” then the latter half of the current decade has seen a resurrection of sorts. Classic brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s flourish once again, and technology companies such as Google and Apple have updated branding for a new kind of marketplace. This renewed attention to brand might stem from the increasingly global competition that every company faces. Or maybe a down economy — always attended by more fiscally responsible consumer behavior — demands an increased focus on customer retention.

Whatever the reason, this contemporary importance of branding has begun to reach the architecture world. In anticipation of this integration of disciplines, I want to explore here the possibilities for branding in architecture, with an eye toward the following questions:

• What does it mean to brand a space or an experience?
• What do we know about human beings, their minds, and their behaviors that can inform our efforts?
• How might we attempt to incorporate branding in the architectural process?
After addressing these issues, we’ll take a closer look at a successful example of the possibilities for branding in architecture... Continue to post...

New Measure of Success

From DesignIntelligence:

By: David Hancock

We talk about building performance all the time: how a design works or doesn’t, how the building will perform in an earthquake or severe weather, how light shelves manage daylight, and whether a shading system works to provide occupant comfort. To date, however, the discussion about building performance has focused primarily on energy use. But as the notion of environmental sustainability has been extended to include social and financial sustainability (the triple bottom line), building performance concerns have broadened to include measures of program efficacy, occupant comfort, financial return, durability and other concerns.

Sustainability grew out of concern for atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) and their effect on climate change. The most direct measure of a building’s GHG generation is its energy use. This has become the single operating metric for building performance.

Our view of architecture is evolving. In the Beaux Arts tradition, building designs were illustrated as fixed (usually black-and-white) objects often unrelated to context. Today’s architects see buildings as dynamic processes rather than static objects, almost as organisms. We see buildings as having useful life spans. They have daily and weekly cycles; they change and require maintenance during their long lives; they require the input of energy and produce waste products; their systems need to be controlled; they have a nervous system of sorts (even more so with so-called “smart buildings”). And they exist and operate in relation to the environment.

The danger of focusing on building energy is that we may fail to exert equal effort in designing for higher levels of performance in a building’s other systems. As you will see, there are many possible metrics for building performance. This article sets out to explore building performance by discussing the numerous components that go into assessing how a building meets the needs of its various users... Continue to the rest of the article....

25 Trends for 2010

Great article from Design Intelligence:

Hope Amid a Slow Construction Comeback

Most professional practices in the design and construction industry will experience an agonizingly slow comeback after the poor and often painful business conditions of the past year, according to a new report in the journal DesignIntelligence. Signs point to a sluggish recovery that will not take the industry back to what had been considered normal in the mid-2000s.

"At the macro level, the private capital that's needed to support growth and urban health will not fall into place anytime soon," notes DesignIntelligence.

Instead, according to the report's co-authors, James P. Cramer and Jane Gaboury, a new normal will unfold, and with it plenty of pesky problems for architecture and design firm leaders. There will be no quick recovery. However, there is hope, they say.

"2010: A Year of Convalescence," published in the January/February issue of DesignIntelligence, points to 25 significant trends transforming architecture and design that can offer sustenance during a painfully slow recovery. Among the trends are opportunities for strategic optimists who can translate recent developments into action plans, say Cramer and Gaboury:

• Sustainability drives design.
• New strategic models spell game change.
• Collaboration builds value.
• Metrics matter more than ever.
• Evidence-based design has increasing impact.

Continue to article to read details about these trends and the remainder....

Intern to Architect? A Lifetime...?

Yet another great article from Design Intelligence:

"How Long from Intern to Architect? Posted: December 18th, 2009 | Author: Jim Cramer | Filed under: Best Practices, Education, Professional practice, Publications, Strategy, Technology | Tags: accreditation, Add new tag, IDP, intern, licensure, NAAB, ncarb | 2 Comments »

Today’s guest blogger is Matthew Arnold, who has been examining the duration and success rates of the Intern Development Program.

How long does an architectural internship actually take?

Official estimates range between three and five years, but that didn’t seem to be the case for any of the interns I knew or for that matter, any that they knew. I couldn’t find any hard data published anywhere, so I sent an e-mail to each of the U.S. NCARB-member boards asking what they could tell me.

Three boards — New York, Nebraska, and Oregon — furnished hard data in response to my request. New York provided records for all 15,088 actively licensed architects there. Nebraska and Oregon provided data for the actively licensed architects who had taken and passed the exam in their states, 626 and 800 individuals, respectively. I made graphs of what they sent me, which you can fine here along with explanatory notes:

http://www.stairwaytoarchitecture.com/images/NY_STATE_REPORT.pdf http://www.stairwaytoarchitecture.com/images/Nebraska_Report.pdf http://www.stairwaytoarchitecture.com/images/Oregon_Report.pdf

The data show that the average time elapsed between graduation and licensure for architects licensed in 2009 exceeds public estimates. In New York it was 11.06 years; in Nebraska 10.89 years; in Oregon 8.96 years.... Continue Reading the post..."

Ethics in Architectural Education?

From Design Intelligence...

December 11, 2009
Professionalism and Ethics in Architectural Education
Douglas L Steidl

An architecture education should begin with an understanding of the professional’s responsibilities to society, building users, and clients.

Recently, a university seeking a new dean for its college of architecture asked me to review its advertisement for the position. I suggested revising “ ... seeking an educator who can perform the following … ” to “ … seeking a professional with both educational and practical experience in his/her field of expertise who can perform the following … .” Within hours, a faculty member responded to the suggestion with the words, “Please, not a professional!” The faculty member’s response implied that a professional was a practitioner. The further implication was that an educator is not a professional.

How people perceive themselves affects the philosophical framework that underlies their approach to life, actions, and relationships. In the opening weeks of a medical education, first-year students are tutored on their responsibility for caring for people’s health and the serious implications of their actions for others. Medical school begins with the Hippocratic Oath and the immense obligations of the doctor to the patient, the patient’s family, and thus the community. These are the keystones in this educational process, and they are addressed immediately. Consequently, the foundation for an individual’s approach to the profession is established, and students formulate the principles for their future professional practice... Continue Reading...

Educating the Future Architect?

An interesting outlook on Architectural education from Design Intelligence:

November 5, 2009
Thinking Ahead: Educating Now for the Profession of the Future
Renée Cheng

Climate change, data-driven technology, and global practice have already radically increased the demands on the architecture profession. New opportunities present the potential to expand the scope of design thinking to address broad social needs. Architectural education must find ways not only to meet the demands of the current era but also inspire future leaders. For educators, our mandate should be to teach students to lead a profession that does not yet exist.


Most current architectural curricula are not well positioned to accept this responsibility. Open up a course plan for almost any graduate professional program and you will find a curriculum divided neatly into two sequential pieces: a core foundation covers the initial requirements before entering a second “open-option” or elective segment (Figure 1a). In both core and elective semesters, the structure is fairly consistent — each semester contains one heavily weighted design studio with two or three lecture or seminar classes (Figure 2a). These lectures and seminars are sometimes called “support” or “non-studio” classes, terms meant to denote a format other than the open-ended lateral design processes that are the hallmarks of the design studio.

Overtly, subtly, or unintentionally, there is a value system embedded in this structure. Students get the message: Spend your time on design studios before non-studio courses and invest in elective studios most of all. Often, prestigious visiting practitioners and digitally facile faculty teach the elective studios while core studios are the realm of traditionally trained faculty and local adjunct practitioners. A typical core studio will have a local site, a known project type, and may require a wall section. Elective studios can be site-less, scale-less, or free from the constraints of gravity. While this may be impractical, these studios serve a purpose to invite speculation, imagine futures, and develop new ways of thinking of the world... Continue Reading...

Job Searching... Where to Start?!

This goes right along with yesterdays post from Archinect. Design Intelligence released a nice write up with their recent newsletter. I urge you all to check it out. There is some great information as well as a list of links as to where to begin searching for Architecture related jobs.

"...Recessions in 1973, ’82, ’87, ’91, ’97, 2001, and now ’08. Does it seem like they get progressively more frequent? Do they now appear to be the norm, with prosperity being a temporary situation? Has stability become an outdated phenomenon? Has economic uncertainty affected our performance? Has everything-due-yesterday rendered us too stressed to do anything today? Has fear replaced hope?

Nope. Media thrive on reminding us of the dismal state of our economy … and lives. Few reports are apt to point out the opportunities and choices we still have, and still fewer to offer any real solutions. We are left with self-doubt, anxiety, and the critical question:

What is wrong with my profession, and when will it improve? When will the (good) jobs return?

This article offers advice to those seeking work in the construction design professions, particularly architects and interior designers. When job hunting, accept that the process will not be linear. Also know that there is no walk-in perfect design job. The key is to find a potentially promising employer, get on board, and then grow into the position. The cast of characters involved, employers and otherwise, is worthy of a novel; no one will make it easy for you. Those new to the design professions are the most at risk; however, they are also in the best state to land a job because the number of positions available to recent graduates is usually highest...

...School vs. Work

Sadly, employers remain at odds with education, particularly in the case of recent grads. Design schools -- if not all schools -- teach us to think outside the box. Conceptual theory and imagination are the seeds of good design, from which a superior reality flows. Architects emerge with essential analytical skills and environmental sensitivity. And they can use computers to fabricate glorious cyber-complexes, underwater cities, and second-generation prairie housing. All this mind expansion is grand.

Unfortunately, most employers want none of it. “Did you finish the egress study yet?” “What is the floor occupancy, and how many toilets do we need?” “What is the square footage of the northeast quadrant of the site?” “Have you checked the ADA requirements for a judge’s bench?” “Make me five copies of the specs, and ship them to Mumbai.”

This is what you should be prepared for. Why? The worse the market, the more nitty-gritty the work. Are you up for it?

Those with work/study experience (such as internships) can be the most conflicted of all, having gone back and forth between theory and reality. During times like these, it’s usually best to concentrate on what was learned on the job... Continue Reading for links, info, and more..."

2010 America's Architecture Schools

When I was choosing colleges I never looked at rankings like this. I don't fully believe in them but I know lots of perspective students look at stuff like this. I enjoyed the preface that was written on Architectural Record and Design Intelligence released the list (if you have followed my blog you know how much I enjoy Design Intelligence). I also like the "Skills Ranking" portion of it.

• Click here to go to the Architectural Record Article.

TOP 10 UNDERGRADUATE ARCHITECTURE SCHOOLS

1. Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
2. Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
3. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
4. Virginia Polytechnic institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
5. University of Texas, Austin, Tex.
6. Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.
7. University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
8. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I.
9. Rice University, Houston, Tex.
10. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.

TOP 10 GRADUATE ARCHITECTURE SCHOOLS (M.ARCH.)

1. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
2. Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
3. Columbia University, New York City
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
5. University of Texas, Austin, Tex.
6. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
7. Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
8. Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
9. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
10. University of California, Berkeley, Calif.

SKILLS RANKINGS

1. Computer applications
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Carnegie Mellon University
4. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
5. Columbia University
6. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

And some interesting survey results by students...

What students do after graduating (%)

33 - Pursue an advanced degree in architecture
6 - Pursue an advanced degree in something else
50 - Work in private practice
3 - Work for a corporation
3 - Self-employment
3 - Undecided or other
1 - Work in government
1 - Community service
85 - Planning to take the Architect Registration Exam
77 - Planning to become LEED certified

Continue Reading Results...

I find the last results very interesting. 77% plan to be LEED AP, only 3% want to be self employed, and 85% plan to be licensed. Interesting results...

A New Normal?

By Scott Simpson at DesignIntelligence...

"According to official statistics, the deepest recession of the past 40 years is now behind us. The GDP is growing, the Dow has cracked 10,000, and interest rates remain at historic lows, keeping inflation in check. Wall Street is even paying big bonuses again.

Yet to most people, the tangible effects of the recovery remain elusive. Unemployment has increased over the past six months, the dollar has lost significant value on the currency markets, and many sectors of the economy (especially commercial real estate) remain fragile. Is this what a recovery is supposed to feel like?

Unfortunately, yes. The economy may have bottomed out and experienced something of a bounce, but it’s certain that the boom years of 2005-2007 will not be returning any time soon. While it’s true that panic has subsided into caution, the credit markets remain deeply chilled, if not frozen. While some clients are doing planning new work in anticipation of a more robust recovery, very few new projects are getting the green light, and this state of affairs is likely to pertain for the foreseeable future. Under these circumstances, a slow-growth, cost-sensitive economy is beginning to look like the new normal.

What’s a design firm to do?

Like it or not, get ready for increased competition. Significant layoffs in the profession have spawned a new generation of small, nimble design firms with low overhead. These new firms, often headed by well-regarded professionals with significant experience, can be formidable competition.In the past, perhaps a dozen or so contenders would be chasing any given project; these days, that number can easily double or even triple. Clients are increasingly price-sensitive, so expect significant downward pressure on fees. You will have to price your proposals accordingly, and when successful, execute the work with relentless efficiency. There will be little if any wiggle room.

This will almost certainly require a leap in technology, and specifically BIM, which can be used for all phases of the work from design through construction administration. Sophisticated users of BIM have found ways to create significant efficiencies in the documentation process and have even been able to eliminate the need for shop drawings during construction. Now that the GSA (as well as several states, including Texas and Wisconsin) have mandated BIM deliverables for all projects, the tipping point has clearly been passed. If you have not already done so, it’s time to get on board. Make use of your downtime to acquire the software and institute a firm-wide training program, as BIM capability is fast becoming a gating issue during the selection process.... Continue Reading...."

Too Expensive?

From Design Intelligence...

Adapted from Architect’s Essentials of Negotiation, 2nd Ed., Ava J. Abramowitz, 2009, John Wiley & Sons Inc. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

"Ever had a client say you cost too much? How did you react? Did you take it personally and want to hit back? “You have no idea how hard I’ve worked.” “You don’t appreciate my value.” “If you had to put up with a client like you, you would be charging twice as much.” Or maybe you just collapsed under what you perceived as an assault (“Why me?”), and then thought, “If I reduce my fee, will my client like me better?” Maybe you even reduced your fees. But you had another choice: not to personalize and internalize the statement, but to explore your client’s needs directly with them.

Clients change over the course of a project. Before they take it on, they question whether the result and the benefits will exceed the cost of the project. The more serious, the more strategic the business or personal problem they hope the building will solve, the more willing they will be to pay for the resolution. This came home to me in one second flat when I wanted to break through a wall to expand the kitchen. “Go to the Kitchen Guild,” the architect advised, “and ask them to design and cost out two kitchens — one within existing space, the other with expanded space. Then add $50,000 to the cost of the larger kitchen.” Right then and there I knew, and the architect knew, I would live with a small kitchen. I would get no increased strategic value out of the increased cost, which made the project “too expensive.” Had the architect been able to help me understand that current conditions would interfere with my enjoyment and use of the house, then the cost of mitigating those impacts might have receded, and the strategic benefits of remodeling would have shimmered more brightly. In that case, I might have gone for it. Instead, I thanked him mightily for putting me ahead of the project (and his practice) and promptly sent him two referrals... Continue Reading..."

The topic of payment, proposals, and fee's has always interested me as a hopeful future architect. In school we are taught these wonder numbers and contracts but will they be the same 5 or 10 years from now? If BIM and IPD really gain friction how will this process change? If the role of the future architect is to change his/her services and contracts will change as well. Should the adoption of BIM and IPD and the use of programs such as Revit yield a higher commission? Would more or less work have to be done by the architect?

It is no secret that many people take what an architect does for granted. Last time I spoke to Phil Bernstein we talked about the outstanding salary differences between a doctor and architect. A licensed architect with a masters degree, for example, and compare his average salary with that of a family physician. Arguably, they both have the some amount of school and possibly the same amount of experience. Additionally, would you tell a surgeon that he/she is too expensive? Rarely.

A fascinating conundrum. I will be picking up this book soon for sure.

Toward a Collaborative Future

Interesting blog post from Design Intelligence... again...

| Author: Jonathan Bahe

"A few weeks ago, I attended the AIA Northwest/Pacific Regional Conference in Anchorage, Alaska, and participated in its first Leadership Institute. The leadership institute was made up of about 20 students and young professionals from Washington, Montana, Oregon, and Hawaii. This remarkable group of young leaders spent two days discussing characteristics of leadership and how we as architects — or future architects — can contribute our talents to the betterment of the built environment. Among the many leadership characteristics that the group discussed and began to dissect, one rose to the top as particularly germane to the challenges facing our future — and the opportunities architects have to lead this future.

The group identified a key attribute for leaders — both present and future — to be collaborative integrators of information and perspectives. The reasoning for this should be apparent, so I won’t elaborate further, as we spent time not discussing why this was important, but rather are we really? We talk about the architect being the person at the table who can bring various view points together. We believe that the design process is inherently collaborative, and the architects as “master builders” are the rightful leaders of this collaboration... Continue Reading...."

Global Design: The Architect’s Dilemma

"While the recession still rages in the A/E/C industry, there is a bright spot, which is the amount of international work currently being undertaken by U.S.-based design firms. Over the past 10 years, the fee volume of overseas projects has grown by a compound rate of 30 percent per year. More than $1.5 billion in design fees are now earned on foreign projects, and for some firms this can be as high as 30 percent to 40 percent of their total revenue. International contracts greatly extend the influence of U.S.-based architects, providing unique opportunities for collaboration and outsourcing, but there is a hidden cost that poses a significant long-term challenge to the health of the profession.

When working overseas, most architects typically provide only the SD and DD services, with local firms handling the CD and CA phases. Since SD and DD generally represent only 35 percent of the A/E typical fee, this means that the vast majority of the fee volume (65 percent) is reserved for foreign firms, which can often provide those same services at a much lower cost. It follows that an office which is heavily dependent on international work will experience a significant shift in the need for talent — more designers and fewer technical staff. Over time, architects who concentrate primarily on overseas work could well see their technical capability severely eroded. To compound the problem, those doing foreign work often rely on outsourcing to produce models, renderings, and even some of the design documentation... Continue Reading Article..."

Keep them coming DI!!

Let's Believe in Our Own Future

If you all have not subscribed to Design Intelligence's blog and newsletter do it now. There has been nothing but great articles being published and this newest blog post is another great example.

By: Scott Simpson

"While no prediction is ever 100 percent correct (including this one!), we do know this: Sooner or later, the current recession will subside. When it does, things will be different. The conditions that existed between 2003 and 2007, which created unprecedented prosperity worldwide, will not be returning. It follows that the successes of the future will not look like the success of the past.

Over the next five years, the A/E/C industry will undergo a profound transformation, powered by the three primary game-changers of building information modeling (BIM), integrated project delivery (IPD) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). BIM is a technology, IPD is a process, and LEED is an attitude. Individually, each is very powerful.

Together, they combine to exert huge leverage for change. All three are at the tipping point; there is no turning back.

BIM provides a way to connect the silos of expertise that have traditionally divided the design and construction process. The increased transparency of who does what makes the interdependency among all the key team members painfully obvious. The traditional model of design/bid/build promotes a culture of self-defense, with each player on the team incentivized to consider individual interests first and team success second. With BIM, this is no longer possible; it creates a whole new sociology of design. Ironically, BIM promotes both creativity and predictability in equal measure. It’s a powerful design tool yet equally adept at demystifying design documents, bridging the gap between design intent and project execution from conception to creation... Continue Reading Article..."

Time to Grow

Excellent post on the Design Intelligence blog... Quick Excerpt:

"...Nevertheless, it is time to look at a new growth attitude. Here I’m talking about growth in quality, growth in green, growth in regenerative systems, and growth in our personal human relationships. At last week’s National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) annual meeting in Chicago, there was a good deal of chatter about systematic, stratetic processes that are being put in place that will result in sustainable delivery systems. SOM’s presentation on the Chicago 2016 Olympic proposition was a case in point. With the marketplace changes, architects and designers can create not just incremental gains but exponential leaps by recognizing how professional practices are adding value to future opportunities. New and higher mental set points need to be established that focus on the changing marketplace. You will discover a richness of opportunities just below the surface...

The unexpected lesson from NCARB in Chicago: It’s time to dislodge your professional practice from the rut and into the tango that is integrated project delivery...." Read More...

This is why I started this blog. This is why I am so passionate about the use of Revit, BIM, and IPD... even for a student... We will come out of these economic times holding the BIM and IPD flags with parametric, intelligent, building models.

Apparently, NCARB even thinks so...

BIM Promotes Sustainability and Effects Design Culture.

I found a couple great articles revolving around BIM that I wanted to share with you all. The first is a four page article by B.J. Novitski. It is worth reading and has some great images. To summarize I will quote his conclusion:

"The perfect ideal of BIM may not be attainable, but pieces of it are definitely coming together. Projects—and the environment—are benefiting from more cohesive teamwork and a greater degree of interoperability among software systems. Architects are receiving better, earlier energy-related analysis; engineers are providing more focused expertise during design; builders are reducing waste in construction; and facility managers are increasing the efficiency of their operations. And many of those experiencing the benefits of technology and teamwork have visions of still more capabilities and benefits in the future."

Read the Entire Article here.

The second article is written by the President of HDR Architecture, Inc. HDR is an A/E/C (Architectural, Engineering, and Construction). Get used to that acronym because I have a feeling it will be more and more popular in the years to come. The article explains how HDR adopted BIM and its influences on the firm.

Read the article here.