Designed by SchenkelShultz Architecture of Orlando, Fla., in association with Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York, Heavener Hall’s design and construction used innovative Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to reduce construction conflicts, improve efficiencies and ensure work was completed successfully within the tight footprint. It also allowed for a “smart” record model of the completed building, which was designed to reflect the Collegiate Gothic architectural style found throughout the university’s historic district.

In addition to both small- and medium-sized classrooms, the facility includes study rooms, academic advisement areas, student commons, informal collaborative zones, a first floor café, faculty offices and more. It also provides round-the-clock access to the university’s business students.

“As you move up in the building, the first floor is more student-activity centric, the second floor is student-faculty related and the third floor is more related to faculty with these specialty programs,” said J. Thomas Chandler, AIA, president and chief operating officer of SchenkelShultz Architecture, to School Construction News at the project’s outset.

“This is a 21st century higher education building,” Chandler added. “The whole purpose of this new home was to create this collaborative and interactive environment for students and faculty. This gives them the opportunity to implement significant goals and objectives that the administration has for 21st century higher education.”

The building also helps meet the university’s sustainability goals and was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. It incorporates green elements, such as highly insulated roof and walls, green glazing systems and an HVAC system that uses a chilled-beam approach. The design team also took advantage of the master campus storm-draining system already in place.

Ajax Building Corporation of Ajax, Fla., broke ground on Heavener Hall in May 2013. The building is named for James W. “Bill” Heavener, a 1970 graduate of the School of Business and current CEO of Full Sail University, who donated a substantial sum to the building’s development.

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Economic conditions have resulted in new business coming more in the form of renovations than new construction, and the BIM process comes in handy when trying to fit new buildings into existing layouts, according to experts in the field.

Jacek Stachowiak, BIM specialist at Farmington, Conn.-based KBE Building Corp., says the benefits BIM brings to school design and construction start in the preliminary schematic stages.

“Instead of just creating the models, the information is a crucial part. We can extract information that helps during the planning and initial stages of the project all the way through the construction,” he said.

The firm is currently working on Carrington Elementary School in Waterbury, Conn., an 80,000-square-foot, $37 million project in the initial stages of developing construction documents. Using BIM tools, the firm has been able to work with the design team to fit the school into the neighborhood, in light of spatial concerns from the community.

When nearby residents expressed concern about the building looming over the neighborhood, the team was able to present a model to show its impact.

“It really helps move the initial process along, helps everyone understand it better rather than 2D,” Stachowiak said. “With all these elevation changes, we ended up showing the multiple options to the building community and community in general and looking a lot at the big picture items before it got into too much detail, and the cost.”

The design and building team was able to present design validation from both an aesthetic standpoint and a cost perspective in a timely manner because it can present a site model showing several options, he said. In a traditional process, the physical model is limited in the information it can show.

“We did kind of a perspective of an actual person driving in to the building, driving past the school, all the different options, so we could really get a good sense of how the school fit into the neighborhood,” Stachowiak said.

The ability to make adjustments to certain building facets helped the school board sell the project to the taxpayers and other stakeholders. The use of BIM also sped up the process of making changes to the design and allowed the firm to implement them more accurately, according to Stachowiak.

The client and the design team didn’t require use of the modeling process but KBE officials felt it would be helpful in figuring out the design, cost and locations prior to joining the team.

The BIM process encompasses energy modeling and solar modeling, in addition to other sustainability measures, and shows all the sustainable practices from the design and construction sides together. Planners can orient the building in the best possible direction for natural lighting and for certain glazing exposures as well as shading and other construction features.

“When construction managers can share that information faster and we’re able to put in our input in terms of materials, costs and sustainability issues, we’re able to bring that kind of bell curve of issues and things that can potentially happen later on much closer to the beginning of the process,” Stachowiak said.

He sees more people embracing BIM now than in its initial introduction, with more owners either requiring it or favoring those companies who can offer BIM services.

“I think the kind of exposure that has come about in the last couple of years, more and more people are really understanding what it really is,” he said.

BIM is especially useful for construction managers when it comes to mechanical, engineering and plumbing systems, which tend to get complicated because they all run together.

The firm recently completed a 200,000-square-foot Army Reserve Center, a $55 million project in Middletown, Conn. The project scope included all building facets of the facility including food services, training spaces, assembly spaces, security and more.

The team prevented 300 clashes in the preconstruction phase by coordinating the multiple processes through the BIM software. Issues included the placement of the mechanical room on a top floor, which made it difficult to move the room’s large equipment in and out.

The firm worked with subcontractors to analyze the clashes in the model, make adjustments and then repeat the process till all the issues were revolved — a helpful process on a tight schedule.

“We were able to not only come in on time but on budget, which the Army hasn’t seen in a while,” Stachowiak said.

Stachowiak said any time a new technology comes out there is generally an upfront charge with the hardware, software and training involved but the initial costs get absorbed as more of the company’s subcontractors embrace the technology.

The team combined the 4D model for the Army Reserve Center with the project schedule so they could see the model at several points on the construction timeline. Hence, they were able to improve the schedule by determining areas that would be impacted by weather conditions, which saved time.

“The 4D aspect is probably critical to school renovation because you can see a project in the future, how far along the school will be at a certain point, so you know where to move students or where students can be dropped off,” Stachowiak said. “Watching the date move at the bottom of the screen, you can see what parts of the building will be accessible, where there will be cranes, where buses will go and a lot of the temporary work between phases, which can be very critical for the additions and renovations at a school with faculty and student safety.”

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