Revit BIM Experience Award - Sponsored Content

Geoffrey Glotman, Managing Principal

The Revit BIM Experience Award celebrates building industry professionals and educators around the world who are helping to drive transformation of the building industry through building information modeling.

Revit BIM Experience Award
March 2007 Winner’s Circle
Glotman-Simpson
Interview with Geoffrey Glotman, M Eng, P Eng, Managing Principal
1. What differentiates Glotman-Simpson in the marketplace?
At Glotman Simpson, we’re committed to creating value through experience, innovation, and technology. For us, this means a continual investment in improvement, technology and training. Our adoption of BIM is an example of this.
2. Why is building information modeling (BIM) valuable to engineers as well as architects?
I don’t know that the value of BIM is any different for engineers than for architects. Clearly, BIM allows us to produce more tightly coordinated designs. This is true between disciplines as well as within. Clearer documents and fewer errors mean fewer RFI’s and change-orders, and that’s good for everyone. Apart from better contract documents, the wealth of data within the model allows us to add value in other important ways. Our ability to report the effect on materials and formwork of diverse design options is an example of how BIM plays a role in the decision-making process for our stakeholders.
3. How can project teams benefit from working within an integrated building information model?
As I mentioned in the previous response, tighter coordination between disciplines is a clear benefit. On the Grigio project in San Diego, our model is being linked into the architect’s model to form a part of his construction documents. This allows the sometimes complex soffit features of our transfer slabs, for example, to be accurately reflected in the architect’s building sections.

Within our own office, designers and drafters benefit from working more intimately with the building. In fact, the traditional distinction between the two functions is becoming somewhat blurred. Designers are cutting their own sections to investigate and visualize complex conditions, while drafters are thinking more about how things are built instead of having to be concerned with lines and layers. With everyone able to focus more on the intricacies of the structure itself, the result can’t help but be a better building.

4. Why did Glotman-Simpson decide to adopt Revit Structure?
When we first saw the pre-release version of Revit Structure in 2004, we had already realized that some form of 3D modeling would enter our practice in the coming years. Because it was being developed by Autodesk and offered the promise of becoming an industry-wide platform, we felt confident in adopting Revit Structure as early as possible.

5. How do you envision the industry changing in the future?
I think we’ve only begun to scratch the surface. We’ve already touched on the changing role of design professionals. As software links evolve, I envision the model becoming the data source for much of our analysis - doing away with redundant application-specific models. Looking beyond the design phase, there will be less reliance on 2D drawings and more on the model itself as an instrument of service. Suppliers will want access to the model for fabrication, and owners for facility management. These are just a few examples…it’s an exciting time.

Glotman-Simpson received the Revit BIM Experience Award for its sophisticated use of Revit Structure and its success in sharing Revit Structure models with architects using Revit Architecture. Glotman Simpson works closely with Pacific Alliance Technologies for training and implementation services.