SUCCESS STORY
Educating a University on BIM Standards and Execution Plans
Customer Challenge
Northeastern University is a prestigious educational institution occupying 73 acres and some 100 buildings in the heart of Boston. The team responsible for estimating, scoping, and managing capital construction projects has long envisioned leveraging leading-edge technology in support of a better designed, operated, and maintained campus. Northeastern sought to adopt modern project delivery practices like BIM and virtual design and construction for new buildings, renovations, and improvements.
Project Goals
University staff, including space planners and lawyers, intended to onboard the latest AEC industry practices in the region and codify them into BIM design and construction standards that could be integrated into Autodesk Revit. This would allow Northeastern to equip their project managers with the tools and workflows to support a more detailed and sustainable level of design in their projects while maintaining budgets and schedules.
Solution
Microdesk was contracted to review the current processes Northeastern was undertaking and identify areas of opportunity as they related to software like Revit. During the partnership, BIM standards and a BIM Execution Plan template were developed as well as asset classification, data requirements, a document handover checklist, and a BIM project decision matrix.
Business Outcome
Through this project, Northeastern was able to inject their newly developed BIM and Revit standards into an ongoing project and use a decision-making matrix to qualify future projects for BIM use. The team is also now equipped to communicate requirements with stakeholders. Their shared understanding of the BIM lifecycle also led to productive negotiations around an upcoming BIM pilot project culminating in a 350,000-square-foot research center.
Conclusion
Northeastern has completed these early steps toward their ultimate goals of implementing BIM technology to manage construction and operations. They continue to partner with Microdesk in drafting and communicating a long-term technology strategy, delivering team-member training, developing a BIM 360 cloud sharing environment, integrating its Archibus asset management database, and documenting existing conditions in BIM.
Project Summary
Delivery Date
2020-10-05
Project Duration
365 days
Autodesk Solutions
- Revit
Services Provided
Customer Industry
- Facility Management