Selected AEC Projects Presented at Bentley’s “Be Inspired” Event

In AECbytes Newsletter #41 published towards the end of last month, I discussed the key business and product-related updates from the executive presentations at Bentley’s "Be Inspired" event that was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Oct 12 to 14. In addition to learning about new technology initiatives such as the “i-model” and dynamic collaboration and being reassured about Bentley’s growing strength and financial stability, we also had the opportunity to learn more about the projects that were the finalists in their respective categories in Bentley’s 2009  BE Awards. They were presented first-hand by the firm representatives that had worked on these projects, providing attendees with the opportunity to get a better understanding of how Bentley solutions were being used in its top-rated projects from all over the world. These “best practices” presentations were held in parallel for all the varied infrastructure industries Bentley solutions cater to. This article captures the highlights of the presentations in the "Buildings and Structural” track, which included projects such as the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio by NBBJ, the Lotte Super Tower project in Korea by SOM, the Wimbledon Centre Court Redevelopment and Retractable Roof project in England by Edge Structures Ltd, the Chicago O'Hare Phase 1 modernization project by CH2M HILL, and many others.

Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio by NBBJ

This project was the winner in the “Innovation in Building” category, which was looking for excellence demonstrated in planning, designing, building, modeling, analyzing, operating, and maintaining one or more buildings. Designed by NBBJ, a long-time user of Bentley solutions, the project comprises a new 484,000 square foot, 12-story tower (see Figure 1) in Miami Valley Hospital, a large inner-city hospital located in Dayton, Ohio that is ranked as one of the top 100 hospitals in the US. The new tower, referred to as the Southeast Addition or the Heart Tower, is budgeted at $135 million and is one of the largest construction projects in the history of Dayton. It includes an integrated and comprehensive heart center with 180 private patient rooms, a cardiac intervention center, cardiac surgery suites, and a library for patients and visitors. The project broke ground in May 2008 and is targeted for completion in late 2010. Construction management services for the project are being provided by Skanska USA Building and Shook Construction. The building was designed to maximize flexibility and efficiency, and with sustainable design principles for LEED certification.

NBBJ has been using Bentley’s BIM (building information modeling) solutions for over 10 years, well before the term BIM had even been coined. Details can be found in this article capturing the highlights of the “BIM Symposium at the University of Minnesota” held in 2006, where a representative from NBBJ described their BIM process and implementation on projects such as the U.S. Federal Courthouse and Washington Mutual Center in Seattle, and Cleveland Clinic Hospital's Glickman Tower in Ohio. The Miami Valley Hospital represents the firm’s latest capabilities in BIM implementation. It used Bentley Architecture to provide a BIM platform for collaboration among disciplines, which generated construction documents, presentation imagery, rapid prototypes, environmental studies, and design studies (see Figure 2). The landscape design, exterior envelope, interior architecture, furniture, fixtures, and medical equipment details were all developed within the same environment. BIM was also used to develop a standard inpatient room design and develop a prefabrication approach to the modular units.

Worcester Library and History Centre by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

This project was the winner in the “Innovation in Generative Design” category, which featured projects that have used associative and parametric modeling to automate design processes and accelerate design iterations. They demonstrate how generative design provides new ways to efficiently explore alternative building forms without manually building the detailed design model for each scenario. We saw some examples of such projects in the article on the SmartGeometry 2009 Conference Day that was published earlier this year, including Beijing’s New Terminal 3 Airport, Beijing National Stadium, and Sagrada Família Church, in which Bentley’s GenerativeComponents was one of the key technologies that was used. The use of  GenerativeComponents was also common to all the projects that were the finalists in the BE Awards in the “Innovation in Generative Design” category; they included the Ukrainian Health Protection Centre for Women and Children by BDP and the MCA Pune International Cricket Club by Hopkins Architects Ltd, in addition to the winning entry of Worcester Library and History Centre by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. All these projects are shown in Figure 3.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is a mid-size UK firm that was established in 1978 and now has offices in Bath and London. The firm is known for sustainable design and innovation and has a strong track record in education and community buildings. It was awarded the commission to design a new library for the University of Worcestershire and Worcester County Council that would serve both the university and the general public. It is the first such purpose-designed joint-use facility in the UK. It also includes a county archive and local history centre, a local authority “Hub” providing frontline services for local residents, and retail space. Located on a riverside site in the Worcester city centre, this 11,000m2 building was required to be highly sustainable and have a unique form.

The architects drew inspiration from both the historic kilns of the Royal Worcester works and the undulations of the nearby Malvern Hills, and came up with a gold shingled form that has a distinctive roofscape of funnel-like shapes. Made of solid laminated timber roof cones, the roof forms were generated to optimize day lighting and natural ventilation throughout the building, with building-integrated natural ventilation controls and natural light suffused through glazing and shading (see Figure 4). The roofing system was designed using parametric modeling in GenerativeComponents, which enabled the team to alter multiple variables within the constraints of the sustainable design brief and troubleshoot issues as they arose. The complex, non-organic form of the funnel and ventilation baffles created issues, but design changes were made by simply swapping in new components. When the structural center points of the roof were rearranged, the model then automatically readjusted itself to the new layout.

Wimbledon Centre Court Redevelopment and Retractable Roof by Edge Structures

This was the winning project in the “Innovation in Structural Engineering” category, which featured projects that used technical innovation to deliver high-quality structures and improved structural project workflows. It was part of a series of improvements to the tennis courts that host the annual Wimbledon championships, which have been held every year since 1877 except during World War 2. The original Center Court was built in 1923 and has evolved significantly since then, with the roof being completely replaced in 1991. In 2004, a design brief was initiated for several additional enhancements including redeveloping the east stand of center court, extending the terrace to provide an additional six rows of seating, and adding a retractable roof for adverse weather conditions. The architect for the project was Populus, while Bianchi Morley Ltd was the lead concept designer including the structural concept design. Edge Structures, which was the nominee for the project for the BE Awards, was the detail structural coordinator. The east stand improvements were completed in 2007, and the retractable roof was completed earlier this year in time for the Wimbledon championships held during the summer (see Figure 5).

The retractable roof is not only the most dramatic feature of the Centre Court redesign, it was also the most challenging as it is the only one of its kind with no earlier precedents to learn from. While retractable roofs have been designed for a couple of other stadiums around the world, these are the kind that slide back and forth. The Wimbledon site was too tight to allow for this kind of roof, and it required the team to come up with the concept of a folding retractable roof which could be operated in 7 to 8 minutes. It is made up of steel trusses supporting a translucent fabric skin, allowing for natural light as well as ventilation so that both the players and the spectators are comfortable when it needs to be closed. The project team first built a complete replica of one half of the roof at a site in nearby Sheffield and subjected it to extensive testing, along with a complete run-through of how it would actually be constructed on site at Wimbledon. This process took between 18 months to 2 years. Only at the end of this process, once all the problems were detected and fixed, was the roof actually constructed over the Wimbledon Center Court.

Bentley’s BIM technology was integral to the successful completion of this project, as it was too complex to design, visualize, and analyze without 3D. The first task before the structural team was to understand the existing structure, and they used Bentley Structural to produce a 3D model of it from the original drawings and surveys. Subsequently, the new structural elements for the terrace extensions and roof were added to the model, with color-coding to distinguish them from the existing structure (see Figure 6). The folding operation of the roof was designed and studied using animation, and 3D images were used to create work agendas for the different team members. The BIM model was used as the basis for collaboration and design review between the design team, main contractor, and supplier fabricators, as well as to communicate with the stakeholders. It also allowed the work to be properly phased between the annual championships.

Phase 1 O'Hare Modernization Program by CH2M HILL

This project won in the “Innovation in Campuses, Airports, and Military Installations” category, which focused on the use of digital models to facilitate design collaboration, support construction delivery, and leverage facility information for operations and maintenance of large-scale projects. It is a $3.3 billion program at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport that includes construction of the first new runway since 1971, the extension of an existing runway, and a new north airfield air traffic control tower (see Figure 7). To accomplish this, a railroad, creek, major airport guard post, lighting control vaults, and high-pressure water main had to be relocated. The program is scheduled to be completed in six years without an interruption in service; a third of it has been finished so far. The new runways, which run parallel as opposed to the existing intersecting runways, have significantly improved the performance of the airport and cut down on delays substantially, resulting in the arrival rate increasing by 22%. Sustainability is a key criterion for the modernization program, with eight green roofs and balancing of cut and fill that has saved close to $100 million. The air traffic control tower has received a LEED certification of Silver. Many more improvements to the airport are planned ahead, and the program is creating lots of jobs and resulting in revenue increases for the city and state.

The project involved over 600 people working in more than 30 offices. Bentley’s MicroStation was used as the design platform, and more than 70,000 design files were created. Design began on all major and enabling projects simultaneously, although phasing and constructability were not complete. This precipitated the transfer of portions of design packages to other teams while maintaining delivery dates. The use of ProjectWise was indispensable to manage this astronomical number of design files and distribute them to all the project team members, ensuring that everyone was up-to-date.

Other Project Presentations

In addition to the award-winning projects described above, the “best practices” presentations also featured several additional projects that were the finalists in their respective categories. For example, one of the finalists in the ‘Innovation in Building” category was the Fill/Finish Facility of a biotechnology company by Flad Architects, a 75 year old firm specializing in life sciences facilities such as labs and research buildings. This was a $400 million fast-track project with a very aggressive schedule of 2 years, as the client company was developing a cancer drug that it wanted to bring to the market in late 2010. The project comprised five buildings with a total area of 300,000 sq. ft. (see Figure 8). In addition to the tight schedule, the project had other challenges including high seismic risk, heavy wind and snow loads, heavy equipment, and program complexity. A design team of over 250 professionals worldwide was involved. While Bentley BIM tools were not used on this project, it made extensive use of Bentley’s RAM Structural System for structural design and analysis. With its seismic provisions, foundation design and connection design capabilities, and the ability to integrate with BIM applications such as Revit, it enabled the engineering team to design with speed and accuracy, stay ahead of the steel fabrication and construction schedule, and complete the project on time.

Another fascinating project in the “Innovation in Structural Engineering” category, in addition to the Wimbledon Center Court retractable roof project described earlier, was the connection modeling of the diagrids in the Lotte Super Tower project in Seoul, Korea, by SOM. The tower is 112 stories with a height of 1821 ft, and goes from being a square at the base to the circle on the top; thus, the floor plan is different at every level (see Figure 9). This project was briefly described by SOM’s Neil Katz in his 2007 Viewpoint article “Parametric Modeling in AutoCAD,” who explained how the diagrid form of the building was derived using parametric modeling. At the “Be Inspired” event, the presentation was focused specifically on the design of the large number of diagrid connections, which were critical to its feasibility. The unique form led to unique challenges for the design team, and technology was used to the utmost. This included not only the 3D modeling and visualization capabilities of Bentley Structural and its link to analysis tools, but also extensive use of Visual Basic scripts within the application. One example is an “Interactive Diagrid Joint Connection Builder” tool that was written to derive the design of a connection based on over 100 input parameters. Another script was written to automate the creation of 2D and 3D drawings for a connection. MicroStation’s built-in API includes many built-in geometry functions that were used, saving the team from having to do a lot of raw (3D Math) programming. While the technical brilliance of the project is obvious, the unfortunate news is that it may no longer be built due to construction concerns. SOM is, however, using the technology it developed for this project on other skyscraper projects it is working on.

In the “Innovation in Campuses, Airports, and Military Installations” category, I was also intrigued by a project by BWSC (Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon, Inc.) that involved revitalizing a decommissioned military facility at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, close to where I am based. 50 buildings of former military housing were demolished and the site was developed for a new Army Reserve Center and Regional Sustainment Command Headquarters. The facility also serves as an Emergency Management Center for the California National Guard. The project included three buildings totaling 270,000 square feet and associated site improvements (see Figure 10). It was the largest project in BWSC’s history, and had several additional challenges such as a tight schedule, limited resources, and a design team distributed across 11 different offices. Bentley’s BIM solutions—including architecture, structure, and civil—were selected because of their easier distributed design capabilities, enabling the team of over 70 people to work in parallel and meet the project deadline.

Close to 150 design models were created by multiple designers, which were then grouped into higher level master models. Bentley’s rich interoperability capabilities allowed non-native file formats to be easily incorporated in the master model, resulting in time savings over previous workflows. It also allowed various specialist software to be efficiently applied to the design; for example, the interface between Bentley Electrical and lighting design software saved close to 40 hours for the electrical engineer. Another feature of Bentley solutions that proved to be very useful was design history; it was used to create color-coded illustrations of the changes requested by the clients for their review. 3D PDF files, which can be quickly generated from Bentley solutions, were used extensively to exchange and communicate information. Also worth mentioning is Bentley’s ELS (Enterprise License Subscription) program, which BWSC found very useful, as it allowed the team easy access to 14 different Bentley applications. This was BWSC’s first significant BIM project, and it is now using BIM for all its subsequent projects.

Conclusions

Other projects that were presented in the “Buildings and Structural” track which have not been covered here include the master plan for the construction of 20 food production and processing plants in Tuticorin, India, by SSOE Inc; the Teddington School in London by BDP; the Tulsa Community College Center for Creativity by Selser Schaefer Architects; the Cougar Dam and Reservoir Adult Fish Collection Facility by USACE Portland District; and the Sutter Medical Center in Castro Valley, California, by GHAFARI Associates (which was covered in depth in an AECbytes case study earlier this year). An overview of all these projects can be seen in their respective categories on this BE Inspired Awards website: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Promo/Be+Inspired/About+Awards.htm.

As with the executive keynotes at the “Be Inspired” event that I discussed in the last AECbytes Newsletter, the projects presented in this article are a testament to the wide range of building designs on which Bentley’s BIM solutions have being used successfully, establishing them firmly as a viable contender in the BIM marketplace. Like all the other BIM solutions, they have both their strengths as well as limitations which were discussed in my last review of the V8 XM edition in 2006 and will be revisited in my upcoming review of the V8i edition. Over time, with their continued development as well as Bentley’s sustained growth as a company, we should hopefully see many of their limitations being resolved and their strengths being enhanced, so that they can better enable AEC professionals to meet the challenges of designing high quality, sustainable buildings more efficiently, quickly, and economically.

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.

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