Benjamin D. Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building

Benjamin D. Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building

This was an another compelling project that was almost unanimously selected by the jury as the winner in the category, Design/Delivery Process Innovation Using BIM, which looks for innovative processes and tools used to realize a project, quantified benefits in efficiency and quality, satisfaction of design intent with lower delivery costs, and new forms of collaboration and/or partnering. The project was born from a Design-Build-Operate-Maintain (DBOM) competition sponsored by the University of Washington to address their need for a building to house scientific research that was to be delivered more quickly and cost effectively than their conventional process allowed, and with fixed costs of operations for 30 years. The competition was won by the construction firm, M.A. Mortenson Company, who collaborated with the architect and operations and maintenance partners to deliver the new $25 million Benjamin D. Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building. The core-and-shell project was completed in March 2006, and tenant improvements are being phased over the next three years as space is leased. The contractor-led DBOM team is also fulfilling the 30-year operations and maintenance needs in the facility.

Mortenson is well known in the industry for its use of BIM—it also won one of the TAP BIM Awards last year for its work on the Denver Art Museum expansion project. It was committed to using BIM in all aspects of the Benjamin D. Hall project, and created the role of a Design Coordinator to manage interdisciplinary model creation, coordination, and interoperability. The building's programmatic challenges included the site's curved shape, significant slope and shallow water table, along with noise and vibration from an overhead interstate highway bridge, on-site parking requirements, and building access. Although zoning regulations implied a maximum of five stories, the DBOM team proposed a six-story project with a tight floor-to-floor height, providing 14% more leasable floor area than was requested. They analyzed and validated this concept, which called for careful integration of MEP systems, with a 3D model (see Figure 6). BIM technology also assisted in designing the appropriate building set-backs to meet zoning requirements and in the development of a 1½-story below-grade parking garage with entries on two grade levels.

Figure 6. The top image shows the full 3D model of the Benjamin D. Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building, while the lower image shows the mechanical systems layout model that allowed the building to be designed with an extra floor. (© M.A. Mortenson Company)

Visualization was an important aspect of the use of BIM on this project, not only for the project team to quickly comprehend complex spatial conditions but also to verify zoning envelopes and code clearances volumetrically. The real-time design visualization of the model was useful to the end-users of the building as well, providing them with an understanding of their proposed tenant improvements and enabling them to revise the design before it was built. BIM supported the study of various solutions for sustainability, contributing to LEED Gold certification for the project. During the construction phase, the model was used to analyze constructability and communicate last-minute design revisions while work was underway in the field, substantially reducing rework on the project and contributing towards increased safety on the job site. BIM was integrated with time to develop 4D simulations of the project schedule to optimize it, allowing the project to be completed 40% faster than the owner's traditional delivery schedule (see the top image of Figure 7). The BIM model also captured details of the complex underground conditions of the site, including existing and proposed utilities, dewatering, excavation, shoring, tiebacks, laydown zones, hoisting, and placing (see the lower image of Figure 7). This allowed coordination and communication with local review agencies and utility companies, enabling the project to proceed without costly delays.

Figure 7. 4D scheduling using the BIM model (top image) and the details of site utilization and civil work (lower image) used for coordination and communication with local review agencies and utility companies. (© M.A. Mortenson Company)

In lieu of a detailed set of 2D construction documents, the team relied heavily on BIM to coordinate all building trades and systems, including architectural, structural, and MEP systems (see Figure 8). With an emphasis on face-to-face collaboration, designers and detailers solved problems in real time, and worked with interoperable clash-detection tools to sift through potential conflicts in the building. Using BIM, over 1,500 systems conflicts were detected and resolved before they became problems in the field. The use of BIM for coordination resulted in an 80% reduction in RFIs compared to non-BIM projects.

Figure 8. Coordination between the different disciplinary models. (© M.A. Mortenson Company)

BIM was also used for quantity takeoffs of building materials, elements, and system components, allowing subcontractors to better understand their scope of work and bid accurately on it. They were able to fabricate, assemble, and install building systems with no errors using shop drawings extracted directly from the coordinated model. The ability of BIM to isolate and analyze any scope or area of the building in detail allowed the prefabrication of several components including rooftop mechanical equipment, multi-trade corridor pipe racks, plumbing carriers, framed wet-walls between toilet rooms, and entire electrical closets, as shown in Figure 9. During the construction of the building, all revisions to the work were documented in real time in the model, developing a 3D, as-built record of the project. This as-built model continues to be used and updated when inserting new tenant improvement work into the facility.

Figure 9. Various components of the building that were prefabricated and subsequently installed and connected on site. (© M.A. Mortenson Company)

The DBOM approach to the Benjamin D. Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building represents a first-of-its-kind, landmark delivery model for the University of Washington. BIM was and is being used in all phases of the project lifecycle—from conception, through design and construction, to operations and maintenance—and has proved to be a valuable factor in the total cost of ownership of the facility, which is 26% below the owner's proforma.

This concludes the first part of the third annual BIM Awards that were presented earlier this summer. Stay tuned for a discussion of the other award winning projects in the September issue of the AECbytes "Building the Future" series.