CEFPI Highlights BIM

This week I attended the Council for Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) annual conference.  This conference is always a content rich exchange of ideas involving owners, designers and construction professionals.  It’s heavily focused, by charter, on issues affecting the planning and design of school buildings with an eye towards better educational environments, better construction projects, and better facility lifecycle costs.

I attended several sessions about BIM or other design practices.  I found it interesting that even in other non-BIM sessions BIM kept creeping into the conversation.  In one session discussion about planning and passing a bond election, an attendee offered their experience using animated building models to demonstrate the intent of their design, and how that wowed their public.  More importantly it answered sustainability questions and appeased a board member who had been in opposition to the program.

BIM came up in conversations about design, construction, facility management, marketing, maintenance, and more.  My name tag read Autodesk so I received a thousand questions. The consensus among this conference was that BIM in design practices is a fast moving train.  Every firm was either heavily in to BIM, just getting started, or trying to figure out how to start.  Several spoke of recent RFPs which requested the use of BIM by the designer and then again by the contractor.  The message seemed clear to me – industry player’s better get on board soon or they will miss out on many business opportunities.

Apart from the conference Mike Gemmell and I went to the CN Tower, advertised as the world’s tallest building, and took in the beautiful view of Toronto.  The tower is impressive and practical.  It was built in part to help solve the city’s communication problems.  With microwave receptors at 1,109ft and an antenna reaching to 1815ft it could be described as the world’s tallest telephone pole.  Next year this conference returns to the states. CEFPI will be held in San Diego September 29^th thru October 2^nd, 2008.