FOX Architects Takes the Plunge

by Michael Tardif, Assoc. AIA
Contributing Editor

Summary: Like many architecture firms, FOX Architects of McLean, Va., and Washington, D.C., has decided that making the transition from CAD to building information modeling (BIM) is a strategic business imperative. The 80-person multidisciplinary firm (architecture, interior design, landlord services, graphic design, and multimedia design) is engaged in a transition process that will unfold over the course of the coming year and beyond, and has generously agreed to allow, for the purposes of this column, the broadest possible access to the firm’s staff (within contractual confidentiality or security constraints) to document the firm’s experiences. We’ll be checking in periodically to see how the transition process unfolds.

The firm’s market sectors include corporate headquarters buildings, government agencies, government contractors, education, nonprofit organizations, and high technology. The firm is led by six principals: four architects, one interior designer, and one certified public accountant. The firm’s primary software tools are AutoCAD and Architectural Desktop by Autodesk, but the firm also makes extensive use of Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, and Photoshop; Autodesk 3D Studio; Google SketchUp; and QuarkXPress.

Unconventional culture
The culture of the firm is unconventional. Principal Robert Fox, AIA, does not think of the firm he founded as an architecture firm, but as “more of a business or consulting firm, improving clients’ businesses by improving their business environment and solving their problems.” Even before the term “BIM” had begun to gain currency, Fox realized that one of the principal attributes that distinguishes BIM from CAD—three-dimensional modeling—had value not just for visualization of geometry, but for a richer exchange of building information and better communication throughout the building design and construction process.

BIM would help foster more fluid information exchange and more fluid communication in general

The firm’s graphic designers had always taken the lead in preparing the firm’s design presentation boards, and as the firm began to make greater use of 3D visualization and animations—for presentation purposes only—Fox observed that graphic designers were asking the same questions of the firm’s architects and interior designers as contractors would typically ask in the field, such as, “How do you plan to build this?” He realized that true three-dimensional modeling would enable the firm to communicate more clearly with clients and build consensus more quickly, both among design team members and with clients. Most significantly, it would help foster more fluid information exchange and more fluid communication in general.

Increasing productivity and profitability
From a business standpoint, Fox realized something else: the largest percentage of the firm’s revenue is generated by the production of construction documents, an observation supported by the fact that the firm has more licenses of AutoCAD than any other software. Fox found this alarming. “You really have to take a macro-economic view of the profession,” he notes. “Our fees have been relatively the same for the last 20 years. The cost of real estate went up, our operating expenses went up, but our fees remained the same. The only thing that enabled us to remain profitable was an increase in productivity. Before CAD, we were lucky to bill $60,000 per person per year drafting; with CAD, it’s now over $130,000 per person per year.” Fox believes, however, that CAD technology has reached the limit of its productivity and profitability potential, and the firm has sought to improve profitability by other means, including an a la carte menu of fees. “We’ve narrowed scope,” says Fox, “And along with the increase in productivity, that has enabled us to remain profitable.”

The firm is assessing BIM technology from a business point of view, as a means of achieving the next boost in productivity and profitability.

The firm is assessing BIM technology from a business point of view, as a means of achieving the next boost in productivity and profitability. Derek Wood, who is leading the firm’s transition to BIM, says, “We are looking at REVIT to consolidate design and documentation, and to export three-dimensional models to other applications for renderings.” Both Fox and Wood, however, understand that there is a lot more to BIM than 3D modeling, and are eager to exploit its full potential. “BIM goes well past the design of a building,” says Wood. “I see opportunities with green design, for example. We could virtually build a building, put it through analysis software, and test the validity of one curtain wall versus another. We don’t even know what the possibilities are at this point.”

“Look at the way we practice,” says Fox. “We go out and collect information on our own, collect more information from consultants, put it all into a package, deliver it to the contractor, and never see it again. I see huge value in that information for other purposes. We acquire all this knowledge and expertise, we apply it to all the information we’ve collected through research, and then we don’t effectively utilize it. We see people on the construction side using REVIT for scheduling, sequencing, coordination. From an owner’s perspective, we can do better. We generate so much information; it’s figuring out the really important stuff. BIM should enable us to integrate the processes of design, engineering, and construction.”

Though it has only just begun its transition to BIM, the firm is already reaching out to construction firms as potential collaborative partners. “[Software such as] REVIT promotes a design/build type of relationship,” says Fox. “Traditionally, we start designing, we hand off, keep designing, then hand off again. You can’t do that with an application like REVIT, at least not if you want to use it effectively. Instead, we should all be working together to develop the building information model. We should all be working side-by-side from the very the early stages.”

Training staff
The firm has developed a comprehensive training program, with two week-long training sessions for up to 10 employees each scheduled a month apart. Some have already begun using REVIT, having learned it on the fly. For these employees, the classes will formalize their training. Others have no prior experience with the software. All will go through an entire project in four days, to foster an understanding of how BIM technology works, and how it differs from CAD. Afterward, trained staff will begin using REVIT on selected projects. The interiors group has identified two corporate headquarters projects whose base buildings are being designed by other firms using REVIT, which will provide an opportunity to test design information exchange processes—vital to the success of any project, but particularly acute on interiors projects. The architecture group also plans to begin two additional base-building projects in REVIT.

The transition, though not simple, will benefit the firm

The firm understands that the transition will not be simple. “In a sense, we’ve given you the rosy eyed version of what we expect to accomplish,” says Fox. “Now we have to actually work it out.”

“This is a very different way of delivering a process, and our deliverables will give us a much more sophisticated competitive advantage,” says Wood. “The documents we deliver now will be completely obsolete.”

Copyright 2007 Michael Tardif