Summary: Readers share their opinions on our BIM article series, based on last week’s stories in AIArchitect. And there’s one comment on the Honorary AIAs.

About “FOX Architects Takes the Plunge” (in our Face of the AIA series by Michael Tardif, Assoc. AIA)

It’s actually an interesting article and has a few salient points. Critical and disturbing is that architects are maximally billed at $130K/year, which translates at a salary to billing rate of 1:3 to a salary of only around $40K. The interesting question is that it supposes that if BIM made people purely more efficient at production (which it might) then the billing rate could possibly go up. I wonder if this is true. Certainly we’ve been able to bill higher for specialized BIM consulting, but that doesn’t necessarily answer the question. What would be the criteria by which efficiency could generate net higher billing, is it based on fixed percent of construction? There are of course other arguments that might affect this calculation.
—Dennis R. Shelden, PhD
Chief Technology Officer, Gehry Technologies
Los Angeles

Michael, I think your articles are awaited by our group in much the same way as the new Harry Potter manuscripts. But even more interesting will be the feedback you receive. That was a good approach to kind of give the inside aspect of how a firm comes to grips with moving to BIM. I would have liked it if you had left out what vendor they used as way too many people focus on that versus what I consider the real story, and that is the process and cultural changes that one goes through . . . We really need to get people away from thinking that they can only do as much as their vendor of choice allows. There are lots more things that can be done than what any one of the vendors can provide currently. We really need people to focus on the requirements. Thank you.
—Dana K. "Deke" Smith, RA
Chair, NIBS Facility Information Council, National BIM Standard Project Committee
Washington, D.C.

Thank you for your FOX article. I would like to make a contribution to one of your articles in the next couple of months. I am working on a couple of large maturing BIM projects, both of which are just starting on site and we have used BIM through the design process and now the contractors are on board with our BIM approach and extending the BIM value downstream. A summary of this may fit a future article for you.
—Miles Walker
CAD Manager—Vice President, HOK International Ltd.
London.

Please forward to Michael my congratulations on a great piece of writing. I remember his excitement on bringing Revit to the table at the New Orleans convention several years ago. This article got me excited again.
—James R. Nader, AIA
Nader Design Group
Fort Worth, Tex.

About Seven Outstanding Professionals Tapped for Hon. AIA

Steve Wynn, Hon. AIA? Look at the AIA mission, vision, and values and tell me this selection is in alignment. The Bellagio or the Mirage are sustainable buildings in a sustainable environment? I don’t think so. As far as I can tell, they stand for everything good design should stand against; gaudy temples celebrating vast fortunes built on extraordinary waste. The Nevada desert can support a sustainable population of what, 5,000? Next I suppose we are going to give a gold medal to Dubai for creating a destination resort in the wilderness? I’m sorry, maybe I’m missing something, but I just cannot see the connection.
—John Hamilton, AIA, UrbanWorks Architecture LLC
Minneapolis