Welcome to AECWeekly! The theme of Tuesday's MainStage presentation at Autodesk University 2005, held at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotels in Orlando, was “Realize Ideas.” A good theme to have while visiting the world's most famous theme park. Autodesk's theme throughout the conference was that the way to realize those ideas was to embrace 3D--not necessarily for everyone, but definitely for more users than once imagined. Another theme was lifecycle management, never before pushed on all fronts quite as heavily as it was at this conference. On the horizon, we are glimpsing a greater computing power in the future to make all this quite possible, and also an answer to storage problems in the shape of Microsoft's not yet released Vista.
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Industry News
Autodesk University 2005 Report
The theme of Tuesday's MainStage presentation at Autodesk University 2005, held at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotels in Orlando, was “Realize Ideas.” A good theme to have while visiting the world's most famous theme park. Autodesk's theme throughout the conference was that the way to realize those ideas was to embrace 3D, not necessarily for everyone, but definitely for more users than once imagined. Another theme was lifecycle management, never before pushed on all fronts quite as heavily as it was at this conference. On the horizon, we are glimpsing a greater computing power in the future to make all this quite possible, and also an answer to storage problems in the shape of Microsoft's not yet released Vista.
The tone of the conference was quite different from previous years, when it was held in Las Vegas. First of all, Autodesk could draw heavily from the theme park location and the concept of play. The presentations were laced with quite a bit of humor, some planned, and some completely spontaneous. Also, there was not one power point presentation given during the entire two and a half to three hour presentation. Instead, the focus was on the speaker, backed up by an expanse of blue screen that stretched the length of the stage, displaying key issues in text and images that the speaker referenced.
Technical evangelist Lynn Allen said that Autodesk's media and entertainment customers were “here for the first time this year.” Not surprising, given the location and the fact that Disney uses a lot of very high technology to design and implement their attractions, including 3D modeling. Later, CEO and Chairman of the Board and President of Autodesk Carol Bartz described the rides at Disney World as “not just rides-Disney is in the emotional transportation business, they are trying to grab you along the way.”
Many customers are moving to 3D now, reported Allen, who also cited networking as very important to attendees. In that vein, AU now has a matchmaking site called AU Connect where attendees could make connections before coming to the conference. There were 400 AU courses this year, and about 100 of them have been recorded on AU Online.
Carol Bartz
Carol Bartz is well known to everyone who attends AU as a very dynamic, powerful woman and leader, but this year she has made a number of notable lists as those qualities have come to public attention. Fortune Magazine named her one of most powerful women in business. Bartz said self deprecatingly, “You live long enough and someone puts you on a list.”
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She thanked AUGI board members who come out to San Rafael to meet with Autodesk to be instrumental in product development. Over 100 vendors exhibited in the exhibit hall, and there were around 5,000 attendees this year. There were also a lot more press than I've seen at past events.
One of the goals of the company is to be the “best Information network for design professionals anywhere in the planet.” 2D is still very important, said Bartz, and reminded attendees of what it was like moving from the drawing board to CAD. She predicted that “the move to 3D will be bigger and more beneficial than the move from the drawing to 2D drafting on CAD.” She was also sympathetic to how hard it was t o make big changes in process and how Autodesk would be there to help make that change.
Bartz stressed keeping information in 3D digital format rather than in various analog formats all over an organization. She cited how the product Buzzsaw was so valuable because users can get up on it and be useful in one day. Most users are using it for collaboration, program data management and bid tracking.
She talked a lot about change in relation to the transition from 2D to 3D- how it is a “senior to freshman problem.” Bartz has a senior daughter who is about to become a freshman in college. “A senior who is about to become a freshman, that's how you feel when you know 2D CAD, know it inside and out, and now you're supposed to use Inventor. It's a huge unsettling job. We want to make sure we walk with you and invest our time with you.”
Although empathy is not on the feature list, Bartz said, “I want to make sure that we're paying attention to what it takes to help you go through these transitions.” She noted that Lynn Allen is doing a class on making the transition from 2D to 3D, and confided “it was hard for her at first.”
“Making the move from 2D to 3D means doing things differently,” said Bartz. “You will have more power at your fingertips and be ready for the 21st century. If your organization isn't joining the digital world, inevitably you will lose.”
She laughed about the “7 legal million users” and “35-75 million illegal users” who need to “create, manage and share.” Her parting words of wisdom were that, “The future for you might not be today, but the inevitable is coming.”
Carl Bass--COO and Chief Technology Guru
One of the funnier moments was completely unplanned (I couldn't imagine any major software company writing this into their opening session script) was when Carl Bass came up to speak and found that he had piece of yellow paper (one of the flyers left on the seats) prominently stuck to his backside.
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Companies will be pushing for a connected process so people can work together. “This is a world where the companies who are connected will prosper,” Bass predicted. “The best way Autodesk can help realize this multidisciplinary, connected process is to provide collaboration tools that create manage and share.”
How to get there? Start with model based design and make 3D digital models. “What is important about them (digital models) is they look and behave as real world products and buildings and infrastructure. Every year we come back and see it more completely realized. Once an idea is realized, it must be maintained and needs to update everywhere else - lifecycle management. Having the right information in the hands of the right person at the right time, all these processes can be put online and accelerated. An important element of speeding up processes is enabling the modeling design of those users downstream.”
“You are here because you're looking for powerful tools,” Bass suggested. “Power overcomes complexity - all of computing infrastructure is a solid foundation for supporting this move from 2D to 3D. It's increasingly common to see PCs with multiple processing units, GPUs are now doubling in power every 12 months. We take all this power and put it to good use. We want digital models that can truly interact, and see results of updated changes immediately.” Bass said that Autodesk is working with Intel and Microsoft to bring about multicore and 64 bit processes.
Bass talked about functional design as allowing you to talk about functional aspects of a product rather than geometric aspects of a product. Bandwidth and network connectivity are really helping in management and sharing. Collaboration can take place in all disciplines in real time.
Rather than having various Autodesk executives demonstrate products or offer up case studies of existing projects, Bass had created a fictional story about a company called Global Bubble, Inc., a successful bubble wrap company that had developed a new bubble wrapping product called “Helios” bubble wrap which was filled with helium. They found that if they put helium in their bubble wrap it lowered the cost of shipping. (This might actually be true if the packages being shipped were on the FedEx truck less than 24 hours). They were so successful that they had to triple their production.
Jonathan Knowles jumped in at this point to present a “demo” of Helios production. The product is already a hit, and the company is running machines at higher than normal speeds to keep up with orders. The ECO uses Product Stream to track changes. With Inventor, they can load a 3,000-part assembly in a matter of seconds. They define where loads are located and are able to apply the changes to the geometry model of the shaft. The model has innate intelligence, and uses intelligent objects that automatically size and orient themselves in the design.
They are ready to post the model at this point, and all the information is communicated using DWF. Next, Global Bubble has decided to serve Asia Pac customers and open a facility in Wellington, New Zealand. They are using Autodesk Mapserver Enterprise (more on this product later) to look for commercial property between 40,000 and 60,000 square meters. They are able to get results then inspect results, then forward the DWF map to their architect. The information came from a variety of sources including DWG maps and GIS databases now displayed in DWF. This all happened very quickly.
According to Knowles, the Open Source community, which MapServer makes use of, will be a powerful tool for democratizing data.
Meanwhile, Bubble masters want to know if the site will work. The architect starts with a profile of the building and dimensions, turns on the conceptual shader, includes the owner's general requirements, extrudes some basic blocks and can draw in 2D tools then bring it to life in 3D very quickly.
The principal architect hires a project architect to create details for designs. The owner decides at the last moment to add another floor to building, which would ordinarily be extremely time consuming. All drawings are updated and in sync and all project documentation is updated.
How this is done: simply name the level and the change will ripple through the project documentation (this is done in Revit). The designer can put furniture in the new floor by copying information from other floors into the new floor. Keeping the workflow moving, the designer can republish the DWF and send it to the owner for approval, who will then publish it in DWG to share with other designers on the project.
If this seems a bit simplistic, it was definitely a colorful way to demonstrate the use of several existing or upcoming products from Autodesk. And we were, after all, smack dab in the middle of DisneyWorld.
Back to the Global Bubble project: when the civil engineer gets involved, he or she inserts the model of the building, and because he's working with Civil 3D, he can scale the model properly. It can be viewed in 3D to see how it looks on the proposed site, then switch back to 2D to tie in the drainage and use Pipe Network, an intelligent 3D model of the pipe network, to place structure pipe and other structure which are calculated according to rules the civil engineer set up. This can also be shared as a DWF to convey design intent.
Whether in Neverland or not, Global Bubble has improved the machine, created a building and located a location.
The project architect needs to present the site and design to the owner. Due to a new upcoming product from Autodesk called Vespa (Autodesk says in its disclaimer that this and other products may turn out not to be products and a release date is not known on any new products), artistic styles such as different fills, materials, watercolor, can be added to the design without having to switch between programs.
Global Bubble has seen the presentation and now needs to meet with government and needs a visualization that communicates all aspects of the project. Global Bubble designers can apply game development technology to CAD design using 64 bit processing, aggregating it in real time using game controllers.
Designers get the electronic floor plans, schedule, and elevations to contractors for the bidding process. Contractors can view property information such as walls and doors, match prices to many different styles. Contractors can submit bids back to Buzzsaw. New quantity takeoff information updates as the model changes.
The mobile worker who is putting together the new helium bubble wrap machine needs information on design so he uses DWF Composer to control the transparency of the model, and compare the design spec to the specs of the machines, and can use the pull apart tool to ensure proper assembly of the machine.
Global Bubble has essentially taken a Revit model and rendered it in 3ds max. Autodesk's new compositing and collaborative media animation solution, Toxic, makes it possible to do color changes to floor, or furniture, and can change the depth of field in real time.
The end result: Global Bubble Corp. - protecting the world's stuff - lightly.
Bass summed up with a quote from William Gibson: “The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.”
Keynote Address: Tom McCann, Walt Disney Co. and Imagineering Team senior vice president of engineering at Disney, Glendale, California.
According to McCann, Walt Disney wanted to create a place where magical things could happen. Imagineers are responsible for everything at Walt Disney theme parks. Disney is famous for having a lot of details, and the Imagineers' mission is to grow and expand Walt's vision. “It is not just an assembly of little pieces,” stressed McCann, “but it tells one big sweeping story.” Imagineering is the design arm which designs all the theme parks around the world.
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One of the themes of the theme park business is “Happy people producing happy products.” Imagineers are part of the Parks and Resorts segment of Walt Disney Co. The magnitude of Walt Disney World Resort is huge: 27,000 acres comprising four theme parks. Worldwide, the company now has 11 theme parks, in Anaheim, Orlando, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong (which opened September 12); two cruise ships, Magic and Wonder; Disney Vacation Club, and Disney Regional Entertainment.
The concept of the theme park grew from Disney's desire for a place to go with his daughters, where families could have fun together. Walt Disney started in 1951 by buying the land in Anaheim, then took his plans for a theme park to Washington to get funding. His original idea was to have a main street entrance, a hub in front of the castle, and spokes that would go off to the various lands. This would make it easy for people to know where they were and how to get back to the hub to go elsewhere. This basic design has prevailed. In 1955 Disneyland opened, and in 1971 Disney World Resort opened, the latter built on swamp land that was filled in.
Factors that go into engineering and design for the theme parks are safety, concept development, feasibility, design, production, installation, grand opening and show quality standards. McCann's years working for the Department of Defense have served him well in dealing with the various issues of vendor management, scheduling, and planning.
Imagineers is a two-headed organization with a project manager and show producer. Beneath them are an architectural and facilities engineer, show/ride project engineer, show design manager, project controls engineer, and construction manager.
As the Imagineers are all about detail, McCann said they have web based tools they insist engineers use. They have particular operating environment considerations:
Disney theme parks and resorts are open 365 days a year
Theme parks and attractions are open 12 plus hours a day
Guests will try/do almost anything imaginable
Examples of some engineering challenges include
The Tower of Terror, a premiere Disney attraction that opened in 2004 with lots of sensors and precise safety factors.
Hong Kong Disneyland is the newest one, built on unclaimed land that was an “ocean floor moving exercise that took two years.”
Space Mountain, a 4D scheduling rehab project. The support structure steel was becoming tired. They had to replace Space Mountain with another one the same, but with a new and improved ride and show. They cut some holes in it do all the work inside small holes. They took away the existing structure through the small holes and take out six feet of dirt. A 3D model was used to create a complex ride system inside quite a small mountain. “Being able to show vendors and construction people how it is we will construct in a limited space, with a show put on top of that with light and sound and a big meteor, with the ride system isolated from building, 3D tools give tremendous advantage.”
Expedition Everest is a roller coaster in a tight location. “We built a model, digitized it - there is mine train inside a Himalayan mountain and there's an ugly beast in there.”
Behind the Scenes
A press conference at AU offered presentations from heads of all the industry divisions: Buzz Cross, Chris Bradshaw, Phil Bernstein and Jay Bhatt, Mark Petit, Amar Hanspal, and John Sanders. Customer James Vandezande of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) also spoke about their work using BIM for the design of the Freedom Tower. Kevin Smith, founder and chairman of Spine3D, an architectural and imaging company, also spoke about using virtual tools to deliver presentations of the hot condominium market in South Florida.
Buzz Cross, vice president of Manufacturing Solutions Division said that the most interesting thing to him was that now the vast majority of users in individual sessions at AU are interested in it or are using. The product has 100,000 users now. Also, the Vault is at more than 12,000 sites. He reported that electrical CAD has become big and the acquisition of Alias will be big.
Chris Bradshaw of the Infrastructure Solutions Division at Autodesk asked the audience what the difference was between a first world and a third world country. His answer: three days. He noted that it took three days for New Orleans to decline into anarchy after Hurricane Katrina. The decimation of a source of fresh water and the inability to dispose of wastewater safely became critical. “We take this for granted in a first world country,” said Bradshaw. “But third world countries don't have this.” The U.S. is now focusing on refurbishing infrastructure such as roads, wastewater, building, etc. Europeans are also interested in refurbishment.
In China this year, $200 billion will be spent on infrastructure as they build out the western part of their country. China and India are going for brand new infrastructure, and in doing so, are concerned with capturing design and construction information in such a way that they can “lifecycle management” the projects.
Bradshaw also discussed Autodesk's commitment to Open Source and its announcement of the MapServer Foundation and MapServer Enterprise.
For more on ISD, see this week's GISWeekly report, Jay Bhatt and Phil Bernstein of the Building Solutions Division at Autodesk spoke on trends: in general, they are finding the use of technology and making buildings are as one. Challenges include:
- The need for sustainable design.
- Profit margins in AEC remain low
- 30% revenue is lost due to inefficiencies
Bhatt and Bernstein believe that the kinds of improvements the industry wants can be solved by new tools. BIM is a critical path for the future, however, Bernstein said that they must move the industry to model-based design at its own pace. There is definitely a movement toward lifecycle management in the construction industry in its need for facilities management tools, quantity take off tools, etc.
James Vandezande of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) described his company's process of change management in moving over to Revit for the design of the Freedom Tower that will replace the World Trade Center.
SOM is two years into its use of Revit for BIM, according to Vandezande. The Freedom Tower is being designed 100% in Revit. The company is also working with Autodesk Collaboration Services to use Buzzsaw efficiently and keep the process as digital as possible. The construction phase begins in the next two months.
Mark Petit, vice president of Media and Entertainment at Autodesk, said that more movies are going digital these days, and television is also adopting more high end visual effects. In the games arena, complexity and quality of visual experience is heightened. Exciting developments are the announcement of the Alias acquisition, Toxic, the new collaborative compositing product, and Flame for using the power of graphics in 64 CPU graphics environment. Last but not least, 3ds max version 8 will include support for DWF and ship with Vault. This industry group will do more with open standards and provide and end-to-end solution, as it takes bigger teams to build some of the assets included in games.
Amar Hanspal, vice president of Collaborative Services at Autodesk, said his is a “new, embryonic unit within the company” which spans all the industry groups on the process side of things. He perceives DWF as the pipeline to get ideas downstream. Buzzsaw allows customers to incorporate design information and manages submittals and bidding, etc. He reported 10 million downloads of the DWF Viewer since it had been launched, 100,000 DWF Composer users, and 132,000 users of Buzzsaw.
John Sanders, vice president of Platform Technology at Autodesk spoke to the sustainability of Autodesk's growth by saying that Autodesk has grown revenue and also the bottom line. They can invest in the business for future growth. They are able to provide functionality at a fraction of the price of competitors by “democratizing technology.” He noted that it is easier to make software more powerful, but “less obvious how to make it more approachable.”
Vespa
Vespa (not even in alpha yet) is one of those products that will fill a hole. For years, architects have used various software solutions such as FormZ or SketchUp to bring some realistic features to their 2D presentation drawings. These solutions have been very useful but according to Mike Perani, product manager for Vespa, they have taken some time to execute and required “moving out of one program into another.” (Although, from what I know of SketchUp, it works within your design process.)
“This product (Vespa) is about having a conversation with people who have difficulty interpreting a CAD product,” said Perani. This way, designers can create a presentation, then bring it into Vespa.
The current process has the user starting out in CAD, then saving out to raster or exporting into PhotoShop. Another way is to start out in CAD, then plot the presentation, then get out the markers and color it in, then put in on a flat bed scanner, then put it in PhotoShop.
There are a lot of things Vespa is not: it is not a photorealistic rendering system, nor a graphics application, nor a 3D modeling application.
With Vespa you can apply materials such as watercolor, gradients, fills, transparencies, charcoal and then either print or go to a graphics application. It reads DWG and DWF. It preserves all blocks and layers and lets you manage them. You can save them to PSD or EPS, DWG or PDF.
Perani said they are looking for feedback on where to go with this product and interested parties can contact Email Contact or Email Contact
Summary
It seems as though Autodesk is moving toward filling in various holes, connecting the dots, as it were, between functionalities in the products that they offer. Over the years, these holes have been filled by other vendors, for example, the gap between DWG and third party vendors using DWG for development has been filled with a set of high quality component libraries from the Open Design Alliance or other vendors. Autodesk RealDWG 2006 (formerly ObjectDBX) enables third-party application providers to develop and market products that read and write design data formats AutoCAD DWG and DXF. Other third party tools have been used for conversion and viewing of DWG files, so now we have Free Tools for Viewing and Converting DWG Files and Vespa coming from Autodesk so that users will not be reliant on third parties to provide these tools anymore.
Why Autodesk didn't provide this functionality before, we'll probably never know. Perhaps they're listening to their users more or there were other more pressing needs of the users to fulfill.
To get an idea of what Autodesk may be working on for the upcoming releases, it might be useful to look at what they're not offering or what some third parties are offering, as that may be what's coming next.
Acquisitions/Agreements/Alliances
Autodesk, Inc. announced a partnership with the French association Emergency Architects, to donate software that will help the association provide rebuilding advice and technical assistance to communities affected by natural disasters.
CADzation announced the release of AcroPlot Auto and the extension of their partnership with Autodesk. This enhanced partnership through the DWF Partner Program is a continuation of the two companies' shared goal of improving efficiencies for AEC, manufacturing, and government entities. CADzation provides customers with innovative conversion solutions for dated design formats, among other innovative solutions, designed to improve cost and work efficiencies.
IMSI, a provider of house plans online and a leading developer and publisher of precision design, and consumer and business software solutions, announced that it has completed the planned sale of all of the Smith Micro Software, Inc. (SMSI) common stock it has received as part of the consideration relating to the sale of Allume.
IMSI originally received approximately 398,000 shares of unregistered SMSI common stock as part of the consideration for the sale of Allume. Approximately 127,000 of these shares were placed in escrow to secure certain representations and warranties included in the stock purchase agreement with Smith Micro. We subsequently substituted cash for these escrowed shares, as permitted under the escrow agreement. In October 2005 SMSI completed the registration of the 398,000 shares. Since then, IMSI has sold the SMSI stock. The total proceeds to IMSI from the sale of the SMSI stock is approximately $2.8 Million. The sale has resulted in realized gains on the sale of securities of approximately $0.9 million, to be recorded for IMSI's fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2005.
Spicer Corporation, developer of online document viewing, markup, editing and scanning software, announced Hummingbird Ltd. as a new authorized international Spicer reseller. With several years of partnering through Hummingbird's Alliance Network, Spicer and Hummingbird take the next step in providing content management solutions designed to help Government, Manufacturing, Insurance, Utilities, Law Enforcement, and Records Management markets. With the new reseller relationship, Hummingbird becomes an international channel and integration partner and will distribute and provide customer support for Hummingbird-Spicer integrations worldwide.
Announcements
Sage Software announced that its Sage Timberline Office Customer Support department has earned its fifth consecutive Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification. SCP Certification ensures that customers receive technical support that is rated among the best in the industry as measured by industry standard benchmarks. The Sage Timberline Office product suite provides integrated financial and operations software for professionals in construction and real estate.
Oce N.V. announced a series of actions to capitalize on the opportunities provided by its recent acquisition of Imagistics International Inc. Effective January 1, 2006, Oce will establish Oce Imagistics, a new division that combines the office business of Imagistics International with the office and Digital Printing Centers (DPCs) business of Oce North America's Digital Document Systems (DDS) division.
New Products
Bluebeam Software, a leader in file-sharing solutions for CAD users, announced that it has launched Bluebeam Revu, a PDF viewing and markup application designed for AEC firms. With the addition of Bluebeam Revu to its desktop products Pushbutton Plus and Bluebeam Lite, Bluebeam now offers one complete solution to create accurate PDF files from CAD, view large format PDF files and easily markup PDF designs. Bluebeam Revu is ideal for companies that share, review and markup drawings and documents electronically.
Autodesk, Inc. announced availability of the latest version of its Autodesk Buzzsaw collaborative project management solution. This enhanced version of Buzzsaw includes new functionality such as expanded bid and construction management capabilities.
Informative Graphics Corp. (IGC), a leader in content visualization, secure publishing and collaboration technology, announced that its new ModelPress Desktop is now shipping. ModelPress Desktop is a low-cost application that views a variety of 3D file formats in a common, easy-to-use interface. Supported formats include AutoCAD 3D DWF/DWG/DXF, Inventor, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, IGES, STL, VRML, OpenHSF, XGL, SAT, 3DS and IGC's content secure 3DF format. Pro/E, Wildfire and Step formats are provided via the ModelPress Granite option.
Right Hemisphere, provider of Product Graphics Management (PGM) software, announced the new SCORM®-compliant version of its Deep Creator™ 3D authoring software. Deep Creator software is used to easily author high-quality, complex, event-driven interactive 3D scenes and integrate interactive training content to produce computer-based training, simulations, architectural visualizations, virtual reality environments and video games.
Awards
MasterGraphics Inc. has been awarded the authorization of Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC). Through MasterAcademy, the premier software training program for architectural and manufacturing design professionals throughout the Upper Midwest, MasterGraphics has demonstrated the necessary requirements to become a national ATC with certified Learning Centers and instructors in four locations: Waukesha (Milwaukee), WI, Madison, WI, Appleton, WI and Minnetonka (Minneapolis), MN. Authorization for a fifth Professional Learning Center will be sought with the relocation of MasterGraphics' Illinois office to Rolling Meadows early in 2006.
Nemetschek North America is pleased to announce four of its New York users have won honor and merit awards in the AIA-NYC and AIA-NYS Design 2005 Awards. Audrey Matlock Architect, Marble Fairbanks, SPaN, and Leven Betts Studio each received awards in this year's design competition.
Divided into three categories-architecture, interiors, and projects-all submissions were either products of New York City-based architects or were located in the city. Judges sought social and environmental responsibility, as well as an integration of architecture with landscape.
Upcoming Events
| Autodesk University 2005 | |
| Date: | November 28 - December 1, 2005 |
| Place: | Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, FL USA |
| Autodesk University (AU) is designed for people like you -- creative problem solvers who transform ideas into the real world we live in. The training and business contacts you'll make at AU will empower you to realize your next great idea -- and the ones after that. For well over a decade, AU has helped attendees advance their careers and companies by measurably improving personal productivity. |
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| 2005 Primavera UK User Meeting | |
| Date: | December 1, 2005 |
| Place: | Victoria Park Plaza Hotel, London, United Kingdom |
| The Primavera UK User Meeting is an annual educational forum for our software users to update their product knowledge, network with their project management peers and connect with the Primavera Team. |
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| LCI Design Forum, Berkeley, CA | |
| Date: | December 8 - 9, 2005 |
| Place: | Berkeley, CA USA |
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The LCI Design Forum will meet at 1995 University Avenue, 2nd floor, from 8:30 to 5:00 Thursday and Friday, December 8-9, 2005. Philip Sun, until recently with Ratcliff, and David Mar of Tipping Mar Associates are co-leading the Forum with Glenn Ballard. Norm Strong and Markku Allison of the AIA have been invited to make a presentation on the integrated practice initiative.Location to be determined.
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| Advanced Design-Build Strategies for Architects | |
| Date: | December 9, 2005 |
| Place: | Renaissance Tampa Hotel - International Plaza
Tampa, FL USA |
| This information-packed, full-day workshop features nationally recognized design-build experts who will address the opportunities, challenges, risks, and rewards presented by this project-delivery approach that is rapidly growing in popularity with owners nationwide. The workshop leaders will provide practical business, ethical team-building, marketing, and risk-management advice that will help your firm compete in this expanding sector of the construction market.
Learn about
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| 7th International Conference of the International Federation of Highrise Structures (IFHS) | |
| Date: | December 10 - 11, 2005 |
| Place: | The Dubai International Convention Centre (DICC
Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
| Organised in association with The International Federation of High-Rise Structures (IFHS), it will be the 7th year that this annual conference has been held around the world, with the previous venues being Bangalore, Singapore, London, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid and Toronto. The decision by the IFHS to choose Dubai as this year’s host city is out of recognition of the Emirate’s emergence as the fastest growing city worldwide in terms of towers and tall buildings. |
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| XXVIII Curset – International Days on Intervention in the Architectural Heritage: Theatres: Intervention in Theatrical Heritage | |
| Date: | December 15 - 18, 2005 |
| Place: | Barcelona, Spain |
| As is the case every year, the end of autumn will see the holding of the Curset de Patrimoni – International Days on
Intervention in Architectural Heritage – organised by the Architects’ Association for the Defence of and Intervention in
Architectural Heritage (AADIPA) of the Col |
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You can find the full AECCafe.com event calendar here.
To read more news, click here.
-- Susan Smith, AECCafe.com Managing Editor.