The 1st Place Winner from Autodesk’s Excellence in Infrastructure Competition this past fall was HNTB, for the Expansion of Denver International Airport, originally built in 1995. The project was started in 2008-09, and includes 519-room hotel, a rail line from downtown to a hotel, which was part of the original master plan of the airport when it was originally built. The expansion includes the integration of a rail line, new baggage handling system, and the new airport is being prefabbed with a new entry way, security checkpoints, baggage screening – all of that being developed with the hotel.
rendering courtesy of Gensler.
Denver International Airport embodies an “airport city” concept.
“You can see where the rail line comes in and the glass wave shape at the top is the new hotel project,” said Eddy Krygiel, architect at HNTB. “It’s all attaching to the south side of the airport. We moved over 1 million cubic feet of earth in excavation.”
Bryan Williams, segment manager, Field Solutions with the General Contractor Division and construction manager of Trimble Buildings, spoke with AECWeekly about the recently released Trimble Field Points software for construction field layout. This application makes it possible for building construction contractors to create layout points in their CAD models. By matching the digital design on the physical construction site with points created in the field, field layout work can become much more accurate and save time.
One of the finalists in the Innovation in Building Category in the Be Inspired Awards 2013, was China Communications Construction Construction Limited Southern Headquarters’ project China Shipbuilding NDRI Engineering Co., Ltd.
Adobe has announced big news in the form of support for 3D printers in the Creative Cloud, which will benefit designers who use Photoshop as a finishing tool for 3D content.
For those who have already signed up to be a trial user, Adobe said it’s resetting the 30-day trials for every user so that they can try out the new features. They’ve also added hundreds of tutorials that instruct people on how to use many of the features in Creative Cloud.
The cloud platform allows Adobe to update its software more frequently with new features and upgrades.
Eric Carpenter of Rand Secure Data, a division of Rand Worldwide, the parent of IMAGINiT, talked recently at Autodesk University about secure archiving of data and the increased need for AEC solutions in this field. Secure archiving of data has been prevalent in the enterprise of banking and other industries. AEC is now subject to increasingly external regulations, and data must be regulated carefully. Changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) have stressed that proper management of electronically stored information is essential when working with partners and multiple internal departments on a project. The size and special requirements of data such as point cloud data and files related to each other such as occur in a BIM model have to be taken into consideration. In response to this need, Rand Secure Data has released a comprehensive the Data Governance Solution that provides AEC firms with the tools for eDiscovery, email backup and archiving.
“An example is Newforma for point cloud data, it only shares what the users have time to enter. With our Data Governance Solution, it captures all the information and catalogues it. It also compresses data down to a fraction and uses Rand’s Data Center to store it,” said Carpenter.
In an interview with Ed Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, we discussed the organization’s new 2030Palette and what brought that technology to fruition. From Architecture 2030 the stats are as follows: For the ninth straight year, projected U.S. Building Sector energy consumption (building operations) and greenhouse gas emissions to the year 2030 have declined.
Josh Lowe, senior innovation advisor and Mike Whaley, president of TURIS Systems,spoke at Autodesk University during the session entitled, “BuildX: Construction Site of the Future.” Lowe and Whaley talked about the scanning revolution, or “reality capture” as it is now called. TURIS develops and implements project-specific Building Innovation Systems that utilize a technology-based modular approach for knowledge management. Laser scanning or reality capture has become more accessible, portable and more applicable.
Last year’s predictions for the year, Top AEC Predictions for 2013 – AECCafe Voice, were somewhat different from this year’s. Although those predictions are still useful to note this year, I am focusing on some product directions and initiatives since there is a continuing, pressing need to address critical infrastructure, fueled largely by climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and failing infrastructure and economy. Products developed and industries becoming more collaborative all shape the predictions of the year 2014.
