Sustainable Land Development International

Welcome to the Collaborative Revolution!

Sustainable Land Development International is the entity with which Collaborative Construction will be merging the International BUILT Association. The new entity, to be known as the SLDI-BUILT Alliance, will be launched early this summer. Those interested in learning more about SLDI can read the articles linked below.

If you prefer, here's a link directly to the SLDI Website.

Reference Article Links

People, Planet and Profit
The Need for Industry Leadership
Beyond Buildings
SLDI’s Strategic Plan
Achieving Sustainable Land Development
Building a Bridge to a New Global Culture
Biodiversity is the Living Foundation for Sustainable Development
Understanding the Bond we have with Trees
Building a Sustainable Community Forest
Nature Bats Last

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James L. Salmon, Esq.

Of Counsel

Beatty Bangle Strama, p.c.

400 West 15th Street Suite 1450

Austin, Texas 78701

(o) 512-879-5050

(f) 512-879-5040

(c) 512-630-4446

(s) 859-912-7747

President

Collaborative Construction Resources, LLC

Jsalmon AT bbsfirm DOT com

JamesLsalmon AT gmail DOT com

James.Salmon AT collaborativeCR DOT com

www.CollaborativeConstruction.Blogspot.com

www.CollaborativeConstruction.com

www.bbsfirm.com

Public Entities Adopting BIM

Welcome to the Collaborative Revolution!

I've been advised that Ohio can now be added to the list of states with a robust BIM initiative. The Buckeye State joins, Wisconsin and Texas as an early adopter of BIM technologies in the public arena.

Of course, California, the GSA, the USACE and Indiana University, among other entities have embraced BIM in certain circumstances, but those three states, Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio are, to date, the only states to adopt formal BIM policies.

In Ohio, the State Architect's office is leading the way. I will provide a link to the announcement when they issue a news release.

UPDATE: Here's the Link to the Ohio Architect's Announcement

Collaborative Construction is monitoring BIM adoption by public entities because public entities that adopt BIM quickly realize the need to modernize their procurement statutes and regulations as fully integrated BIM solutions require fully integrated teams. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is required to fully utilize BIM and IPD cannot be achieved efficiently and effectively under antiquated legal instruments that pit all stakeholders on major projects one against another.

Public procurement officers must be released from the shackles of the Design Bid Build process if the true benefits of BIM are to be realized.

In the coming months Collaborative Construction will be working with interested parties throughout to establish IPD as an approved project delivery method in the state of Texas. Anyone interested in joining the effort should contact James L. Salmon of Collaborative Construction.

James L. Salmon, Esq.

Of Counsel

Beatty Bangle Strama, p.c.

400 West 15th Street Suite 1450

Austin, Texas 78701

(o) 512-879-5050

(f) 512-879-5040

(c) 512-630-4446

(s) 859-912-7747

President

Collaborative Construction Resources, LLC

Jsalmon AT bbsfirm DOT com

JamesLsalmon AT gmail DOT com

James.Salmon AT collaborativeCR DOT com

www.CollaborativeConstruction.Blogspot.com

www.CollaborativeConstruction.com

www.bbsfirm.com

BIM Certification - What do owner's need?

Welcome to the Collaborative Revolution!

Owners generally have no idea what they want, what they need or what is possible when they ask for BIM. Sadly, few design professionals can answer those questions effectively either. Further, the classic Federated BIM Model delivered by most BIM Consultants and /or BIM software providers is worth much either. As regular readers of this Blog know, I've use the allegory of "Katy's Birthday" to tell the story of the owner who receives a box of "BIM Blocks" with no idea how to reassemble the BIM Blocks, access relevant information or otherwise the advantage of the shiny the new digital asset that is purportedly being received. I wrote about Katy's castle in the Collaborative Construction newsletter last month.

Other times, the owner gets even less information. Rather than a box of "BIM Blocks" some owners receive the equivalent of a Braille Rubick's Cube rather than a box of BIM Blocks. If the owner cannot access, analyze or otherwise utilize the BIM then the BIM serves no purpose.

Filtering, analyzing and accessing the right data at the right moment in time for the right purpose for the right decision maker is what Big BIM - as Finith Jernigan calls it - is all about. To deliver integrated solutions to sophisticated owners - i.e. something like a "Certified BIM" - the integrated team needs to have a better understanding of the business purpose of the facility and the supporting infrastructure the owner seeks to procure.

The "business purpose" of a single family home, a convenience store, a storage facility, a commercial warehouse, a hospital, a server farm and a regional hospital are all very different. The owner of each facility has one level of interest in the digital assets associated with each such facility and its supporting infrastructure, while the community at large, the owner's employees, emergency personnel and others who interact with the facility have other interests that merge, diverge and even clash with the owner's interests in the facility. Real digital assets that can be recorded, analyzed and accessed intelligently over time by relevant stakeholders will enable more of those staked holders to make more and better decisions about how best to utilize such facilities.

Just as the business purpose of facilities and the infrastructure that support facilities varies from structure to structure, facilities differ greatly from manufactured components and products. It is critical that thought leaders in the construction industry begin to recognize that the advanced software tools utilized in the manufacturing industry can now be leveraged - at a fraction of the cost - to allow intelligent and effective use of data related to the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of facilities.

We must filter the data or we will be overwhelmed by it. The knowledge base required to keep a Boeing jet in the air or to make a complex weapons system function is far broader than the knowledge base required to effectively manage a convenience store. A hospital, on the other hand, is at least as complex as a jet, and it both instances lives hang in the balance.

BIM Certification is needed. But first, we need to be very clear about what we are - and are not - certifying.



James L. Salmon Of Counsel
Beatty Bangle Strama, p.c.
400 West 15th Street Suite 1450
Austin, Texas 78701
(o) 512-879-5050
(f) 512-879-5040
(c) 512-630-4446
(s) 859-912-7747

PresidentCollaborative Construction Resources,LLC
Jsalmon@bbsfirm.com
JamesLsalmon@gmail.com
James.Salmon@collaborativeCR.com
www.CollaborativeConstruction.Blogspot.com
www.CollaborativeConstruction.com
www.bbsfirm.com

Extreme Building Codes

Welcome to the Collaborative Revolution!

Below is an excerpt from an excellent article detailing the benefits of good Building Codes and enforcement of the same.


"The technology has rarely been applied to residences, with a few exceptions. After losing his Oakland home to a wildfire in 1991, Randolph Langenbach, a retired senior analyst at FEMA and a professor emeritus of architecture at UCB, started from scratch. He designed a "damped sway foundation system" that wedded vibration-absorbing, four-foot-long fluid dampers to a steel frame. "This is the only home with this design," Langenbach says. Building the residence this way was more economical than the standard code solution: burying beams deep into the local clay-like soil. To develop the method, Langenbach studied how low-tech, traditionally constructed timber and masonry homes in Kashmir and Iran hold strong during earthquakes. He thinks there is much to be learned from indigenous architectures that have been honed in quake-plagued environments."

Extreme Building Codes Save Lives

James L. Salmon
Of Counsel
Beatty Bangle Strama, p.c.
400 West 15th Street Suite 1450
Austin, Texas 78701
(o) 512-879-5050
(f) 512-879-5040
(c) 512-630-4446
(s) 859-912-7747

President
Collaborative Construction Resources, LLC

Jsalmon@bbsfirm.com
JamesLsalmon@gmail.com
James.Salmon@collaborativeCR.com
www.CollaborativeConstruction.Blogspot.com
www.CollaborativeConstruction.com
www.bbsfirm.com

Office: 512-879-5050
Skype No: 859-912-7747
Cell No: 512-630-4446
Skype: JameswithCCR

Ink Jet Skin Printer

Welcome to the Collaborative Revolution!

The article linked below describes an interesting new method of grafting skin onto burn victim's wounds. The researchers have created an "Skin Jet" printer, similar to a standard Ink Jet printer that sprays an emulsified mixture of skin cells and healing agents on the wound. The first layer is a healing / grafting mixture and the second layer is a protective layer. Pretty cool stuff.

Of course, when I see these kinds of nano-technology based applications I think of ways these new processes can be brought to bear on construction processes. If we can heal human skin this way we should certainly be able to repair / protect concrete, steel and other building materials.

Read the Whole Thing

James L. Salmon
Of Counsel
Beatty Bangle Strama, p.c.
400 West 15th Street Suite 1450
Austin, Texas 78701
(o) 512-879-5050
(f) 512-879-5040
(c) 512-630-4446
(s) 859-912-7747

President
Collaborative Construction Resources, LLC

Jsalmon@bbsfirm.com
JamesLsalmon@gmail.com
James.Salmon@collaborativeCR.com
www.CollaborativeConstruction.Blogspot.com
www.CollaborativeConstruction.com
www.bbsfirm.com

Office: 512-879-5050
Skype No: 859-912-7747
Cell No: 512-630-4446
Skype: JameswithCCR