Building Information Modeling: A Framework for Collaobroation

All rights reserved.This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association. HowardW.Ashcraft is apartnerwithHansonBridgett inSanFrancisco, California. He specializes in construction law; specifically, project formation, contracts, technology, consultation, and litigation/ arbitration. Building information modeling technology has arrived and is being used by designers, contractors, and suppliers to reduce their costs, increase quality, and, in some instances, achieve designs that would be impossible without digital design and fabrication. Public and private owners now are requiring BIM, and it has been widely adopted for complex projects. Studies by Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering report that BIM use has risen significantly andwill continue to rise in the near future. And between 2006 and 2007, the number of licensed seats ofAutodesk’s flagship BIM product, Revit, doubled from 100,000 to 200,000. Moreover, McGraw-Hill estimated that a tipping point was reached in spring of 2008 where more teams are using BIM than exploring it. Pilot projects now have been completed where the entire structure was built using CNC fabrication driven from the design model. As the technical issues of standards and interoperability are addressed, the software capabilities will develop further. This explosive growth has been supported by preliminary development of BIM standards and of related issues, such as electronic data licensing and file transfer. BIM is not tomorrow’s vision; it is today’s reality. The legal and business structures for building information modeling, however, lag far behind. BIM’s implications are just being realized, and few solutions have been developed. Moreover, liability concerns have led practitioners, and their attorneys, to contractually wall off the building informationmodel—thus depriving themodel of its greatest benefits. Building information modeling is more than a technology. Although it can be used without collaboration, such use only scratches the surface. Because the model (or models) is a central information resource, it leads naturally to intensive communication and interdependence. Building information models are platforms for collaboration. Collaboration, however, is not a construction industry hallmark. Rather, the industry, its practices, and its contract documents assume definite and distinct roles and liabilities. The insurance products used by the construction industry mirror these lines of responsibility and liability. However, collaborative processes, and BIM specifically, foster communication, joint decision making, and interdependence that blur the distinctions between parties. Technology and business practices are in collision. BIM also collides with traditional professional responsibility principles. Although virtually all professional licensing regulations require that designs be prepared by a person “in responsible charge,” much in a collaborative design is not supervised or directed by a single person or entity. Change is required and change is coming. This article discusses attributes ofBIM that conflictwith traditional notions of responsibility and proposes alternative business and legal structures that support using BIM in a collaborative environment.