Interview with Dennis Shelden,
Chief Information Officer, Gehry Technologies

Swire Properties - A Gehry Technology Project

By Louis J. Dennis, Esq.

LJD: Thank you for sitting down with me today. Gehry Technologies (GT) is certainly one of the forerunners in the world of Building Information Modeling. What is BIM?

DRS: From my perspective, it's a common integrateable set of information organized in part by three (and other) dimensional spaces. That's the short version. I think there is a lot more to it than that. The three-dimensional information serves as an intermediary between potentially all design and construction information. It's based on the simple idea that if you share common spatial conventions, you have the potential to bring information together in a way that allows coordination on a level not possible in conventional two-dimensional drawings. There is absolutely the potential of this being more than just three-dimensional geometry because there is semantic information and that can be associated with a unique piece of geometry or construction in space and there are ways of semantic models generating spatial configurations. So the great thing about using "BIM" is not so much just that it has a third dimension, it's that there is a singular object that has, perhaps, multiple ramifications - and all of the information is in one place. Compare that with the paradigm of twodimensional profession instruments, and associated conventions or practice, the notion of integration of description is at the heart of how we see BIM.

LJD: How did it all start for your firm?

DRS: Gehry Technologies has its roots in Gehry Partners' practice over the past 15 years. GP started using "BIM like" methodologies in the early 1990s and one of the earliest projects was the fish sculpture in Barcelona, Spain. The sculpture is a wire frame with a flexible mesh cladding, but it has a complicated structure. A process was developed that paralleled the two dimensional drawing process, literally a CATIA expert working as an intermediary between architect and fabricator. This allowed the project to directly tie together design and fabrication information, with the required project documentation developing as a recording of decisions made in the 3D model. This project was really the very beginning for us. This process has been further refined on each subsequent project, and continues to evolve through today.

LJD: In the early days, was there skepticism about the relevance of this approach to mainstream architecture? Is that changing?

DRS: Absolutely. People used to say to us, "Gehry needs this because he designs these buildings that are impossible to capture in plans and specifications effectively," but that the benefit was isolated to this level of work. The perception has changed dramatically in the past 2 years. An incredible amount of rethinking of the practice is ultimately involved, but the advances are incremental and even small steps can generate big results. Even though the recent advances are astonishing, I think there are many, many more layers that need to be explored on the technology side, particularly because the horizon of untapped opportunity in building technology still seems so broad.

LJD: Years ago, architects - or maybe it was the lawyers - were reluctant to surrender AutoCad backgrounds in digital form. Are there similar concerns with the BIM database?

DRS: Exactly. Back even five years ago, the implications of providing a "live" version of a drawing seemed to be an unnavigable hurdle. These matters of providing live and, for that matter static versions of 2D digital documentation have been largely and reasonably addressed by the building professional and legal communities. This leap was not substantially "industry changing", although certainly efficiencies have resulted from digital communication including that of CAD documents.

LJD: What impact has BIM had on projects where you've seen it used?

DRS: At the minimum, the drawings are better coordinated, the process is faster, and the design team can iterate more. There is a definitely achievable reduction of errors. But BIM offers many other benefits, including the general sense that the team knows more about the project, to a higher level of detail and in a more clearly visualizable way, earlier in the process before critical commitments are made.

LJD: What is the biggest concern associated with using BIM as a construction document?

DRS: One of the issues with the migration of practice to 3-D is that the description of intent is less symbolic and directly operative. It's less of a stand-in for a set of intentions as it is, potentially, capturing spatial intent in a more direct way. The geometry has the potential to be directly transferable from one profession to another, and the question of "how the intent flows" and who takes authority for what aspects in what context are being actively considered. There are simple models of practice where the BIM data can be directed to flow more or less as an extended part of the conventional paper trail and contract structure. However, it is not clear that this approach offers the same degree of potential as is possible by really rethinking roles and actions across the delivery process - who generates or consumes what knowledge in what form. The fish by Gehry is a landmark on the waterfront of Barcelona.

The fish by Gehry is a landmark on the waterfront of Barcelona.

LJD: Does that suggest major changes are on the horizon in the architect's role?

DRS: I think the evolution is happening and there are great opportunities for architects and other professionals to consider new services and new roles in building delivery. I think there is an "evolving revolution" in terms of project organization, contracts, and professional identity. BIM can be a catalyst in some developments in building delivery and an opportunity for professionals.

LJD: How is Gehry Technologies organized?

DRS: Gehry's practice has been using forward thinking technology and project delivery approaches for a long time. The processes continue to evolve and it's amazing how far things continue to develop and how much potential still remains. GT is now a fully independent company. We have a unique partnership with an aerospace software company which did most of the Boeing designs and actually almost all of the automotive and aerospace design. In our work we provide technology along with a host of services that include anything from actually building models to going into organizations and projects that are interested in BIM in order to provide consulting on reasonable, rational, and relatively safe ways to benefit from the use of BIM. There is now a lot of interest, and a lot of people are saying, "We understand the potential but we're not quite sure what this means for our practice or project."

LJD: Doesn't this type of change bring substantial additional risk?

DRS: The risk seems to be more in the process of taking a chance and the fact that the precedents are still emerging. But there's no question that BIM addresses much of the risk associated with routine errors and omissions. Silly errors get caught in 3-D during the design process that otherwise, with two-dimensional construction documents, may not become apparent until a condition is being constructed in the field. In addition, with a properly structured model, and where people understand who's doing what and what needs to get done, the process runs more smoothly.

LJD: Is the 3-D design model leading to contractors getting more involved during the design process, at least with respect to constructability issues?

DRS: Yes. That's starting to become more prevalent, or at least it seems like it is. We are often seeing contractors or subcontractors performing design services - particularly the fabricator. The architect, as part of the design development, can incorporate construction and pricing knowledge into the design development process. With many of the geometries and building systems of interest in contemporary architecture, this degree of knowledge is imperative to arriving at a design that is buildable within budget. So this suggests, again, that we are headed toward the point where you actually have to know how something is going to be built in order to describe it in a contract document. BIM is a terrific vehicle for capturing that level of understanding.

LJD: Functionally, how will BIM affect the coordination of the various disciplines through the design process?

DRS: The design process does seem like it's necessarily being sequenced differently. It's more about this morphing of the desire to have real design development, real construction information, and the ability, with techniques associated with 3-D, to populate design, schematic, and design development models with far more information and far more detail while still iterating. There are many projects, certainly in the Gehry world and also others, where you see a much deeper level of understanding of the detailing of the project much earlier. What would normally be shop drawing level information is being applied during the design development phase. And there are some interesting tricks and techniques about re-usability of that kind of information. For example, imagine that you write a script that will put every 2x4 into a wall; suffice it to say that computers can generate a good deal of the detail if the assembly is explained in terms of geometric logic. With these techniques, there is more detail level information that can be repurposed and developed a lot earlier in the process.

LJD: Are insurers and lawyers ready for this?

DRS: I'm not sure. I've heard discussion that insurers are expressing the most concern about using information differently, but they will probably wind up being the people that will require BIM once the benefits have been established through precedent. There could be a tipping point, when lawyers and insurance companies, once they find out what BIM does to reduce risk, will accept, encourage, or demand the additional information of BIM models, and this will be a loud signal that the change in the industry has occurred.

Interview with Dennis Shelden,Chief Information Officer, Gehry Technologies