BIM Case Study: Circuit of the Americas Observation Tower

In the modern construction industry, the usage of BIM software has become invaluable. Without Building Information Modeling the industry today will be nowhere to meet the demands and challenges of the 21st-century construction projects. By reviewing real-life scenarios of BIM usage, we can identify and analyze how exactly experts are using the applications to support building development and project management.

The very first racing track solely built for Formula One racing in the USA, the Circuit of the Americas is 3.5 miles long and respectively wide. This grade 1 FIA-specification prestigious motor racing track hosts both car races and motorbike races and has already hosted some of the prestigious motor races in the world. For today's BIM case study, let us see how BIM software was used in the construction of the observation tower for these tracks.

Project Requirement

The Circuit of the Americas (CotA) race track is 3.426 miles (or 5.514 kilometers) long, with a width proportional to the circuit. The race track sits upon 890 acres of undeveloped land in southeastern Travis County near Austin, Texas. The duty of designing the observation tower for this track was endowed to Mio Rivera, who invented a brilliant design reminding the visitors why they are here.

The observation tower for the track is 251 feet or 77 meters tall and is capable of seating an audience ten thousand strong. A double-helix structure surrounds the elevator hoist-way that is the main connection to the grounds to the building. The 900 sqft main observation deck has a partial glass floor and offers a 360-degree view of the surroundings as well as downtown Austin from an elevation of 230 feet.

But the most obvious feature of the building is its 18 steel tubes, colored a vivid, bright red, running along the back of the tower and gracefully flowing down to horizontal. This unique design is intended to act as a dramatic focal point for the race track and serves the visitors' as an anchoring point for racing, reminding them of the bright tail light streak left behind after a speeding car. The 8” diameter tubes not only have a strong visual impact but also contribute to the structural stability of the tower by acting as an outrigger column for lateral load resistance via a series of struts and rods that tie back to the primary structure.

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.bimoutsourcing.com
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BIM Case Study: Oakland International Airport’s Central Utility Plant

Growing in both capability and application, BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology is fast becoming famous with numerous followers. BIM software is becoming integral in large constructions to efficiently and properly create appropriate information in a suitable format at the right time so that better decisions can be made throughout the design, construction, and operation of built assets.

To understand how professionals around the world are using the assistance of this software in real life to build various types of residential, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure projects, we will need to study some examples of live BIM uses.

Today, we will study the case of constructing the Central Utility Plant for the Oakland International Airport in Oakland, California, so that we can understand how BIM software was used in this project.

Project Requirements:
In early 2012, the Turner Construction Company based in New York was engaged to start the construction of a Utility Plant for the Airport in Oakland, CA. About 8300 square feet in size, this facility was to house an extremely intricate network of electrical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. All of these systems are critical to keeping the airport running efficiently around the clock. The project was divided into two parts - to construct the new mechanical building T1MB, and to renovate the building M104. Scope of operations for this project are:

1. Renovation of Building M104, and the existing Terminal 1 Central Utility Plant

a. Architectural enhancements
b. Interior space modifications
c. New roofing and drainage
d. Replacement of heating and ventilation systems
e. Replacement of lighting and lighting control systems
f. Seismic upgrade of the building
g. Upgrade of the fire alarm system and installation of a new fire protection system

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.bimoutsourcing.com
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Use of GIS in BIM

The construction industry has come far on the shoulders of digital computing. Software usage is standard now in designing, modeling, cost estimation, and project management with every constructor now. Particularly, BIM (Building Information Modeling) software has become common in every project from small residential to giant infrastructure construction.

However, a major headache of the AEC’s (Architects, Engineers & Constructors) is data loss between the planning and development phases. Whenever you transmit data from one software to another, the receiving application translates the data in its own custom ways. What it cannot translate, it rejects as garbage. After that, the AEC has to recreate the lost data in the plan again. The more software stages your project has, the more this problem will occur, the more complicated this situation will become and the more the error margin will grow.

However, the rapid evolution in the cloud-based data storage, vending, and analysis technologies can be taken advantage of to patch these leaks. Specifically, the GIS (Geographic Information System) can be very handy when merged with or used in parallel to BIM applications. Let us delve deeper into the subject in this article.

What is GIS
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface. GIS is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. The key in this technology is Geography – this means that some portion of the data is spatial. By relating seemingly unrelated data, GIS can help individuals and organizations better understand spatial patterns and relationships.

How can GIS help in BIM
The fusion of BIM and GIS provides the power to build a robust context model where geographic information and infrastructure design data are brought together. Software companies like AutoDesk develop both GIS and BIM software and are now integrating one into the other in order to provide more data clarity and reusability. Adoption of GIS into BIM will give you a fat handful of benefits; the major one being digital data as part of deliverables for each transition. The geographical (and geological) data merged with project plans and drawings will give valuable insights into the AEC’s decision-making process.

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.bimoutsourcing.com
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