Introduction
The Client is an award-winning Architect based in Chicago, IL, and specializes in Hospitality, Medical offices & light commercial projects. Being a small practice and unable to find local skills required, the Client was finding it difficult to cope up with the increasing number of opportunities. The projects were to be done in Revit and required advanced Revit skills along with in depth Architectural understanding.
Unable to find the appropriate skills locally, the Client approached BimSrv in November 2015 and saught support in CAD to Revit Conversion and Construction Documents for light commercial projects. Among the various projects, there were projects with well-defined scope and schedule, while some of the bigger ones, all this was ambiguous as these were all work in progress.
The Beginnings
It was mutually decided to go in for a hybrid engagement model. BimSrv provided a fixed fee proposal for Projects with well-defined scope. Projects with work in progress and relatively ambiguous scope were subdivided into smaller chunks and were to be done on an hourly rate and an estimate for each of the smaller chunks. BimSrv submitted periodical timesheets.
Work Process
BimSrv assigned a dedicated team of Architects and not Revit technicians for all these projects. The Client had strict standards to be followed with complexities in phasing and organization. Each team member was in direct contact with the Client on a daily basis to discuss and clarify issues.
Another advantage of having Architects instead of Revit Technicians was that the Client did not need to provide elaborate markups and notes. Just minimal to indicate intent and it was for BimSrv Architects to interpret and act accordingly.
As the Client’s confidence in the BimSrv team’s capabilities and skills grew, the team was assigned increasingly greater responsibilities. Some of the current responsibilities included:
Energy code compliance checks
- Suggest resolution of issues and construction details based on standards and references.
- Coordination with Consultants
- BimSrv Design Support
- Design Support
The Growth
The advantage of a dedicated team has been that they now gain understanding and experience of the Client’s work standards and process and are now able to provide increasingly greater support. Plans for the coming months include:
- Comprehensive Design assistance through all stages of design.
- Checking shop drawings submitted by Specialty contractors.
- 4D BIM services including Clash Detection, Construction Scheduling, and detailed Bill of Quantities.
- BimSrv’s team now works as the Client’s Virtual Studio performing almost all the tasks that are expected from an Architectural Studio. The Client now terms it as his “India” Branch”.
