Page 267 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

piece came in 2016 when BuildingPoint Pacific was awarded the Oregon and Washington territo- ry, filling out the entire Peterson footprint2. Today, there are ten BuildingPoint franchises in North America and counting.
Although SITECH and BuildingPoint draw from the same technology, the similarities end there. BuildingPoint begins at the beginning, when the project is still a concept. Before any tractors are brought in. Before the subcontractors are chosen. Even before the bid is awarded. The shift toward these new technologies started gaining traction in 2009 with the rise of BIM (Building Information Modeling). Projects were getting more complicat- ed than a set of blueprints could handle. “Twenty to thirty years ago, buildings had four corners. They were basically square boxes,” says David Larsson, a twenty-year veteran of construction technolo- gy. “Today, they have arcs and overhangs and roof gardens. Architects are designing complex build- ings that are extremely difficult to construct in real life.” And they can because of 3D modeling CAD programs and BIM software. “Fifteen years ago, BIM was just another acronym. Now it’s a full- blown process that every general contractor uses. It’s a way of life. Before, contractors used tape measures and string lines to figure out where the walls went and where the staircase or elevator shaft should be. Now it’s all done with lasers and elec- tronic measurement devices—Robotic Total Solu- tions—that give you accuracies down to 1/32 of an inch.”
Mithun Dalal/BPP processes BIM files into a 5D model with Vico Office, which provides construction progress & related costs.
BuildingPoint spans the Design-Build-Operate lifecycle with software programs for estimating, scheduling, design and modeling, project manage- ment, and post-build owner management. “To- day, buildings are constructed in 3D even before they break ground, so they know exactly what it’s going to look like and all the different compo- nents involved,” explains Larsson. “Right down to the number of bolts and rebar lengths and steel I-beams. Everything is specified.”
And since almost everything is prefabricated off- site and shipped in for placement, scheduling is critical. 3D technology makes that possible be- cause all the data resides in a software program, so all parties know exactly where everything is, when it’s supposed to arrive, who is scheduled to install it, and hundreds of other pieces of pertinent informa- tion. Essentially, it puts everyone on the same page.
SITECH NorCal team covers California
2 BuildingPoint Pacific opened a third location in Portland in 2016, which relocated to Hillsboro in 2018, and Aurora, Oregon in Nov 2019
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