I must be IPDreaming....

I must admit that after almost 4 years of selling Revit, I'm bored. It just hasn't been as challenging as it used to be. Perhaps because when I started, no one had heard of Revit. Now, if you haven't heard of Revit, you're from another planet. Everyone's aware of it, even though many still don't think there's a fit for them.


Well, fast forward to last week to Phil Bernstein's IPD lecture in Miami. It's funny because in the last week, everyone I talk to about IPD has never heard of it. Yeah. Another challenge to share with the masses. I'm loving everything about IPD and I'm fascinated by the research I've been doing on it and it's potential effects on the AEC industry. More changes for everyone...and now maybe even some profit.


Since you're all going to have to answer a lot of owners' questions about IPD, at least you can start paying attention to it.


First, there's one of my favorite blogs, bimx.blogspot.com by Laura Handler. She's with Tocci Construction and was involved in the Autodesk IPD project in Waltham, MA.


Here's a link to a post she just wrote
http://bimx.blogspot.com/2008/12/design-build-v-ipd.html. Once you figure out Revit, and then figure out BIM, then it's time to figure out IPD. One of the topics I've been discussing for the last few weeks is "Design/Build".


In a design build scenario using Autocad, not matter when the contractor gets involved, it takes months to get all the design changes into the construction documents. I think design/build can only really work well when you're using BIM products like Revit Arch/Str/MEP to facilitate design changes.


My opinion, is that when you're using Revit in the process, you can call it "Design TO Build". But it goes a step further. Designing a building to help construct it, is not something an architect willingly does. In a conversation today, I asked an architect if he knew the average number of square feet of concrete a contractor could pour a day. He said he didn't know. I told him it's about 8 to 10 thousand SF per day and asked him if he would ever design a building around that criteria. I also asked him would he care how much concrete was poured a day. He said yes, because you have to be careful where a cold joint would end up, but it's not his job to make those decisions.


If you leave all the decisions up to the contractor, you
reduce your liablity, responsibility and profitabilty. Enter Integrated Project Delivery. Design to Build as I call it.

From Laura's post today "With IPD, the owner gets the relational benefits of a design-build contract with the richness of diversity found in a traditional team."

Now read this post http://bimx.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-ipd-works.html.
Next, read about the Autodesk project that Tocci and Kling Stubbins did together with Autodesk: http://bimx.blogspot.com/search/label/Autodesk%20Project
It's a great story and Laura did a great job documenting it on her blog.

Tocci & KlingStubbins, as a team, were recently awarded Autodesk's new AEC Headquarters. The project has a new Integrated Project Delivery contract model where the architect, contractor and owner sign one contract. The process will be very BIM-centric and prescribes model relationships fairly intensively.

When you finish all that reading it's off to http://bimandipd.blogspot.com/

After that try this http://www.ipd-ca.net/IPD%20Articles%20and%20Press%20Releases.htm

Here are the AIA doc$: http://www.aiacontractdocuments.org/ipd/

AIA California's documents http://www.ipd-ca.net/IPD%20Basic%20Principles.htm

Last, here's a quick 4 minute video on the subject: http://www.aiacc.org/site/docs/aiaipd.wmv

Let's summarize and take a short quiz:

Integrated Project Delivery calls for earlier and on-going cooperation among all stakeholders on a construction project, including the owner, architect, contractor, subcontractors, suppliers, equipment manufacturers, system integrators and lenders. One key of the Integrated Project Delivery is creating compensation structures that rewards "best for project" behavior. Here is the working definition of "Integrated Project Delivery," which will be elaborated on in later phases of the document:

Integrated Project Delivery ("IPD") is a project delivery approach that integrates people, systems, business structures and practices into a process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all participants to reduce waste and optimize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication and construction.

IPD principles can be applied to a variety of contractual arrangements and IPD teams will usually include members well beyond the basic triad of owner, architect and contractor. At a minimum though, an Integrated Project includes tight collaboration between the owner, the architect, and the general contractor ultimately responsible for the construction of the project, from early design through project handover.

The collaborative approach of IPD is both groundbreaking and laudable. It will be interesting to see how soon this approach might be utilitized.

Oh yeah, IPD doesn't work very well with AutoCAD, but I bet you already figured that one out.

Had enough? There's plenty more coming. IPD = BIM^2.

Like I said at the beginning, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Workflows, processes, software, technology, training, implementation, education and who knows what else is all changing.

I wonder if Revit was never created, if IPD would have ever seen the light of day and left the theories of a classroom discussion. I'm working on becoming an expert on the topic so I can give a class on it at next year's AU. Wish me luck.