July 23: The Inaugural Greater LA Building Data Bake-off

... or, "How Cloud-based Data Visualization and Analytics Are Transforming Energy Efficiency Practices": The Los Angeles 2030 District is hosting this inaugural event focusing on the latest building automation software for energy and sustainability data acquisition, monitoring, visualization, analytics and controls for existing buildings. These tools are indispensable for high performance building operations.

The presentation panel will be moderated by William Lowery, who shepherded the Los Angeles Firemen's Credit Union to a LEED Platinum certification.

Tuesday, July 23, 7-9am, Gensler Red Zone, 500 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 90007. Registration link here.

Project Controls: Schedule, Budget, Software & Apps

Editor's Note: This is the fourth of six Industry Speaks™ installments reviewing sections of PSMJ's updated Ultimate Project Management Manual.

Chapter 5 of the Ultimate Project Management Manual sets the Project Schedule as the key to the successful execution of the Project Management Plan. With the scope of services well understood, tasks need to be planned, sequenced and prioritized in the most efficient order for completion by the project team. The schedule serves as a project control tool at three levels of increasing detail: milestones—to tasks/activities—to deliverables.
To read the full review, click here.

Project Management: From Design Through Closeout

Editor's Note: This is the third of six Industry Speaks™ installments reviewing sections of PSMJ's updated Ultimate Project Management Manual.

The Ultimate Project Management Manual (UPMM) is an excellent reference and “how to manual” for design professionals, project managers, business management consultants, and owners. The templates, checklists, and diagrams are exceptional in their applicability, simplicity, and usefulness, and they correspond well with individual chapter and overall manual content.
To read the full review, click here.

The archiTECH’s Corner

Paul here, so you want to get into BIM! Well, there are a few things to consider before you can start implementing BIM or Revit into your office. In the upcoming weeks, I will try to give you a little insight into BIM implementation from my perspective as an information technology professional responsible for implementation and protocols across multiple, as well as small offices. For me, Autodesk Revit® Architecture is the preferred BIM platform.  Based on my experience, it is the most utilized platform by architects and engineers regardless of size.  Its broad use, in turn, gives you access to more BIM qualified professionals and resources for implementation than the leading competitor. For that reason, my comments will be from that point of view, but I’ll gladly entertain questions on other platforms.

First things first, budget, budget! No matter if you are a large or a small firm, you need to allocate sufficient funds to get you up and running in BIM. One of the largest considerations is hardware.

Revit® is very hardware intensive, meaning it utilizes a significant amount of memory.  As such, it requires a computer with at least a 3.00GHz CPU or better, 8.00 GB memory minimum and a video card that supports dual screens. The implementation of Revit does not require dual screens, but a second screen allows a user to have more screen area and work on a CAD and Revit model simultaneously. I recommend 21” screens. Usually the difference in price between a 19” and a 21” is about $20 or $30 dollars. You will see the benefits of a 21” screen when you view your Revit models.

I think this is enough to get your head spinning! Feel free to post your questions. Over the next several weeks, we will cover Networks, Software, Reprographics and Training.

Paul Veloz is part of the Industry Speaks™ community.  He has more than 20 years experience in Information Technology and BIM implementation in the architecture industry. To find him and learn more, visit www.industryspeaks.com