BIM for Facilities Management

Today I listened in on a webinar presented by Autodesk on the subject of BIM in Facilities Management. Although I am a construction lawyer, not an architect or a facilities manager, I could readily see the value of BIM to facilities managers. To be able to have at one's fingertips complete information on all your facilities, including the physical structure, the mechanical and electrical systems, furnishings, furniture and equipment is quite remarkable. And although FM Desktop can amass much of this information, it is lacking the information that a BIM can provide, and now can be exported, as I understand it directly from Autodesk's REVIT in which the model was created.

I realize that some federal and state governmental agencies are now requiring the use of BIM in designing new buildings. I think large private institutional owners are not there yet, and it may be because the architects they typically use are not educating the owners about the benefits of BIM and giving them the opportunity to take advantage of these opportunities. From what I understand, most architects are still telling their owner clients that "BIM will not be used on this project". It's time for that to change.

In fact, it seems to me that the greatest value of BIM, when all is said and done, may be in the area of facilities management. (This post submitted by Karen Estelle Carey, a member of the Construction and Real Estate Development team.)