I recently was invited to speak as a part of a “Putting BIM into Practice” panel in Florida, which was hosted by Building Design and Construction Magazine. In speaking to some of the guests in attendance, many of them were interested in my background and wanted to know how much experience I had in the industry. Looking back, I realized these guests were trying to get a good feel for my credibility, since I was going to be sharing my knowledge of BIM with them.

British Columbia’s economic health is rosy. Strong employment growth has contributed to a steady net influx of people to the province. Housing affordability has deteriorated significantly in major cities, but positive net migration, strong job gains and rising disposable incomes, thanks partly to personal income taxe cuts, will help to support homebuilding. Furthermore, the outlook for commercial construction is positive, given historically low office-vacancy rates and double-digit increases in net asking rents.

The overall inflation rate is expected to ease over the next year in spite of recent jumps in prices for energy, food, labor, and imports. The Producer Price Index will rise 2.5%, about half of the 5% rise in the last two years. The Consumer Price Index will also rise about 2.5%, down from over 3% in the last two years.

A new and innovative component of the green building movement is building deconstruction, an alternative to demolition for the removal of unwanted structures.

By encouraging the use of BIM methodology to design, manage and store and update all of the files related to a construction project, building owners can save time, improve efficiencies, keep better records and more.

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is on the cusp of revolutionary change. Two-dimensional, paper based project information is giving way to 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools and virtual design and construction (VDC) processes that support lean construction methods.

From a number of high profile architectural designs to its allegedly impending ubiquity in the design, construction and sales channels for creating buildings, BIPV has been positioned as a leading force for the solar PV market.

For building product manufacturers, the push is on right now to create data-rich 3D BIM objects for every building product they sell, in order to ensure that they continue to be specified on large institutional, commercial and industrial building projects.

Business Case Study from RS Means Business Solutions involved a state-by-state survey of spending patterns in educational facilities as well as the development of a model to predict future demand.