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Home > Browse Topics > Software
Building Collaboration
News Story by Ted Smalley Bowen
NOVEMBER 05, 2001
(COMPUTERWORLD) - The image of
the architect as a lone creative genius,
a la Frank Lloyd Wright, is a bit
misleading. In reality, architecture is an
elaborate exercise in communication.
Designers often work in teams that are
geographically dispersed. They're in
constant contact with clients, and they
must coordinate their efforts with
myriad specialists—engineers,
contractors, government agencies and
other parties.
A mind-numbing volume of
drawings, plans, forms, budgets,
permits and other documents
courses through the vast and
shifting network of participants in a
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Building Collaboration - Computerworld
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project. The logistics of tracking,
updating and approving the many
pieces of information tied to the
creation of a building is every bit as
daunting as the actual construction.
Players in the industry range from
single-architect studios to
multinational operations, but the
sector as a whole has been
comparatively late to adopt IT. This
is partly attributable to the nature of
the work.
"As an extremely personalized
service conducted by rather small
companies, the practice of
architecture is different in many
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adopters," says Mark Clayton,
assistant professor of architecture at Texas A&M University in College Station and associate
director of the school's CRS Center for design and construction. "The tools have not been very
appropriate for architecture."
Given the industry's slim margins and susceptibility to economic swings, it's not surprising that
many practices have been reluctant to jump on the business automation bandwagon. Yet some
firms have capitalized on IT to expand their reach and buffer themselves from the vagaries of
the market.
"The [IT] costs have been very, very high when viewed as part of overhead and capital
investment, [so firms] historically have spent virtually zero dollars" on IT, says Clayton. "Realize
that in the 1970s, the office technology of an architecture firm was merely a few T squares and
filing cabinets."
Best-Laid Plans
The IT picture for this sector has changed, albeit slowly. According to a 1998 survey conducted
by the University of Cincinnati, architectural firms with 10 to 14 employees spent an average of
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Building Collaboration - Computerworld
AT A GLANCE
Online Resources
American Institute of
Architects (AIA)
International
Alliance for
Interoperability (IAI)
Association for
Computer Aided
Design in Architecture
(ACADIA)
Initiative for
Architectural
Research
Electronic Journal of
Information
Technology in
Construction
just more than $64,000 per year on IT, whereas companies with 100
people or more invested an average of $300,000. Average perperson spending among all firms was $4,500.
Still, some firms that have implemented virtual private networks
(VPN), Web-based project portals and sophisticated projectmanagement applications are starting to realize the benefits. That's
because these tools can help larger companies coordinate their farflung internal operations and collaborate with clients and partners.
Such tools can also help smaller architectural firms compete for big
jobs or major subcontracting roles by simplifying the logistics of
collaboration and letting the companies emphasize their specialized
services.
The heavy communications load of a typical project is illustrated by
the shop-drawing review process. As architects enter the
construction phase, they circulate drawings to the various
contractors and subcontractors involved, who make revisions and
add their own details. The architects must check and approve each
of these changes.
"It's a long, involved process, and if it doesn't get done in time, it
delays the whole project," says Jill Rothenberg, chief technology
officer and principal at ADD Inc., a 200-employee architectural firm
in Cambridge, Mass.
Construction
Industry Computing
Association
Usually, each business has its own applications and methods for
logging changes and updates throughout a project, which bogs
things down and leads to repetitive efforts. The centralized log of a
Web-based project-management system can alleviate some of this hassle. Unfortunately, Webbased repositories can be limited and rigid and often represent a least-common denominator,
Rothenberg says.
Maintaining a project Web site for a recent job allowed ADD to coordinate with clients in Boston
and the Midwest, a lawyer in Chicago, and consultants in multiple locations. It also helped cut
travel and postage costs and shortened the length of the project, says Rothenberg, though she
was unable to provide cost savings estimates.
The need for architects and other key players to frequently communicate during projects has led
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Building Collaboration - Computerworld
some firms to implement VPNs. For example, Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC (KPF), a 450person firm in New York, is setting up a VPN to link its London and Tokyo offices and other
temporary field offices, says James Brogan, director of IT at KPF. In addition, the VPN will
enable the firm to host online project-management applications in-house, a departure from the
typical reliance on third parties to run such systems.
Bowen is a freelance writer in Boston. Contact him at ted_bowen@hotmail.com
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