Building Simple: Building an Information Model

Building Simple should be of particular interest to design and construction professionals that are not directly involved in the day to day activities found on a large scale construction jobsite. This includes real estate developers, investors, property managers, bankers, accountants, attorneys, and building owners.

The book uses a series of 3D models to visually explain the means and methods used in the construction of both concrete and steel framed buildings.

This includes the building's layout, a zero-lot line excavation, reinforced concrete foundations, raised slab, rigid concrete frame, and pre-cast hollow core decking. While this is going on masons build concrete block walls and ironworkers erect a steel moment frame with composite steel decking, bar-joist, and light-weight steel framing. The book closes with the installation of the roof and curtain walls that leave the building weather tight and ready for the installation of mechanical and electrical systems.

Each chapter includes a glossary of the buzzwords used during the construction in that chapter with an estimate of the time and dollar value of each phase of the construction.

The companion CD includes the interactive building information models used to illustrate the book. Users can walk through the jobsite, stand on steel beams, and zoom in on structural details as they click through the phases of the building's construction.

Readers will also find tutorials on the advanced 3D construction modeling techniques used in the virtual construction and be able to deconstruct and evaluate the complete file of this large and complex SketchUp model.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the means and methods of real world construction and how building information models can be used to clearly communicate construction as a process.