Virtual design and construction
McCownGordon’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team works across all departments, on all projects to help ensure the best building experience. Utilizing the latest technology, they provide solutions throughout the life cycle of a project to reduce risk and enhance quality. From estimating the first designs of the idea, to scanning the ongoing construction with laser scanners, to handing over a data rich model, the VDC team is ready to help build your project.
Preconstruction
Utilizing the data inside the design team’s Building Information Model (BIM), our VDC Specialists work hand in hand with our Preconstruction team to add increased value to the estimating process. Visualizing the model in 3D, the way it was designed, gives the team increased comprehension to its means and methods of construction. BIMs are rich with data invaluable to an estimator. Extracting the quantities and material data within a BIM adds in increased level of control to insure budgets are the most detailed and accurate they can be. Multiple iterations of early designs can even be estimated at speeds faster than ever. Viewing the models on a screen is powerful, but our VDC teams are also engaged in utilizing the latest in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to immerse our preconstruction team, designers and owners in a world where even more important decisions can be made.
Operations / CoordinationÂ
Why make corrections in the field, when they can be avoided in the first place? Our VDC Specialists compile a virtual building from our design team, trade partners, and our own 3D models to see the complete building prior to construction. Before any item is installed on site, it has been through a series of virtual coordination or Clash Detection meetings to make sure it fits in its right spot, the first time and ready for the building maintenance team. Virtual mock-up models provide an increased level of detail to the means and methods of construction. And models linked to our operations team’s construction schedules, help all parties visualize the timeline of events for expert phasing and logistics of the project.
Field / Reality Capture
Whether from the ground or sky, capturing everything that happens on a construction site is vital to ensuring quality and reducing risk. Total Robotic Station surveying equipment ensures pinpoint placement of building objects by connecting the coordinated BIM to the field.  Laser Scanners scan buildings to create an accurate 3D model of existing conditions creating a more reliable record than those dusty old plans in the drawer. 360 cameras utilized inside buildings, document the as-built conditions of the complex mechanical systems before they get covered up by the final walls, floors, and ceilings. And Drones above take photos of the site from above that can be compared week to week to review jobsite conditions, take measurements, and compared to the construction documents. When the whole project is captured weekly and daily beyond the standard of traditional photos, our entire team of Superintendents, QA/QC Specialists, and Safety experts has a wealth of information to constantly observe, protect and build the best project possible.
Technology applied at every step of the design and construction of your building by our Virtual Design and Construction team ensures that not only is the project built to the highest level of quality and reduced risk, but that the handoff includes all that technology, information, and knowledge in models for the ongoing facility management and years to come.
