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BIM with a view For the design of its latest waterfront hotel in Boston, Marriot International turned to Building Information Modelling (BIM) to help the steel fabrication, building services and architectural design teams solve potential interferences before and during the construction phase.
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ne of Marriott International’s main goals in the development of its new 22-storey Renaissance Boston Waterfront was to complete the project with as few changes and schedule delays as possible. Featuring 471 guest rooms, including 21 suites, the Boston, Massachusetts, hotel offers more than 20,700 square feet of meeting space, including a 10,700square-foot ballroom, a junior ballroom, a restaurant and restaurant lounge, room service, and banquet facilities. The hotel also provides a fitness centre with a pool and treatment rooms, an outdoor terrace and a business centre.
Marriott recognised that interferences between design elements during the construction phase are a major cause of cost overruns and scheduling conflicts in large commercial projects. In addition, because floor-to-floor heights were reduced during the design of this particular hotel, Marriott was concerned about the coordination of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in the available ceiling spaces on each floor. Marriott turned to 3D building information
modelling (BIM) soon after the paper-based bidding documents were complete. Realising the limitations inherent in the 2D delivery system and the potential of avoiding costly change orders and associated schedule delays with 3D technology, Marriott tasked GHAFARI Associates, L.L.C. to introduce BIM as a value-added tool for the already assembled design and construction teams. By implementing BIM during design and throughout construction, steel fabrication has been
Integration of building services systems with architectural and structural systems in the ceiling space for the ballroom and mechanical room of the waterfront hotel.
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CASE STUDY
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AEC MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
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