The General Services Administration awarded ten hefty contracts for Building Information Modeling (BIM) services in Septmber, each worth $30 million, with a retainer of up to five years. While work under the contracts has not yet been assigned, the GSA has clearly indicated that BIM services are an important factor for the federal government’s new construction projects, as well as for renovating and modernizing existing structures.
The Indefinite Delivery–Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts were awarded across the GSA’s regions, and six went to architecture firms: Ghafari Associates of Dearborn, Michigan; KlingStubbins in partnership with Tocci Building Corporation of Philadelphia; HNTB of Kansas City, Missouri; ONUMA of Pasadena, California; View By View of San Francisco; and Kristine Fallon Associates of Chicago. The four remaining contracts were awarded to construction management firm DPR Construction of Falls Church, Virgina; engineering and systems-based Hallam Associates of South Burlington, Vermont; and software development firms Beck Technology of Dallas and Applied Software Technology of Atlanta.
The ten offices will primarily act as project consultants, and depending on the services required for each assignment, a team may find itself modeling information as varied as energy analyses, operations and facility management, planning and programmatic organization, or cost estimating schedules.
“The IDIQ for BIM services will provide consulting services available to GSA to verify, model check, train, and prepare independent models on any American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects or future projects,” said GSA spokeswoman Mary Anne Beatty. The contracts promote the GSA’s commitment to “strategic and incremental implementation of BIM technologies and reflect the technological advances in the marketplace,” Beatty added.
Chris Leary, a project director at KlingStubbins, said that the firm had essentially been prequalified for a very broad assignment. “It’s up to the local GSA, or perhaps the national GSA office, to come up with specific assignments that meet these categories,” he said. “It’s a pretty clever way for an owner like the GSA to accelerate the adoption of this technology.”
Six additional IDIQ contracts were awarded for 3-D laser scanning services to provide accurate 3-D models of existing GSA facilities in advance of architecture or engineering work. In partnership with BIM services, scanning should help streamline the GSA’s vast portfolio of construction and renovation projects, which include federal office buildings, border stations, courthouses, and childcare centers.
Two of the winning 3-D scanning firms, Stantec Consulting Services of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and Architectural Resource Consultants of Irvine, California, provide architectural and design services. Coign Asset Metrics & Technologies of New Brighton, Pennsylvania offers a broad range of capabilities, including facility and asset management, engineering, surveying, planning, information technology, and business process improvement. The remaining three offices—Quantapoint of Pittsburgh, Pharos Consulting of Orlando, Florida, and Beck Technology of Dallas—specialize in software development and laser scanning.
