Oklahoma City Planners Benefit from Information Age Brainstorm

Oklahoma City, OK November 9, 2012 Oklahoma City Director of Planning, Russell Claus called BIMStorm “a valuable tool for planning and design internationally and in the United States.”

BIMStorm is an online brainstorm using web-based Building Information Models “landed” on Google Earth. Seeing building assets in real-world visual environments helps improve consensus decision making. The BIMStorm Oklahoma City Wrap-Up presentation to Claus and his colleagues on November 9, 2012 highlighted options and improved building industry options for the Core-to-Shore area of the Oklahoma State Capitol. Claus and others from his department participated in demonstrating what is possible through use of proven, web-based business processes.

Stating that the BIMStorm Oklahoma City “heralds a period of cooperation” among government officials, businesses and educational institutions, Claus indicated that the long-term interest in integrating input from many stakeholders was realized in this online brainstorm using Building Information Models. “It is exciting that we are having this dialogue and that we are using the technology . . .” Claus said. “What is needed is the vision, and you are all participating in that,” Claus told almost 100 people meeting in person and others around the world participating over the web. Claus added, “Even if you haven't been here, we appreciate the input.” During a 24-period, University of Oklahoma students received input from local and international planners, designers and contractors on the current ways to use web-based business processes to plan entire urban areas and individual buildings to result in highly valuable decision making information. Claus' staff actively participated in BIMStorm Oklahoma City by providing publicly information that could be used to explore options and by answering “BIM Mail” used to communicate about specific geographical areas and specific building locations.

Undergraduate and graduate students in architecture and construction science programs participated as part of a University of Oklahoma integrated “Dream Course.”

Professional participation was provided by Manhattan Construction, FSB, Balfour Beatty and others. ONUMA, Inc. provided the BIM server that hosted project information. ONUMA System was also used by participants to easily convert Excel data to Building Information Models, create powerful reports, gain visual clarity and to transfer data easily among all open standards software programs.

Kimon Onuma, FAIA, used the BIMStorm Oklahoma to reveal the capability of creating “exploded” views of simple, but powerful Building Information Models through the ONUMA System. Finith Jerningan, FAIA, author of “BIG BIM little” was the featured, in-person critic and BIMStorm facilitator. In his summary of the student work with professional input, Jernigan said, “I am flabergasted at the level of quality achieved in such a short period of time.”