Owners driving transformation in the construction industry

At the BIM Worldwide: Solutions for Canada conference in Toronto, Patrick MacLeamy, Chairman of buildingSMART and CEO of HOK delivered the keynote.  His message was very simple.  In the U.S. buildings are too expensive, are too inefficient to operate and maintain, and don't last long. The problem is that the construction industry is too fragmented.  The process of orchestrating many disciplines in an adversarial, litigation-prone environment is too complex and leads to frequent budget and schedule overruns.   Internationally the U.S. construction industry is falling behind the Nordic countries, the U.K. and Singapore.

The way to solve the problem is for people in the construction industry to practice their profession in a cooperative way.  Information has to be shared between owners, designers, contractors, operations and facilities management.  Patrick is convinced that the word is getting out among owners that a collaborative process built around shared information will save money and time.  Owners are beginning to demand BIM.  According to Patrick even insurance companies and attorneys recognize that the adversarial process is wasteful and has to change.