The AEC industry is in an all-out tech frenzy, and the giant firms are at the leading edge. Given their size, these firms possess the resources and scale to research and test the bevy of software and hardware solutions on the market. Some have created internal innovation labs and fabrication shops to tinker with emerging technologies and create custom software tools. Others have formed R&D teams to test tech tools on the job site.
Here’s a roundup of BIM/tech-related innovations reported by AEC giants as part of the Giants 300 survey:
TOP BIM ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
2014 BIM Revenue ($)
1. Gensler $833,024,000
2. HOK $395,000,000
3. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill $338,257,865
4. Perkins+Will $322,194,600
5. HDR $314,877,500SEE FULL LIST BELOW
TOP BIM ENGINEERING FIRMS
2014 BIM Revenue ($)
1. Jacobs $2,761,837,228
2. Burns & McDonnell $144,794,135
3. Thornton Tomasetti $124,815,343
4. SSOE Group $121,870,541
5. Leidos $85,658,000SEE FULL LIST BELOW
TOP BIM CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
2014 BIM Revenue ($)
1. Turner Construction $6,960,000,000
2. Whiting-Turner $3,767,284,852
3. Skanska USA $3,391,297,339
4. PCL Construction $3,013,868,713
5. Balfour Beatty US $2,793,025,783SEE FULL LIST BELOW
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Little’s digital media team is exploring the use virtual and augmented reality tools for design visualization and coordination meetings with clients. For advanced applications, the firm is utilizing the Unity video gaming platform to produce highly interactive, immersive building models for clients. The resulting models can function on a website, as an app, through a Wii/PlayStation, or through a virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift.
For more basic VR sessions, the firm is testing Google Cardboard, an inexpensive (as low as $2.50) cardboard template that turns almost any smartphone into a VR headset. When combined with special lenses, Google Cardboard allows users to view stereo panoramic renderings that immerse them in a given space, allowing them to look left and right, up and down.
Skanska, Suffolk Construction, Gensler, and Turner Construction are among the growing number of AEC giants that are embracing the hacker/maker culture, and are encouraging their employees to develop and test advanced tech tools. Through its Innovation Grant Program (launched in 2010), Skanska provides employees with financial support and resources to help turn their ideas into repeatable solutions, in partnership with local universities. The program has led to the development of a number of proprietary tools and apps used by Skanska employees across the country.
The Innovation Grant Program’s most recent successes include a pair of mobile applications: Safety Coach, a pre-task planning tool, and Project Corners, a job site communication app. Both software tools launched in early 2015 and already have more than 1,000 users across 20 project sites.
Gilbane’s VDC Group, headed by John Tocci, Jr. (a BD+C 40 Under 40 honoree, Class of 2011), continues to explore advanced applications for 3D laser scanners. The technology has been especially useful as a QA/QC tool, says Tocci.
“The technology around laser scanning has become so user-friendly that we have project teams—supers, project engineers, and assistant project managers—using these $50,000-plus scanners as part of their normal day,” he says. The contractor owns multiple laser scanners and is planning to purchase three more units during the next three months to support various project needs.
Gilbane’s next steps for laser scanning include mounting scanning units on tracked robots to speed and automate the reality capture process. Applications include the scanning of no-access spaces, such as abandoned structures and structurally unsound areas. “Once we get that use case squared away, we’re hoping future SLAM [simultaneous localization and mapping] robotics developments will allow us to scan job sites and open floors with automatic routines that find ways around blocked off areas, debris, construction materials, and parked scissor lifts,” says Tocci.
Fortis Construction formed a six-member BIM team, in part to help develop the processes and tools for delivering total building life cycle BIM models to owners and facilities teams. The goal is to help clients streamline O&M activities through operation-ready models that integrate deep data and links to key documentation.
The firm’s most recent success: an enhanced O&M BIM package for Oregon State University’s $51 million Learning Innovation Center. The deliverable was found to be so useful that OSU is adopting the package for campuswide facilities management.
A host of firms reported developing custom tools. BDG Architects created a project tracking application to more accurately monitor projects in real time, with a focus on maximizing profitability. Sundt Construction’s software innovation marries customer cost databases with more than 20,000 parametric equations to enable the firm to perform digital design, scenario planning, and full estimating at the conceptual stage. HKS developed a computational method for space optimization. Using the tool, the firm was able to achieve efficiency gains in a recent Promedica hospital tower plan, where, for instance, the nurses’ walking distances were cut in half based on simulated paths.
TOP BIM ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
| Company | 2014 BIM Revenue ($) | |
| 1 | Gensler | $833,024,000 |
| 2 | HOK | $395,000,000 |
| 3 | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill | $338,257,865 |
| 4 | Perkins+Will | $322,194,600 |
| 5 | HDR | $314,877,500 |
| 6 | Stantec | $296,939,992 |
| 7 | HKS | $252,277,490 |
| 8 | CannonDesign | $165,000,000 |
| 9 | SmithGroupJJR | $147,900,000 |
| 10 | EYP | $144,727,249 |
| 11 | Callison RTKL | $132,800,000 |
| 12 | ZGF Architects | $118,520,258 |
| 13 | Corgan | $99,858,000 |
| 14 | Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture | $79,000,000 |
| 15 | HGA Architects and Engineers | $78,157,000 |
| 16 | Flad Architects | $73,300,000 |
| 17 | Perkins Eastman | $73,160,000 |
| 18 | DLR Group | $71,500,000 |
| 19 | Page | $70,000,000 |
| 20 | Gresham, Smith and Partners | $67,847,000 |
| 21 | Clark Nexsen | $58,700,400 |
| 22 | Cuningham Group Architecture | $55,069,991 |
| 23 | Ennead Architects | $52,275,000 |
| 24 | Harley Ellis Devereaux | $51,218,000 |
| 25 | Kirksey Architecture | $49,310,320 |
| 26 | Cooper Carry | $46,927,920 |
| 27 | Fentress Architects | $45,751,367 |
| 28 | Moseley Architects | $42,211,162 |
| 29 | Hord Coplan Macht | $41,833,043 |
| 30 | S/L/A/M Collaborative, The | $41,310,000 |
| 31 | LS3P | $40,192,940 |
| 32 | Payette | $38,248,821 |
| 33 | BSA LifeStructures | $37,784,799 |
| 34 | BWBR | $35,161,000 |
| 35 | Shepley Bulfinch | $33,695,880 |
| 36 | Westlake Reed Leskosky | $32,600,000 |
| 37 | HNTB | $32,407,740 |
| 38 | CTA Architects Engineers | $31,071,355 |
| 39 | Morris Architects | $31,040,000 |
| 40 | Ballinger | $30,432,909 |
| 41 | Heery International | $30,236,504 |
| 42 | tvsdesign | $30,000,000 |
| 43 | Ziegler Cooper | $29,310,545 |
| 44 | JLG Architects | $29,214,880 |
| 45 | FKP Architects | $29,000,000 |
| 46 | Solomon Cordwell Buenz | $28,284,704 |
| 47 | SRG Partnership | $28,182,623 |
| 48 | VOA Associates | $28,049,364 |
| 49 | NORR | $27,674,000 |
| 50 | CO Architects | $27,121,500 |
| 51 | EwingCole | $26,978,000 |
| 52 | FXFOWLE Architects | $26,562,029 |
| 53 | Huckabee | $26,240,000 |
| 54 | FreemanWhite | $26,142,100 |
| 55 | Array Architects | $25,500,000 |
| 56 | Moody Nolan | $24,918,260 |
| 57 | Francis Cauffman | $24,899,061 |
| 58 | Ware Malcomb | $24,145,796 |
| 59 | OZ Architecture | $23,665,000 |
| 60 | LPA | $23,323,450 |
| 61 | Wilson Architects | $23,000,000 |
| 62 | LMN Architects | $22,638,600 |
| 63 | Mithun | $22,443,000 |
| 64 | WDG Architecture | $22,197,000 |
| 65 | Cambridge Seven Associates | $22,100,000 |
| 66 | Symmes Maini & McKee Associates | $21,864,035 |
| 67 | Integrus Architecture | $21,811,724 |
| 68 | FGM Architects | $21,351,443 |
| 69 | Hnedak Bobo Group | $18,680,428 |
| 70 | STG Design | $18,136,000 |
| 71 | BRPH | $16,600,850 |
| 72 | Wight & Company | $16,435,386 |
| 73 | Lord Aeck Sargent | $16,356,435 |
| 74 | Legat Architects | $15,571,000 |
| 75 | KSQ Architects | $15,562,620 |
| 76 | NAC|Architecture | $15,055,520 |
| 77 | Bergmann Associates | $15,000,000 |
| 78 | RS&H | $14,070,000 |
| 79 | GWWO | $14,060,715 |
| 80 | Quattrocchi Kwok Architects | $13,860,000 |
| 81 | Dattner Architects | $13,441,992 |
| 82 | Davis Brody Bond | $12,817,186 |
| 83 | HMFH Architects | $12,721,846 |
| 84 | Goettsch Partners | $12,629,000 |
| 85 | Architects Hawaii Ltd. | $12,467,000 |
| 86 | Carrier Johnson + Culture | $12,230,000 |
| 87 | MG2 | $12,131,000 |
| 88 | Albert Kahn Associates | $12,000,000 |
| 89 | Luckett & Farley | $11,832,325 |
| 90 | GBBN Architects | $11,735,300 |
| 91 | Fanning/Howey Associates | $11,142,614 |
| 92 | RBB Architects | $10,820,000 |
| 93 | DesignGroup | $10,783,076 |
| 94 | Hastings+Chivetta Architects | $10,664,072 |
| 95 | Becker Morgan Group | $10,356,845 |
| 96 | Beyer Blinder Belle | $9,852,220 |
| 97 | MBH Architects | $9,522,000 |
| 98 | Schenkel & Shultz | $9,077,000 |
| 99 | Margulies Perruzzi Architects | $8,900,000 |
| 100 | GSB | $7,800,000 |
| 101 | Baskervill | $7,653,249 |
| 102 | Ashley McGraw Architects | $7,304,749 |
| 103 | Anderson Mikos Architects | $7,136,256 |
| 104 | Vocon | $6,466,538 |
| 105 | Good Fulton & Farrell | $6,340,900 |
| 106 | PBDW Architects | $5,900,530 |
| 107 | DLA Architects | $5,683,620 |
| 108 | FRCH Design Worldwide | $5,427,000 |
| 109 | Mancini•Duffy | $5,225,000 |
| 110 | WD Partners | $5,200,000 |
| 111 | SB Architects | $5,145,809 |
| 112 | FitzGerald Associates Architects | $5,130,000 |
| 113 | PBK | $5,120,000 |
| 114 | Schrader Group Architecture | $4,639,175 |
| 115 | TK Architects International | $4,263,636 |
| 116 | Rosser International | $4,011,813 |
| 117 | BBS Architects and Engineers | $3,890,000 |
| 118 | Sheehan Partners | $3,600,000 |
| 119 | Harvard Jolly | $3,600,000 |
| 120 | Massa Multimedia Architecture | $3,335,444 |
| 121 | Sherlock, Smith & Adams | $3,177,000 |
| 122 | GreenbergFarrow | $3,170,000 |
| 123 | Inventure Design Group | $3,156,091 |
| 124 | KZF Design | $2,820,737 |
| 125 | Zyscovich Architects | $2,783,045 |
| 126 | ai Design Group | $2,650,255 |
| 127 | Environetics | $2,622,733 |
| 128 | Nelson | $2,500,000 |
| 129 | LK Architecture | $2,350,000 |
| 130 | Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio | $2,000,000 |
TOP BIM ENGINEERING FIRMS
| Company | 2014 BIM Revenue ($) | |
| 1 | Jacobs | $2,761,837,228 |
| 2 | Burns & McDonnell | $144,794,135 |
| 3 | Thornton Tomasetti | $124,815,343 |
| 4 | SSOE Group | $121,870,541 |
| 5 | Leidos | $85,658,000 |
| 6 | Vanderweil Engineers | $83,723,900 |
| 7 | KPFF Consulting Engineers | $82,000,000 |
| 8 | Dewberry | $79,106,299 |
| 9 | WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff | $60,000,000 |
| 10 | KJWW Engineering Consultants | $57,430,000 |
| 11 | BR+A Consulting Engineers | $46,000,000 |
| 12 | Henderson Engineers | $45,129,475 |
| 13 | ME Engineers | $45,000,000 |
| 14 | Magnusson Klemencic Associates | $43,651,196 |
| 15 | Walter P Moore | $42,030,337 |
| 16 | TTG | $40,573,200 |
| 17 | Smith Seckman Reid | $36,538,845 |
| 18 | TLC Engineering for Architecture | $34,360,981 |
| 19 | Jensen Hughes | $28,500,000 |
| 20 | Epstein | $23,991,400 |
| 21 | Cardno Haynes Whaley | $23,207,485 |
| 22 | Heapy Engineering | $23,132,853 |
| 23 | Degenkolb Engineers | $22,769,783 |
| 24 | Affiliated Engineers | $22,332,000 |
| 25 | Hixson Architecture, Engineering, Interiors | $20,000,000 |
| 26 | Syska Hennessy Group | $19,443,297 |
| 27 | STV | $18,782,000 |
| 28 | I. C. Thomasson Associates | $17,600,000 |
| 29 | H.F. Lenz Company | $14,000,000 |
| 30 | DeSimone Consulting Engineers | $12,030,795 |
| 31 | Environmental Systems Design | $11,790,000 |
| 32 | Walker Parking Consultants | $11,740,000 |
| 33 | Simpson Gumpertz & Heger | $10,500,000 |
| 34 | GRAEF | $10,000,000 |
| 35 | RDK Engineers | $9,915,000 |
| 36 | Ross & Baruzzini | $9,000,000 |
| 37 | Dunham Associates | $9,000,000 |
| 38 | CJL Engineering | $8,500,000 |
| 39 | Bala Consulting Engineers | $7,800,000 |
| 40 | Wallace Engineering | $7,500,000 |
| 41 | Zak Companies | $7,288,507 |
| 42 | M/E Engineering | $7,136,813 |
| 43 | Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers | $6,930,604 |
| 44 | Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon | $6,150,000 |
| 45 | Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering | $5,000,000 |
| 46 | Apogee Consulting Group | $4,724,172 |
| 47 | Highland Associates | $4,200,000 |
| 48 | RMF Engineering | $3,500,000 |
| 49 | Primera Engineers | $3,500,000 |
| 50 | LaBella Associates | $3,211,745 |
| 51 | P2S Engineering | $3,210,000 |
| 52 | CRB | $2,943,018 |
| 53 | Newcomb & Boyd | $2,941,243 |
| 54 | KLH Engineers | $2,834,052 |
| 55 | SIGMA7 Design Group | $2,569,499 |
| 56 | KCI Technologies | $2,000,000 |
| 57 | GRW | $1,594,885 |
| 58 | Wendel | $1,527,734 |
| 59 | Wick Fisher White | $1,423,000 |
| 60 | William Tao & Associates | $1,403,835 |
| 61 | Allegheny Design Services | $1,403,286 |
| 62 | Core States Group | $1,276,329 |
| 63 | ThermalTech Engineering | $1,000,000 |
| 63 | Aon Fire Protection Engineering | $1,000,000 |
| 65 | Carlson Design Construct | $400,000 |
| 66 | G&W Engineering | $360,000 |
TOP BIM CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
| Company | 2014 BIM Revenue ($) | |
| 1 | Turner Construction | $6,960,000,000 |
| 2 | Whiting-Turner Contracting, The | $3,767,284,852 |
| 3 | Skanska USA | $3,391,297,339 |
| 4 | PCL Construction | $3,013,868,713 |
| 5 | Balfour Beatty US | $2,793,025,783 |
| 6 | Gilbane Building Co. | $2,562,000,000 |
| 7 | Hensel Phelps | $2,465,810,000 |
| 8 | Lend Lease | $2,268,281,000 |
| 9 | McCarthy Holdings | $2,253,640,597 |
| 10 | JE Dunn Construction | $2,012,573,205 |
| 11 | Mortenson Construction | $1,977,778,800 |
| 12 | Clark Group | $1,862,982,912 |
| 13 | DPR Construction | $1,793,000,000 |
| 14 | Hoffman Construction | $1,528,274,204 |
| 15 | Suffolk Construction | $1,505,933,298 |
| 16 | Walsh Group, The | $1,357,634,163 |
| 17 | Structure Tone | $1,283,092,300 |
| 18 | Walbridge | $1,264,845,000 |
| 19 | Barton Malow | $1,243,539,000 |
| 20 | Clayco | $1,140,000,000 |
| 21 | Austin Industries | $953,140,898 |
| 22 | Power Construction | $868,000,000 |
| 23 | Brasfield & Gorrie | $855,573,176 |
| 24 | Weitz Company, The | $765,632,000 |
| 25 | Messer Construction | $764,077,743 |
| 26 | Beck Group, The | $753,070,275 |
| 27 | Consigli Building Group | $714,742,356 |
| 28 | Yates Companies, The | $615,800,000 |
| 29 | Manhattan Construction | $594,366,000 |
| 30 | HITT Contracting | $553,000,000 |
| 31 | Bernards | $522,500,000 |
| 32 | Sundt Construction | $500,000,000 |
| 33 | C.W. Driver | $471,960,000 |
| 34 | James G Davis Construction | $469,954,794 |
| 35 | Kraus-Anderson Construction | $402,000,000 |
| 36 | Gray Construction | $399,111,914 |
| 37 | Shawmut Design and Construction | $365,000,000 |
| 38 | Pepper Construction Group | $352,283,000 |
| 39 | Adolfson & Peterson Construction | $347,735,906 |
| 40 | Level 10 Construction | $339,745,092 |
| 41 | Robins & Morton | $330,854,638 |
| 42 | LPCiminelli | $313,316,849 |
| 43 | Flintco | $285,000,000 |
| 44 | McGough | $284,000,000 |
| 45 | Hoar Construction | $280,234,000 |
| 46 | Linbeck Group | $254,000,000 |
| 47 | Fortis Construction | $231,300,000 |
| 48 | Clune Construction | $220,011,708 |
| 49 | Paric | $220,000,000 |
| 50 | O'Neil Industries | $216,097,677 |
| 51 | James McHugh Construction | $215,802,869 |
| 52 | Haselden Construction | $204,855,931 |
| 53 | Alberici Constructors | $199,848,150 |
| 54 | W. M. Jordan | $193,668,671 |
| 55 | Rodgers Builders | $145,957,320 |
| 56 | Choate Construction | $125,234,767 |
| 57 | S. M. Wilson & Co. | $113,008,058 |
| 58 | Hill & Wilkinson | $112,261,400 |
| 59 | Coakley & Williams Construction | $109,972,489 |
| 60 | Leopardo Companies | $99,574,200 |
| 61 | Batson-Cook | $97,078,298 |
| 62 | Hill International | $97,000,000 |
| 63 | Wight & Company | $69,418,222 |
| 64 | LeChase Construction Services | $68,500,000 |
| 65 | KBE Building Corp. | $53,798,015 |
| 66 | Donohoe Construction | $53,443,258 |
| 67 | Doster Construction | $38,600,437 |
| 68 | BlueScope Construction | $37,840,000 |
| 69 | Weis Builders | $17,831,345 |
| 70 | Stalco Construction | $6,100,000 |
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