BuiLding innovation
This category applies to the application of Bentley technology to provide new
capabilities to the adopter. Many involve the implementation of technology
new to the adopter or technology applied to a new area of practice, or
particularly innovative application of existing Bentley technologies.
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage LJB inc. WINNER
The challenge of this project was to create a
sophisticated Class A office space to consolidate
the operations of Wells Fargo home Mortgage
in Frederick, Maryland. The complicated tilt-up
office design includes a series of interconnected
structures that are all three stories tall and total
more than 310,000 square feet. From onset to
completion, the schedule for this project was only
19 months. The Wells Fargo complex is one of
the largest multistory tilt-up office structures ever
built, according to the Tilt-Up Concrete Association.
By using BIM, LJB was able to complete the
foundations, floor slab, and exterior walls in less
than 90 days. LJB has customized its BIM modeling soft ware to suit the special needs of tilt-up
construction. A library of hundreds of structural
shapes is used for placing wall panels and
foundations and VBA programs automate such
tasks as positioning the inserts required to lift each
wall panel.
The construction process was complicated by the
size of the project. Traditional casting slabs were
not large enough to accommodate construction
of all the wall panels, so casting beds were used
for each building. The wall panels required so
much bracing that the project team created a
layout for the bracing to keep steel erection on
schedule. To create an attractive exterior, the
wall panels feature an earth-tone color scheme
and include numerous fenestrations and recesses.
The large window areas in the perimeter wall
panels required innovative floor framing solutions.
LJB’s use of Bentley’s BIM solutions on this project
enabled it to save time, money, and materials for
three basic reasons: their design automation
capabilities prevented duplication of tasks; their
drawing accuracy and BIM simplified design
changes and reduced field errors; and their
management of inherent structural information
enabled users to extract data for project- or
method-specific uses.
