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Architectural and facility management have traditionally been viewed as entirely separate tasks in the lifecycle of a building. Maryland-based architectural and planning firm Design Atlantic recognized that its clients required more than just planning and design services to create and care for their buildings on a continual basis. To meet this demand and better serve its customers, the firm decided to incorporate web based facility management into its building design services offerings.

“We are constantly looking to our customers for insight into what they need in order to better maintain their facilities. What we’ve learned is that they’re concerned about more than just designing and constructing buildings. There is a clear, advantage to clients using a firm that integrates interoperable technology. Clients can now start to see direct advantages to their operations that don’t come from the normal process. They can see why this approach will save money in the long run. They can now, at little or no additional cost, end up with an easier to manage facility.” said Finith Jernigan, AIA, President of Design Atlantic.

With the goal of making clients’ projects more successful over the facility life cycle, Design Atlantic Ltd was created as a ‘best practices’ architectural and planning firm in 1996. Design Atlantic Ltd, offers architecture, planning and 4SiteSystems services utilizing the latest parametric building technology in design, managed data systems and the Internet. Design Atlantic’s approach has been streamlined to make best use of strategic alliances, interoperable software systems and long-term management of information to help clients better manage facilities.

Design Atlantic staff started using object oriented CAD software in 1989 and later implemented ArchiFM as part of a collaborative planning and design process that identifies costs and success strategies, documents decisions, and enables increased communication between team members, clients and architects. Using interoperable technology, client staffs are supported by Design Atlantic to manage building space, track occupancy and physical assets such as computer equipment and furniture, and maintain lease, rent and tenant information. With the combination of these tools, Design Atlantic delivers complete virtual building models that can be used to operate and manage a facility throughout its lifecycle.

Design Atlantic provides clients with a complete package of facilities lifecycle information management assistance through both in-house capabilities and a wide range of strategic partners. They are founding members of the SHiP Group, an international alliance of architects, security experts and software wizards using the Internet to pool their talents by using model-based design data to collaboratively manage client assets. They take advantage of the fact that designs based on standards-compliant data-objects carry information that can be used throughout the lifecycle of a facility.

Foreseeing a shift toward greater collaboration in the architecture and building management industry, the firm developed a four-phased approach to its services that they call 4SiteSystemsSM (http://www.4sitesystems.org). 4SiteSystemsSM is a database driven structure developed by Design Atlantic to allow them to better manage strategic alliances and the Building Lifecycle Information Modeling process. “By creating and managing building models, we’re really re-engineering the process of how architectural projects ought to happen,” Jernigan said.

Design Atlantic couples currently available technological tools with a design process that includes program estimating cost controls and database project information tracking. The parametric model, cost control systems and project and facilities management databases all work together to produce a high level of project control and information resources. Design Atlantic’s project information controls eliminate the need to recreate data at each phase of the process. These controls allow more efficient and productive planning, design, construction and operations of facilities. Design Atlantic’s 4SiteSystems allow clients to make informed decisions early in the process and gives them convenient long-term access to project information.

Design Atlantic implemented its full range of services for a recent project completed for the town of Ocean City, Maryland. Wanting to control the problems that often impact municipal projects, Ocean City officials saw the value in Design Atlantic’s visionary approach to building design and care. Design Atlantic used interoperable technology to design and model two buildings in town, for the Department of Public Works. Once the design and construction phases of the project were completed, the buildings easily ‘rolled over’ into CAFM. “We strive to save our clients money both during construction and in the long term. The Ocean City building program was originally estimated to cost $2.1 million. Using our collaborative methods to building design and management, we met the town’s needs efficiently and cost-effectively. A savings of about 10% of construction cost can be attributed to our process improvements,” Jernigan said. “With the addition of facilities management to support the entire facility lifecycle they will also realize significant additional savings over the buildings’ lifetime.”

Hal Adkins, Public Works Director for the town, says of the process: “The potential benefits are truly amazing. With the need to conduct business in a quick and efficient manner, this system provides the opportunity to comprehensively view and update data that would typically have been stored in numerous locations and media formats, an effort that consumes far to many man-hours.” Because building data is already contained in Design Atlantic’s models, the transfer of information from design and construction to facility management is streamlined. Tedious, repetitious tasks are eliminated. As a result, Design Atlantic can offer its clients the power to cut the re-creation of data from each phase of the facility lifecycle. “Our clients no longer have to worry about losing documents, or having out-of-date plans or incorrect building information,” Jernigan said. “Data is created once and then is easily transferred and reused in computer assisted facilities management and throughout the ongoing operation of a building.”

Previously, design firms and facility managers would be required to reconcile one information source with another when integrating building data at each step in the process. With Design Atlantic systems, information is instinctively coordinated between the building model, external data sources and floor plans. Changes made on the plans are automatically updated throughout the system. Because the system automates the data reconciliation process, users can cut significant time from the process, saving days of work. “Our CAFM system enables us to leverage the information in the building information model to better support what our clients are planning for the lifecycle of their buildings,” said Jernigan.

The combination of the building information model and CAFM enables Design Atlantic staff to create a powerful environment for the complete building project that will have long-term use and success. The firm’s clients can visualize buildings accurately with three-dimensional modeling capabilities. The wealth of data that is included in the model allows information to be extracted, from the very first concept, and as a result, they are better able to provide quality information to clients early in the process “We provide our clients with a high level of detail on costs and project strategies very early in order to eliminate later budget surprises,” said Jernigan. “The building information model helps us to identify costs and a success strategy very early in the design process and has become a key part of our design practices and supports our efforts to deliver the best quality customer services.”

The Design Atlantic team is committed to managing the information of construction and facilities. We believe that it is no longer adequate for architects to just replace drafting by hand with drafting by computer. They are Information Architects.