As multidisciplinary engineer on the project, we provided a full range of services from structural engineering and building services to vertical transportation. We also acted as the Building Information Modelling (BIM) consultant, coordinating and storing all of the information generated, on the design and facilities management, in a virtual reality 3D form.
As BIM manager, we prepared all of the deployment information and execution plans, then monitored and managed the process to produce an owner model which will be kept and maintained during the life of the project.
With BIM, clash detection can begin at the design stage. This was particularly important at The Place, as the building sits on a very constrained site in the middle of a brand new transport hub at London Bridge - also under construction at the time – both schemes are part of the wider London Bridge Quarter development, which we provide a range of services for. The new building has been designed to gracefully accommodate two lanes of the bus station running over the basement slab, expanding back to its full floorplate several storeys up.
Our London team called upon the expertise of our colleagues in the US, who provide both integrated and specialist BIM services. Their expertise was invaluable in producing the model and also allowed us to take the unprecedented step of producing steel shop drawings for the contractors.
All the specifications and manufacturing data related to the equipment is embedded into the same Building Information Model. At the end of the job, there will be a clash-detected construction model, which will in turn be used by the facilities management team as the owner model.
The Place, a ‘sister’ building to The Shard, has been awarded Engineering News Record’s global accolade in recognition of the global teamwork and complex engineering required on a constrained site right next to London Bridge, one of London’s busiest rail stations.
