2020 Revizto Collaborators of the Year Awards

What a year it was!

Every year the global Revizto Team votes on the most innovative teams and projects from the previous year. Twelve awards are given out to showcase the tremendous, collaborative efforts made to accomplish some truly outstanding projects – projects that inspire us going into the next year! Though 2020 has brought on a landslide of challenges; teams adapted. Here are this year’s winners!

2020 Awards and Winners

• Project of the Year: Allegiant Stadium – Joel Jacobson, Senior Integrated Construction Manager, Mortenson and David Willis – VDC Senior Engineer, McCarthy Holdings, Inc.
• Collaborator of the Year Award: Jack Moran (Director of VDC and Integrated Services, Consigli)
• Most Unique Project: Travis Peterson (Integrated Construction Manager, Mortenson)
• Project Efficiency Award: Chris Pittman (Project Architect / BIM Manager / Regional Technology Lead, Jacobs)
• Overcoming Obstacles Award: Aaron Ball (VDC Universal Collaborator, Katerra)
• Most Innovative Use of Revizto: Jon Marsh (Owner, Steel Toe Consulting)
• Most Innovative Workflow: Kyle Snyder (VDC Coordinator, Clancy and Theys)
• Most Innovative Contractor: Danielle Sims & Elizabeth Hostetler (Virtual Construction Engineers, Messer Construction)
• Most Innovative Owner: Daniel Šmejkal (Head of VDC, Prague Airport)
• BIMspirational Woman Award: Kirsten Crock (Design Technology Coordinator, AECOM Tishman)
• Most Innovative Architect: Shuping Liu & Pedro Fajardo (Senior Associate, Designer, BIM – SHoP Architects)

Project of the Year: Allegiant Stadium – Joel Jacobson, Senior Integrated Construction Manager, Mortenson and David Willis – VDC Senior Engineer, McCarthy Holdings, Inc.

The Allegiant Stadium is among the largest design-build projects in the country and was led by the Mortenson-McCarthy team comprised of more than 100 firms. The Allegiant Stadium project, completed in the middle of a global pandemic, is the new home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and notably the largest entertainment venue in Las Vegas. The Mortenson – McCarthy joint venture team wrapped up the $1.97 billion facility on-time, marking the end of a successful 31-month-long construction schedule, a mere 40 months after the NFL’s approval of the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas.

The 1.75 million square-foot structure features a 20-million-pound retractable natural turf field, large operable walls that open to spectacular views of the neighboring Las Vegas Strip, an ETFE cable roof system that spans seven acres and is 195 feet above ground, and a dazzling reinterpretation of the eternal Al Davis Memorial Torch that is among the largest 3D printed structures in the world. In addition to hosting Raiders and UNLV football, Allegiant Stadium will also be the ideal venue for concerts and other world-class events.

In addition to hosting Raiders and UNLV football, Allegiant Stadium will also be the ideal venue for concerts and other world-class events.

The design-build contractor responsible for the stadium’s design and construction, Mortenson-McCarthy led a team comprised of more than 100 firms, including engineers, sub-consultants, trade contractors, and vendors, and partnered with the Raiders organization, owner’s representative CAA ICON, designer MANICA Architecture, and the project’s design team.

We asked David and Joel a few questions about their keys to success in 2020 – here is what they had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
The key to our success has been implementing Revizto in creative ways, with a focus on providing immediate value to our project teams on-site. As a VDC team, our purpose is to partner with our teams on-site to ensure work is done right the first time in accordance with our company’s Quality Leadership System. By providing the typically inaccessible data (point clouds, drone data) to the project team on their iPad and working hard to solve pain points with the right tool. Most of the time that tool was Revizto.

Collaboration is creating an environment of trust, transparency, clarity, and honesty. It leverages every partner’s best efforts and brings design and construction teams together, so the community benefits from a well-coordinated project. The earlier this environment is created, the more it directly impacts the team’s ability to effectively collaborate and resolve issues early and efficiently.

David Willis

McCarthy

They also stated that “No two projects are the same and it’s important to be flexible on what the best tool for each project should be. Revizto allowed us that flexibility. For this project, Revizto was used for tracking issues and viewing the model in the field. Each experienced a learning curve for us as coordinators and for the team as end-users. It provided value to both once we had the workflow set up to meet the project needs.”

Allegiant Stadium had over 250 active personnel use Revizto to view and collaborate over the content. As a project team, they decided to move forward using Revizto shortly after the project started and had it available to the project team through completion, a duration of 31 months.

Collaboration means enabling a diverse collective of people to drive results through enhanced communication and trust.

Joel Jacobson

Mortenson

With more than 100 firms collaborating on Allegiant Stadium, a key success indicator was their ability to create a culture based around transparency and collaboration. “Revizto proved to be a great platform for that transparency and enabled open communication to flow as it eliminated information silos,” – stated David Willis.

For more about the Mortenson-McCarthy Allegiant Stadium visit Mortenson.com or McCarthy.com

Collaborator of the Year: Jack Moran (Director of VDC and Integrated Services, Consigli)

Jack embraced digital collaboration in all aspects of the term. Throughout the past few years, and more specifically in 2020, he has advanced technologies like Revizto across internal teams to unlimited use, building a culture of true cross-team collaboration across projects all over the east coast.

In times when continuing to collaborate with his owners, design and trade partners during the COVID-19 pandemic became most challenging, Jack led his team, adapting and advancing technology to enhance collaboration and communication.

Integrated collaboration with Revizto has become part of their standard practices. However, Jack mentioned the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum revitalization project as a good example of the Owner (Smithsonian Institution), Quinn Evans Architects led design team, and construction team Clark/Smoot Consigli JV team, sharing a vision on how they could work together in a better, more collaborative way on a very large, complex, high profile project.

The process of utilizing real-time, integrated collaboration encouraged a high level of adoption, participation and transparency – which resulted in a strong degree of trust and in the end, led to even greater collaboration and transparency.

Collaboration to me is when project stakeholders work together seamlessly and transparently to achieve project goals.

Jack Moran

Consigli

For more about Consigli, visit Consigli.com

Most Unique Project: Travis Peterson (Integrated Construction Manager, Mortenson) – Climate Pledge Arena

Travis helped the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle overcome some incredibly unique challenges during construction, especially during the pandemic. The iconic roof of the existing arena remained in place during the demo and the current construction phase where his team is leveraging Revizto to not only coordinate the new construction but give the project team members the ability to view and plan out the work.

We asked Travis a few questions about his keys to success in 2020 – here is what he had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
The key to our success on the Climate Pledge Arena has been empowering team member communication and innovation. We knew that fostering creative ideas was critical to ensuring we met our goals as a team while collaborating remotely. We reviewed design options in the model and virtual reality with our key stakeholders which facilitated faster decision making. We also brought more team members into the model environment, which increased proactive problem solving before issues arise. Lastly, we continue to focus on helping our operations teams successfully plan their transition into the building by understanding the venue before it’s even physically built.

What does collaboration mean to you?
Collaboration means creating an environment where there are no barriers to solve a problem, partnering cross-functionally in how we come together to work toward a solution. To be truly collaborative, everyone needs to be equally empowered to drive the success of the project, no matter what their role is.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
We utilized Revizto on the Climate Pledge Arena project in Seattle, WA, where the future NHL team The Seattle Kraken will play. The $1 Billion (current estimate), 800,000 square foot project included a nearly full demolition with the exception of the previous arena roof, which is incorporated into the new design. While holding up the existing roof, we removed the previous interior structure and excavated the foundation to increase the depth and capacity of the new arena. 

We leveraged Revizto to coordinate the temporary structure with the permanent structure, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) an nearly every other building’s scope. Since the software is extremely user-friendly, it has enabled us to engage a wider user audience which has fostered greater collaboration on the project. This has given us more “eyes” on the design and has increased our ability to identify design challenges upstream before they have an impact on the schedule.

Travis Peterson

Integrated Construction Manager at Mortenson

For more about Mortenson, visit Mortenson.com

Project Efficiency Award: Chris Pittman (Project Architect / BIM Manager / Regional Technology Lead, Jacobs

This award is dedicated to a leader working on driving efficiencies across their teams and projects. Efficiency comes in many forms, from saving man-hours, to cutting material waste. Chris has been able to reduce labor time by conveying clashes down to 25% of what it used to be my empowering his team with Revizto. His team members democratize the models and get it into the hands of people who normally wouldn’t look at a model – and identify clashes sooner.

We asked Chris a few questions about his keys to success in 2020 – here is what he had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
Communication and tracking responsible parties. As a project team efficiency is gained when less time is spent finding out where something is and who is responsible for resolving any particular issue. Conveying information in an efficient manner is a key component in delivering a successful project.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
Denver International Airport Concourse Expansion Program (Pictured) – Concourse C East and Concourse B East Expansions. – Key coordination tool for all design team members and used directly with the contractor and client to perform model walk-throughs and coordination/constructability meetings.

Baltimore Washington International Airport – A/B Connector Expansion – Revizto was used at the weekly team-wide coordination meetings to discuss and identify key project design issues. Additionally used for weekly clash coordination tests. Clash tests were performed in Navisworks and synced with Revizto, responsibilities were assigned to team members and weekly automated reports distributed to the team tracking coordination progress, allowing the team to concentrate on the key project issues.

Collaboration to me is having one source of truth for all project information, bringing every team member from client to design team to the same pool of information is key in delivering the project successfully.

Chris Pittman

Project Architect / BIM Manager / Regional Technology Lead

Jacobs

For more about Jacobs, visit Jacobs.com.

Overcoming Obstacle Award: Aaron Ball (VDC Universal Collaborator, Katerra)

This award is all about overcoming odds and taking obstacles and making them into learning session for the next project. Aaron’s department has been impacted by COVID more than once, forcing the entire organization to pivot multiple times. Aaron was able to keep his team chugging along through it all. By combining his leadership and improved communication with Revizto, he empowered and projected teams by embracing Revizto as they moved to work from home – without missing a beat!

We asked Aaron a few questions about his keys to success in 2020 – here is what he had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
Communication and transparency remain at the forefront of my team’s success. Making honest assessments and being agile to conform to ever-changing field circumstances.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
I cannot get into specific projects, however, my team has capitalized on our use of Revizto to reinforce our collaborative process and to share information with stakeholders who cannot access model authoring software.

Collaboration to me is having one source of truth for all project information, bringing every team member from client to design team to the same pool of information is key in delivering the project successfully.

Aaron Ball

VDC Universal Collaborator

Katerra

For more about Katerra visit Katerra.com.

Most Innovative Workflow: Kyle Snyder (VDC Coordinator, Clancy and Theys)

Workflows are used throughout the entire lifecycle of a building, from ideation to completion. With the past year and all the challenges associated with it, improving on-site collaboration and empowering the field team members has been a driving factor to success. Kyle is integrating everything with a focus on bringing together field workflows with BIM and Drones.

We asked Kyle a few questions about his keys to success in 2020 – here is what he had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
Communication.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
Smoky Hollow is a mixed-use, distinctive urban district revitalizing the northern gateway to downtown Raleigh. This was presented during my Rev-Up Session, where we were able to leverage 3 phases of visualization (drawings, models, and reality capture) and analyze those together in one space. This was beneficial in our analysis of the underground rock vs the foundation design, the trade coordination with the post-tension concrete slabs, and tracking these items throughout the coordination process.

Collaboration to me and my team means when everyone is working towards the same objective.

Kyle Snyder

VDC Coordinator

Clancy and Theys

For more about Clancy and Theys visit Clancytheys.com.

Most Innovative Use of Revizto: Jon Marsh (Owner, Steel Toe Consulting)

Jon started the MCAA Innovation Lab, a digital warehouse inside of Revizto for people to compare point clouds, parts, data, Star Wars Revit families, you name it. The project is an open sandbox geared for members of NECA, MCAA, and UA, and encourages rapid BIM growth and adoption across companies and timelines.

We asked Jon a few questions about his keys to success in 2020 – here is what he had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
Using Revizto as a platform and conduit for teaching gave students the ability to still get hands-on even if it was virtual.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
Several times in 2020 I brought clients into Revizto to look at point cloud research and review testing environments for hardware new to the industry.

Collaboration is goal-based communication.

Jon Marsh

Owner

Steel Toe Consulting

For more about Steel Toe Consulting visit SteelToeConsulting.com

Most Innovative Contractor: Danielle Sims & Elizabeth Hostetler (Virtual Construction Engineers, Messer Construction)

When it comes to collaboration, no one does it better than Messer – particularly the duo of Danielle and Elizabeth. In 2020, they oversaw a very innovative application of Revizto where they leveraged drone data to create a mesh of a historic building’s facade. They then imported the meshes into Revizto and to accurately and visually review the building for any damage to the window materials earlier on in the renovation process.

We asked Danielle and Elizabeth a few questions about their keys to success in 2020 – here is what they had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
The key to our success has been implementing Revizto in creative ways, with a focus on providing immediate value to our project teams on-site. As a VDC team, our purpose is to partner with our teams on-site to ensure work is done right the first time in accordance with our company’s Quality Leadership System. By providing the typically inaccessible data (point clouds, drone data) to the project team on their iPad and working hard to solve pain points with the right tool. Most of the time that tool was Revizto.

I define collaboration as working with a diverse group of people such as the foreman, project architect, or even the safety manager. Together we learn from one another, share knowledge freely, discover and eliminate bottlenecks, swap resources and deliver the best possible product to our client.

Danielle Sims

Virtual Construction Engineer

Messer Construction

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
Revizto was used to deliver drone imagery for exterior building envelope QA/QC (on several projects). Drone images showing heat loss at various locations were linked to the 3D model in Revizto. Revizto allowed us to share this information with our project team and trade contractors to resolve caulking joint errors, improper installation of systems, etc.

My favorite use of Revizto was the most creative solution. Matt, a project coordinator was aware both the R&D with Revizto and a unique issue in our quality department regarding the delivery of hundreds of drone images that captured the heat loss of an exterior envelope on an existing structure. He reached out to me and we collaborated on a plan to help deliver this large amount of drone data to the owner in a meaningful concise medium with the help of Revizto. We used Revizto to house the 3D model we made of the existing structure. We even imported the “dated hand-drawn” elevation plans and tied the heat mapped imagery to the location in the model not only in 2D but 3D as well. This was the solution that lead me to seek out other creative ways to solve problems with Revizto. The effect rippled and soon Revizto was used to help improve visualization in a variety of ways on several of our projects.

Collaboration means involving all stakeholders, especially those who traditionally are not involved in BIM. Collaboration is crucial to get ahead of problems so that our operations and craft personnel can stay focused on quality work in the field. Collaboration means getting the right information into the hands of those who need it the most. The opportunities for mitigating risk, identifying conflicts and improving on-site communication are plentiful!

Elizabeth Hostetler

Virtual Construction Engineer

Messer Construction

For more about Messer Construction visit Messer.com

Most Innovative Owner: Daniel Šmejkal (Head of VDC, Prague Airport)

Daniel and his team took COVID as an opportunity to innovate. With the airport being quieter than usual they were able to take Revizto out into the field. They started collecting a variety of data sets on iPads in aid to start digitizing their estate, which was an unexpected use of Revizto that has turned out to now be a key part of their operational tools.

We asked Daniel a few questions about his keys to success in 2020 – here is what he had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
Having all project data accessible to everyone in the cloud and the simplicity of Revizto’s UI helped us to get all the non-BIM users onboard without a lot of struggle.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
The capability of Revizto to handle large-scale model data allowed us to aggregate a big coordination model of our entire airport. The model includes a point cloud generated toposurface with an aerial image laid over it, massing DWG models of all buildings as well as RVT models of underground utilities or trees and fencing generated from GIS data. We’re successfully using this model for coordination with both new designs of infrastructure and buildings.

Key to succesful collaboration is easy access to relevant information for everyone involved and an effective communication tool.

Daniel Šmejkal

Head of VDC

Prague Airport

For more about the Prague Airport visit www.prg.aero. 

BIMspirational Woman Award: Kirsten Crock (Design Technology Coordinator, AECOM Tishman)

Kirsten has established VDC processes and best practices for large-scale mixed-use high-rises including retail, office, podium and landscape projects. Kirsten’s leadership and communication skills have driven the adoption of new methods benefiting project delivery across her firm. Together with the team at AECOM Tishman, Kirsten has changed the NYC skyline as we know it.

We asked Kirsten a few questions about her keys to success in 2020 – here is what she had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
One of the biggest challenges this year was continuing the high level of collaboration and engagement outside of the office while all parties worked remotely and independently. We had to offer a means of collaboration that enabled teams to continue to work together, even when not next to each other.

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
Revizto played a key role in bridging connections and communication through my coworkers, detailers, and subcontractors by collating issues and communication surrounding particular problems and solutions.

Collaboration to me means engaged parties, full transparency of issues/solutions, connected team members, and real-time communication.

Kirsten Crock

Design Technology Coordinator

AECOM Tishman

For more about the AECOM Tishman visit AECOM.com

Most Innovative Architects: Shuping Liu (Senior Associate, SHoP Architects) & Pedro Fajardo (Designer, BIM – SHoP Architects)

SHoP is one of the most innovative and leading-edge architecture firms in the world – don’t take our word for it, just check their website (SHoPArc.com) to see some of their work. Their projects have made some of the most iconic skylines, even more iconic. 

While 2020 was a challenging overall, but one of their biggest challenges was coordinating and delivering 3D based project models. Shuping and Pedro have been driving a culture of open collaboration amongst their team members and gave them the freedom to work independently while tracking progress in an intuitive way.

They leveraged integrated collaboration as an integral part of their digital design delivery on select projects, bringing all disciplines together in the design coordination process – as well as the owners, as the design takes shape and unfolds. All of the most current drawings and model updates are readily available for all to review, make comments, and communicate in a real-time cloud-based environment. 

We asked Shuping and Pedro a few questions about their keys to success in 2020 – here is what they had to say.

What was/is the key to you and your team’s success on a project?
Being able to interact real-time with the team without being overbearing on video calls. Revizto was key in that it gave the freedom to work independently while tracking progress in an intuitive way.

To me, collaboration means allowing individuals to contribute their best efforts to a group effort. Everyone has their own way of working and collaboration is the effort to meld those together.

Shuping

SHoP Architects

Did Revizto come into play, and if so, how?
We used Revizto for a very complex and large office project at an early design phase. Revizto was used throughout the phase as well as being a deliverable given to the owner and contractor. Since we were uploading to Revizto weekly, it shifted our perspective on how it could be used as a communication tool and for documentation. What once was a headache of sending screenshots of issues became a fluid, trackable process. Overall, Revizto can give the sense that the full design team – engineers and architects included are working on a single Revit model and not siloed in their own.

In our office, we have been using Revizto for the most part of 2020 in coordination aid and leveraging its hybrid environment to deliver a 3D model project delivery. This project is a large office master plan on the west coast for a major tech company. I think one of the most notable benefits to Revizto is its capability to merge 2D components and seamlessly transport them to a 3D environment without losing any information. Revizto is also getting better at retaining data of elements which is a major component of a 3D model based delivery.

Collaboration refers to the constant and open dialog between designers to achieve a common goal in the project milestones. This dialog/coordination is possible through digital platforms allowing the end user to have seamless and open communication with all the stakeholders in the project

Pedro

Designer

BIM – SHoP Architects

For more about SHoP Architects visit SHoPArc.com