For immediate release August 6, 2008, Tocci Building Companies, Woburn, MA Tocci, KlingStubbins and Autodesk are in the midst of the design phase of the Autodesk AEC headquarters, located in Waltham MA. Both the project constraints and IPD contract require team members to work closely, so all parties have made a commitment to co-locate. Co-location refers to spending time in each other’s offices, physically working in the same space.

During the current phase (design), the team is co-locating in KlingStubbin’s Cambridge office. Permanent desks and workstations have been set up at KlingStubbins for team members from Tocci and Autodesk; a collaboration space has been created, so that the engineers and subcontractors can work together, designing and coordinating in real time. Since the beginning of the project, Laura Handler, from Tocci, has been working at KlingStubbins two days per week to facilitate a consistent level of collaboration.

Co-locating has facilitated the highest level of coordination for the project. As KlingStubbins develops and works out the design for specific components and areas, the construction team is right there supplying information on costing and constructability. The team is able to work together, all parties informed of constraints and design intent. Certain components of the building are requiring more collaboration than others, specifically the complex millwork ceiling, located in the lobby and Customer Briefing Center, and the HVAC system.

Below are some pictures from this week’s collaboration!

Co-location in action

For Immediate Release August 6th 2008, Tocci Building Companies, Woburn, MA

In April, Tocci was selected to build an addition to the Crate and Barrel at Natick Collections because of our cutting edge use of Virtual Construction. Crate and Barrel has made a commitment to utilize VDC on all new projects. Teng Associates, the architect and engineering firm selected to design the project, modeled the project prior to our involvement, but then worked with our Virtual Construction staff on modeling standards and methods, so that the model could be ready for construction use.

The Crate and Barrel Model

Currently, we are reviewing the design intent model and working with Teng to resolve any coordination issues. It is critical that the model is coordinated early, because it will soon be delivered to the steel fabricator and translated into a fabrication model. All parties will meet at the steel fabricator in mid August to kickoff the process. This joint model usage is another representation of the way we think about the construction process.

Working with a sophisticated, VDC-savvy team has made this project run smoothly, and it will become a wonderful example for integrated VDC.