Image of Google's massive new Sunnyvale, CA complex
ended as designers, contractors and subtrades either
need to buy into the new competing mammoth building
organizations or fight for a shrinking market share where
traditional practices and relationships remain in place.

Another drive for change is happening at the owner-
ship level. Jeremy Munn, a senior capital project man-
ager for the design and construction department within
the facilities division of Northeastern University in
Boston, for example, described how the university is fi-
nally getting all the pieces together in a digital procure-
ment/building cycle, but not by using a one-size fits all
system, and with plenty of training and support to en-
courage compliance (and this progress is coming be-
cause the owner is driving the agenda, not the
architects, engineers or contractors.)
Munn said his department manages 250 new projects
a year, of varying size and complexity, from minor
retrofits to multi-million dollar new structures.

His goal: Build an e-procurement and building system
that has consistent templates, reporting dashboards, au-
tomated project delivery processes, and advanced docu-
ment management capabilities.

There are different software packages that do some,
but not all, of the tasks the university is seeking – but the
solution is not to force everything into a single piece of
software, but rather to integrate the different tools and
software resources appropriate to the different stages in
the design, construction and operation cycle.

He said the university had 206 active users in its e-
management system in 2016; by 2018, the active users
had increased to 660. “Most are consultants,” he said.

As more capital projects have been managed by the sys-
tem, he said the number of automated processes in-
creased from nine in 2016 to 27 in 2018. There’ll be
more changes including managing capital expenditures
and operations, moving from a manual to automated de-
ferred maintenance program, better BIM integrations,
more robust and consistent laser scanning of existing
conditions, and the introduction of virtual reality to pre-
sent projects to senior leadership.

“Our value proposition is not to build faster and
quicker,” he said. “It is to get students into classroom
seats and researchers into labs so they can spend their
NIH (National Institute of Health) grants.”
8 — Summer 2018 — The North Carolina Construction News
Meanwhile architect Jan Leenknegt of BIG hinted at
how working as an architect for Google on a massive
new million plus sq. ft. office complex in Sunnyvale is
challenging traditional design practices with new techno-
logical resources. (I may be able to see the site firsthand
this fall when the search-engine giant invites me to the
northern California community for its annual Google
Product Experts summit/meet-up. Leenknegt could only
allude to the building’s design challenge because he, like
most contractors and others with some direct access to
Google staff, including me, are required to sign non-dis-
closure agreements.)
However, speaking generally, he explained how col-
laboration is pushing “interoperability across contractual
boundaries” as the number of design tools is declining
through consolidation, and documentation is becoming
increasingly automated. He also said BIM is becoming
increasingly important and is vital for complex architec-
tural designs.

However, technology doesn’t replace the human ele-
ment. Owners, designers and contractors need to “bring
(software) tools to the teams and empower intelligent
humans,” he said. “The tools are not the same for every
project.” There needs to be training, standards and tem-
plates, annual BIM model audits, and feedback.

Can we draw any take-action conclusions from these
observations? The answer, I think, is we need to be
aware of the technology adaptation drivers/disruptors –
namely forward-thinking owners and disruptive technol-
ogy service/building companies and develop our own
awareness on how to integrate and implement the new
tools in a more collaborative environment. Otherwise,
we might be caught in the newspaper industry trap,
through which only a few nimble, creative and techno-
logically astute businesses are surviving.

Mark Buckshon is the president of the Construction
News and Report Group of Companies, which publishes
North Carolina Construction News and several other pub-
lications. See his blog at www.constructionmar-
ketingideas.com. See this video re digital take up by industry
https://hbr.org/video/4878016835001