Why BIM?       The Lake District Townhomes and Condominiums is an excellent project to explore the benefits of the Building Information Model. Recently, the firm successfully completed a $8,000,000 condominium project at different location. We intend to build on the success of that project in the new development in The Lake District. The new project has a large team of players who are required to work well together. It requires a variety of software applications with various types of graphic and text information going back and forth between team members. In order to build a more complete Building Information Model, Brittain & White has added BuildersCAD, a very powerful BIM application for materials and wood framing, to our technology mix. With BuildersCAD, the firm is able to define and examine the many parts of the proposed buildings, including highly detailed wood framing output. Not only are all quantities and schedules coming directly from the BIM construction, but all the wood framing fabrication drawings are also being automatically produced. Historically, the time and resources required to produce final construction documentation for the firm’s projects is almost insignificant in comparison with other parts of our process. The firm does not need BIM to design, draw or model. Our current process is very fast and very effective. Brittain & White wanted to create a Building Information Model of our new project in order to make it easier to understand and clarify the various parts of the building. Our investment in BIM has been ridiculously low. So far we have 20 man hours invested BIMing our condominium designs. We have learned, with great precision, the layout and composition of all of our wood framing. In addition, we have derived surface area take offs of all exterior and interior finish materials. Also, we have an accurate, scheduled account of all doors, windows, hardware, plumbing fixtures, and electrical fixtures. All of this information has made our estimation process more accurate. We are already better prepared to begin construction than we were on the last building of the project we just completed. We expect our 20 hour investment in BIM to pay off in the tens of thousands of dollars in savings over the course of The Lake District project.