Across DPR Blog

On Thursday, April 11, we held another great Building Information Modeling (BIM) networking event, this time at our headquarters in Redwood City, CA. One of the highlights of Thursday’s event was the WorldViz virtual reality room, where attendees donned a stereoscopic head-mounted display and experienced immersive 3D walk-throughs in full scale. Owners use this technology as an opportunity to determine how their building will look and function long before it's even built to ensure that the final plan matches their vision for the project. By eliminating late stage design changes, BIM can help save time, money, and resources in the long run.

An attendee is fully immersed in a virtual apartment using WorldViz technology

If you thought QR codes were just for business cards, think again. At another augmented reality demo, our Innovation team showed how builders can see through walls by simply scanning a QR code with the BIMAnywhere app.  Builders use this to visualize the intricacies behind the wall, saving time and minimizing rework.

The BIMAnywhere app allows builders to see structures behind the wall by scanning a QR code

Sometimes it’s hard for owners to know what their building will look like based off a blueprint, resulting in late stage design changes that delay completion, costing owners time and money.  That’s where augmented reality comes in. The coded letters below allow us to shift around the configuration of a building’s interior to create a 3D virtual representation. The end result? We’re able to build, test and design how a building will look before it’s built, allowing us to address issues sooner and deliver more predictable outcomes for our clients.

Augmented reality can turn a piece of paper into a 3D visual representation of a hospital room

Augmented Reality was definitely a hit on Thursday, but that’s not all we had to offer. The event also included the following demos:
• Laser Scanning
• BIM Training
• Field BIM
• ourPlan
• DPR Consulting
• Building Controls
• 4D and 5D

What demo did you enjoy the most at Thursday’s event? Tell us in the comments below. Learn more about collaborative virtual building and BIM here.

In March, more than 80 architecture, engineering and construction professionals attended a construction technologies demonstration at the most recent Sacramento BIM Network event held at DPR’s office. Founded last year by DPR's Kaushal Diwan, the Sacramento BIM Network brings together local professionals across disciplines to share information about Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the latest technologies used in virtual design and construction. 

Guests learned about innovative technology using Augmented Reality (AR), showing how an integrated model can merge with an actual camera view. Other interactive booths set up throughout the office included:

• Trimble technology and laser scanning as utilized in the scan of existing facilities
• How DPR’s Self-Perform Work group used Tekla software on the Alta Bates patient tower project
• How tradesmen use BIM kiosks and mobile tablet PCs in the field to access the latest drawings and models
• Our current efforts revolving around model-based costing and BIM aptitude training

Representatives from our Consulting group and ourPlan were also present. ourPlan is the visual planning program designed specifically for lean construction projects; it's a web application that manages short interval schedules and is compatible with the Last Planner System™.

See you at the next BIM Network event!

Photos courtesy of Kaushal Diwan

In his Huffington Post blog post, founder and CEO of ChangeLabs, Peter Sheahan explores the topic: "Positioning: Success Comes From Knowing Who NOT to Do Business With."

In the blog, Sheahan highlights DPR as a case study. He explores our purpose: "We exist to build great things" and how we base decisions off our central beliefs to respect the individual and change the world. Sheahan also touches on DPR's longstanding relationship with Jim Collins, business guru and author of "Good to Great," "Built to Last" and "Great by Choice." Said Collins, "I have met with very few companies where the desire to be great is as sincere as this company (DPR)."

Sheahan goes on to write about DPR's carefully selected five core markets and how we build complex structures for deliberate clients.

ChangeLabs has been conducting research for an upcoming book. As CEO/founder of ChangeLabs, a global consultancy delivering large-scale behavioral change projects, Sheahan has worked with some of the world’s leading brands in the area of innovation and change. He is the author of six books including, "Making It Happen," "Fl!p" and "Generation Y."

Read all of Sheahan's Huffington Post blog posts to learn more about his business insights.

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data," author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said. If it's data you're interested in, look no further than the following DPR data center projects in the news:

• The Facebook Prineville Data Center was featured in an article by Information Week called, "Facebook's Data Center: Where Likes Live." Selected by ENR as Editors' Choice & Green Project of the Year in 2011, Facebook's data center complex--according to the article--has the best energy efficiency rating of any major data center in the world. The article details how data on "likes," comments and other Facebook activity, is stored inside one of two 330,000-square-foot data halls in a complex outside Prineville, Oregon. With a massive 901 million users, this data complex was built to a whole new scale and was the first that Facebook designed, owned and operated. Facebook is unique in publishing the details of its designs and specifications. In April 2011, Facebook founded the Open Compute Project, where it makes available as open source information the designs for its servers. DPR's Andy Andres is quoted in the article, saying: "Facebook has taken the lid off the secrecy about how to bring power and cooling into a modern data center." Follow the project on Facebook. Check out DPR's Lulea, Sweden and Forest City, North Carolina data centers as well.
  
  
  Photo courtesy of Facebook


• In other news, EMC's Center of Excellence in Durham, North Carolina, achieved LEED Gold – Commercial Interiors certification for Phases 1 and 2 of its 450,000-sq.-ft. data center. Sustainability was a primary design criterion for EMC with efficiency innovations such as: a rooftop water collection system; free air cooling for much of the year; and flywheel technology that eliminates the need for battery storage in the uninterrupted power supply systems. Highlights of the sustainable features include: 34 percent in overall energy savings; ability to utilize “free cooling” 57 percent of the year; reduced potable water use of 78 percent; and reduced carbon footprint of nearly 100 million pounds of CO2. Read more about the project here.
  
  
  Photo courtesy of Mindy Gray

DPR's Eric Cusick and Skip Miyamoto contributed an article, which is on the cover of the current issue of AWCI's Construction Dimensions magazine, the leading periodical for the walls and ceilings industry. The article, "The GC Speaks: Why We Self-Perform Your Work," details how DPR self-performs up to half a dozen various scopes of work on the projects that we manage. DPR's Self-Perform Work added up to more than 2.5 million craft man-hours in 2012 and more than 1.3 million of those man-hours were in drywall.

The article details how our self-perform work impacts the following:

• Safety
• Staying on schedule
• Quality
• Cost
   

“The industry needs to talk about cost, not price,” said DPR’s Eric Lamb, one of the panelists at Bisnow’s 2nd Annual San Francisco Construction Development Summit on February 6th. The panelists at the summit discussed the new projects ready to break ground in the city of San Francisco. They also discussed the various neighborhoods poised for growth, what it takes to get a new project off the ground, and the process of renovating an existing building. The event included a timely panel discussion on new construction methods, financing strategies, construction costs (what “cost versus price” means and why that’s especially important in today’s climate), and building designs.

On the panel, Eric also discussed DPR’s use of technology, saying: “We’ve seen a huge push for technology in the field in the past 2 years. We now have 200 tablets in the field.” 

He also spoke about ways to maximize productivity, saying: “The key word in the industry for me is automation. It reduces labor cost and increases efficiency.”

On January 29, DPR's Dave Seastrom, who manages our Southern California region, participated in a panel discussion at the BOMA Orange County luncheon program: Success from Scratch: How Business Models and Culture Make a Difference. The moderator was John Combs, Founder and Principal of RiverRock Real Estate Group, Inc. and, in addition to Dave Seastrom, panel members included:

• Scott Emigh, Director of Enterprise Solution Sales for Microsoft;
• Alan Gladstone, Chairman, President, CEO & Owner of Anna’s Linens
• Steve Jones, Co-CEO/Chief Operating Officer of Universal Services of America

The panel shared their experiences with establishing their companies; trials and tribulations along the way; company culture & work environment, comparisons of the early days to today; and what's in store for the future. More than 200 people attended the event at The Westin in Costa Mesa, CA.

The panel (Dave is the third from the left)

About BOMA
Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) members are building owners, managers, developers, leasing professionals, medical office building managers, corporate facility managers, asset managers, and the providers of the products and services needed to operate commercial properties.

Collectively, BOMA members own or manage more than nine billion square feet of office space, which represents more than 80 percent of the prime office space in North America! More than 80 percent of individual members have annual operating budgets exceeding $1 million, while more than 75 percent of individual members are responsible for multiple buildings.

Congrats to DPR Construction’s corporate safety director, Rodney Spencley, who has been awarded the 2012 Construction Employers’ Association (CEA) Leadership in Safety Award. The selection was based on measurable results, DPR’s safety program and Rodney’s impact on the construction industry. Additionally, the President’s Award for Safety was presented to DPR for the fourth consecutive year.

When asked about receiving the Leadership in Safety Award, Rodney said, "Our goal is an Injury Free Environment. This isn’t achieved simply by adhering to OSHA and industry regulations; it’s the product of the culture of safety we’ve built at DPR, a culture that believes that zero incidents is an achievable goal.” 

Helping safety professionals and safety coordinators become leaders and influencers is important to Rodney. He has trained, mentored and influenced many safety professionals who have gone on to have significant impacts on the safety world both inside and outside of DPR Construction. Rodney has worked tirelessly in the mission to create an injury-free environment (IFE) for DPR and the entire construction industry. Since becoming DPR’s safety director in 1993, Rodney’s leadership and passion for safety has led DPR to be one of the safest contractors in the nation--having one of the lowest incident rates and Experience Modifier Rates (EMRs) year after year. Rodney’s vision has been realized throughout the company and has influenced DPR’s culture, which values safety as a priority that is promoted by each employee.

From the smallest SSG projects to large data centers, Rodney meets with operations groups, owners and customers to help plan for safety and promote the DPR safety culture across all 17 DPR locations. He helps assemble the right safety professionals for the team and then brings the whole group together to find the best ways to succeed in getting everyone home safely. The goal is to create an injury-free environment through planning and adherence to the principles of:

• Supportive Leadership
• Personal Commitment
• Free and Open Lines of Communication
• Accountability

DPR's Safety Group with both awards -- Rodney (third from left) with his Leadership in Safety Award and DPR's President’s Award for Safety (third from right)

Here's Rodney talking safety:

About CEA
The Construction Employers’ Association is the premier association in Northern California representing union commercial building contractors in collective bargaining, labor relations and legislative advocacy. It is the only organization whose sole purpose is to protect and promote the interests of the unionized commercial building contraction industry in Northern California.

How do we make innovation an everyday, everywhere capability in our organizations? That's a question that the Innovating Innovation Challenge seeks to answer. DPR was selected as one of 24 finalists for the challenge that was presented by the Management Innovation eXchange (MIX), along with partners Harvard Business Review and McKinsey & Company. There were more than 140 entries. 

Check out the DPR's story here. "Likes,” comments and shares on DPR's Innovation story are welcome and will help with the judging process. Just create an account, which is quick and easy, and you can impact the outcome of this challenge. Winners of the challenge will be announced the week of February 11th. Stay tuned!

Congrats to Christopher Gorthy and Lisa Lingerfelt for making ENR's Top 20 Under 40 list in the Mid-Atlantic for 2013! ENR's Top 20 Under 40 competition in the Mid-Atlantic celebrates the excellence of young design and construction professionals in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. An independent jury judged the candidates on factors such as: career experience, industry leadership, and community service. 

About Lisa
Lisa joined DPR 10 years ago and has quickly grown within the company ever since. With a passion for nurturing the talent around her, Lisa is a strategic thinker who can manage many details and projects while simultaneously looking at the big picture. For the last year and a half, Lisa has been a project executive as well as the manager of the DPR Richmond, VA office. As the leader of the Richmond office, Lisa is in charge of: creating and managing the DPR Richmond business plan; pursuing work; overseeing operations of current projects; hiring and mentoring people; and risk management. In addition to these responsibilities, Lisa has also recently taken on substantial management responsibilities for DPR's Washington, DC office. Lisa is involved with causes such as: Camp Comfort Zone, a bereavement camp that supports children who have lost a loved one; Rebuilding Together; ACE mentoring program; Youth League of America; Charlottesville Literacy Volunteers; and the American Heart Association's "Go Red" campaign. She is also involved with professional organizations such as: American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE)'s Central Virginia chapter; 7x 24's Richmond chapter; and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

About Christopher
With 14 years of experience in preconstruction, estimating, business development and project management, Christopher has developed a deep understanding of the design and construction industry from multiple perspectives. From his first day at DPR, over nine years ago, Christopher knew that to help grow the company, he needed to broaden his knowledge base, and embrace his goal of experiencing the many sides of the design and construction industry. Since that time, Christopher has exemplified the core values of the company and embraced the culture, becoming an integral member of the preconstruction team, and, as of two years ago, the Regional Leadership Group. It is through these two pivotal roles that he has been an active participant in mentoring and growing the next generation of leaders within the company. He also provides support for DPR’s national sustainability program with a focus on the East Coast. Christopher is involved with professional organizations such as: USGBC; Virginia Sustainable Building Network; Associated General Contractors; American Institute of Architects; and causes such as: Maryland Multicultural Youth Center (MMYC) and Rebuilding Together.

Look out for a special Mid-Atlantic edition of ENR on March 25, 2013, which will feature profiles of the winners. Congratulations to all who made the list!