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O P I N I O N
T he COVID-19 pandemic has cast uncertainty throughout the entire AEC industry for most of 2020. Still, clients seek predicable outcomes and expect their teams to manage risks, schedules, and costs throughout their design and construction projects. How do you provide stability on projects during a societal and economic upheaval? Collaboration is key when navigating challenging times. Our best way ahead is together, through strategic partnerships and adaptive thinking. Post-pandemic project delivery
Shawn Mahoney
OAC Services, Inc. is in the business of design and construction performance management. We are a 150-person professional service firm of designers, engineers, and construction professionals dedicated to solving our clients’ project challenges. Headquartered in Seattle, our city was the first major test case for how businesses would deal with the pandemic. We were immediately engaged under an emergency contract to help King County successfully complete two field hospitals and other treatment facilities in hotels and a converted warehouse. Throughout this experience, we have identified some lessons learned that we believe will become standard in post-pandemic project delivery: ❚ ❚ Digitalization in 3D, 4D, and 5D. Advanced digitalization has been in progress throughout the industry for years but accelerated considerably during the pandemic. COVID-19 required
remote work and for teams to share the building information model of the project to complete the design. Going forward, expectations for designing in BIM will become standard. The ability to produce a digital twin of the planned building ahead of work beginning on the site will prove invaluable in our quest to provide ultimate risk mitigation for our clients. BIM+Cost+Schedule=5D reliability in project delivery. Drawings are going away faster than ever. ❚ ❚ Technical experts in demand. Returning to the workplace will be a phased process. Employees will seek evidence of increased sanitation and deeper awareness of indoor air quality; natural ventilation and specialized exhaust systems will be expected in the office. Mechanical engineers and other specialists will be called on to explain air movement and filtration in lay terms to the mass population, expanding the need and services provided by technical experts.
See SHAWN MAHONEY, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 12, 2020, ISSUE 1363
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