Robins & Morton: Auburn University Basketball Arena

The Challenge
Robins & Morton was the construction manager for the recently completed basketball arena at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. The $92.5 million arena includes a two-court practice facility, student locker rooms with sports medicine facilities, team meeting rooms, a ticket office, a team store, food courts, and many other amenities. The facility also houses a state-of-the-art athletics museum. "New student housing, a dining hall, and a major campus utility project were being built right next to the arena during most of our construction," explains Aaron Wright, BIM coordinator for Robins & Morton. "These site constraints dictated that the building’s roof structure had to be erected from inside the arena—making it essential that space was used efficiently."

In addition, the original contract documents contained designated space for a future build-out of the university’s existing sports museum. "But midway through construction, the university wanted to take advantage of the fact that the project was coming in under budget and accelerate the schedule for the museum," says Dustin Ranger, a Robins & Morton superintendent. "But only if it didn’t impact the overall schedule for the arena or increase the cost of the museum."

The Solution
The integrated project team—including Robins & Morton, 360 Architecture, Davis Architects, structural engineering firm Walter P Moore, and general contractor B.L. Harbert International—used Autodesk BIM solutions for collaboration, coordination, visualization and virtual walk-throughs, 4D construction planning and scheduling, and as-built tracking. "BIM helped the entire project team communicate and collaborate more effectively, and ultimately deliver the arena ahead of schedule and under budget," says Wright.

Avoid Waste
During construction, Robins & Morton required BIM submittals from its subcontractors and combined their fabrication models with the design models using Navisworks Manage software for field coordination. "By using BIM to facilitate preconstruction and construction coordination, we are inherently reducing waste," says Ranger. "BIM is essential for our sustainable construction practices."

Streamline Design-Build
To help the university and project team better understand the ramifications of accelerating the schedule for the sports museum, Robins & Morton used Revit Architecture software to model the museum exhibit space based on initial 2D design drawings from the specialty contractor. They then imported the model into Navisworks Manage to visualize the design in the context of the overall arena, helping all teams to make more informed design decisions.

"Although the arena itself was new construction, the museum was more like a renovation project," says Wright. "The university and the museum designers could study the museum design model to help them see if it met the university’s needs and expectations."

In addition, Robins & Morton used Navisworks Manage software to better understand the museum’s construction implications and to help make sure it did not jeopardize the overall project schedule. "With Navisworks we could visualize the whole area—including the building's systems and structural elements—and we quickly discovered a major problem," says Ranger. "There was no easy way to provide the many steel, electrical, data, fire protection, and HVAC feeds to the free-standing museum walls and exhibits components once the structure was completed."

With help from Navisworks Manage software, the team identified alternate methods for routing the necessary systems to the interior exhibit space. "By finding and fixing these issues digitally, we successfully demonstrated that the museum construction could move forward without impacting the schedule of the base contract or the cost of the museum," says Ranger.

Enhance Project Understanding
Throughout the project, Robins & Morton used the Revit and Navisworks models to help generate visualizations and virtual walk-throughs of the arena. These project visualizations proved instrumental in many ways.

For their monthly progress meetings, the team created visualizations in the form of renderings or shaded views. These "project snapshots" were often combined with photographs of the construction in order to document scheduled versus actual progress. "This helped give all the meeting participants a better understanding of the project’s status," says Ranger. "In addition, these snapshots helped enable quicker turnaround times by the owner on the contractors’ applications for payment."

Project visualizations were also valuable for sponsor recruitment. "We imported the logos of key potential sponsors into the Revit model to create high-end renderings of the arena, to help show them the impact of their sponsorship," says Wright. And throughout the project the university used Navisworks walk-throughs and animations to help give player recruits and donors a virtual tour of the arena and its amenities.

Finally, Robins & Morton used the Navisworks model and virtual walk-throughs in a variety of public outreach efforts to help explain and promote both the arena and the use of BIM to local organizations, Auburn University students and alumni, and industry groups.

The Results
Auburn University’s new basketball arena—along with its newly relocated sports museum—opened in the fall of 2010. The project was completed under budget and ahead of schedule, and the museum was actually finished prior to the completion of the main arena. "Autodesk BIM solutions were essential for the success of this project," says Wright. "On complex projects like this, BIM enables us to more efficiently manage the phases of preconstruction and construction, and it helps drive our lean construction practices."