FOR
VDC Managers
Jul 10, 2025
DFW Airport Construction Gone BIM
How Gresham Smith Digitized DFW Airport Predict Complex Construction Coordination
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electroni
Enter IPX.
Project Background
$100M Project - Started with out knowing what's there
• 200,000+ square feet of airport terminals and site scanned at millimeter-grade accuracy
• BIM files delivered 4 days ahead of schedule
• Seamless digital sharing of plans between architects, FAA and subcontractors
Key Facts
Gresham Smith have been delivering exceptional for the last 30 years. They have become some of our favorite and most iconic and staples to reference in both inside and out of the classroom.
One-third of the top 100 airports in the United States have that GS name plate. GS is a staple in in our modern transportation design history.
At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Gresham Smith's Sean Bogart, Principal within the Aviation division, was commissioned in a $100M project to design a new passenger bridge, or “connector” between Terminals C & E.
The project spanned across the security barrier between "landside" and "airside" and over 200,000 square feet of terminal and exterior site.
Robert Fuller, Senior Architect Project Manager, and Will Carlson, Architect, sought out Integrated Projects (IPX) to provide comprehensive existing conditions documentation and verified BIM & CAD files for seamless communication between design, construction and airport authorities.
Client
Gresham Smith
Company Type
Architecture Firm
Address
Dallas Fort Worth Airport
Property Type
Commercial
Property Sub Type
Airport
Area Digitized
200,000
Total Floors
6
Total Data Processed
Renovate
Project Delivery
14
Days
Total # of Scans
5
Hardware
Navvis VLX
Stake Holders
Design, Construction MGMT, Facilities Mgmt
The Challenge
Security, Access, Logistics
The Gresham Smith design team was charged with aligning a diverse group of stakeholders from across facilities, operators, asset managers, and more than ten specialty other engineering firms to coordinate a drawing set for this expansion.
They needed accurate as-built plans, down to the inch, in Revit and CAD formats to equip all project teams to start on the fifty yard line. Unfortunately, DFW Airport’s management team did not have up-to-date existing conditions documentation.
Gaps in as-built documentation: The design and owner teams were having difficulty answering simple questions due to conflicting and unverified existing conditions, for example, determining whether the drill rigs had sufficient clearance to access proposed boring locations.
Site and security constraints: For the connector to become a reality, a service road and fuel station needed to be relocated, in addition to the internal renovations. Due to the high-security nature of the areas involved, documentation had to be achieved swiftly and in a single session.
Communicating via multiple file formats: With stakeholders each preferring a different file format for plans and other project documentation, file-sharing links and email attachments would quickly become unmanageable for a project of this scale and security.
The Solution
Turnkey Reality Capture
Scan to BIM is already difficult to pull off …
Now layer in the complexities of a 24/7 operating, International airport, complete with security, coordination, regulations, standards and procurement. But this project contract was managed under a high stakes, fast track, construction deliverable and its no wonder Gresham Smith partnered with Integrated Projects.
W/ 14M qsft scanned in 2023 alone, Integrated Projects was the clear choice to handle a project of this magnitude.
The SCANIT team mobilized on site within one week of contract signing. The two-person scan team used a NavVis VLX mobile scanner and a BLK360 terrestrial scanner on site, capturing more than 200,000 square feet across Terminal C, Terminal E and the exterior site between them at millimeter-grade accuracy. Within 21 business days, the BIM files were available to view and share in IPX. Before Integrated Projects, a scan-to-BIM project of this size would typically cost 3X more, and take 5X longer to complete.
The SCANIT service by Integrated Projects (IP) culminates in a comprehensive 3D model on IPX, the building digitization platform that allows users to visualize, query, measure and share building information in a browser window. This empowers project architects with:
The Results
The single source of truth for all project teams
By leveraging Integrated Projects' SCANIT service and IPX platform, Gresham Smith's design team transformed complex, unverified conditions into precise, shareable BIM models, enabling timely progress on the connector project:
Faster alignment for code compliance: Having an accurate model allowed for all stakeholders to arrive at faster decision-making especially around NPFA code compliance and drainage concerning surface slope percentages for hydrology and rainwater runoff.
Seamless stakeholder communication: The BIM produced by IPX acted as the single source of truth, unifying decisions across all stakeholders regardless of preferred file format. This made the platform an indispensable part of project coordination.
Site and security constraints: SCANIT was able to deliver all project assets ahead of schedule, despite the extensive square footage involved and the complications of laser scanning on the “airside” of the security barrier.
Creating future value: The connector between Terminals C & E is one of many recent and upcoming renovations at Dallas Forth Worth International, making the BIM and accompanying assets valuable to potential future projects.
The secure, SOC-2 compliant IPX platform enabled Gresham Smith to easily view, share and download all project files and easily export them to their Autodesk Construction Cloud account. Today, more than 17 external consultants now depend on IPX's DFW Airport model for project coordination.
“On an extension at one of the busiest airports in the world, every detail counts. Integrated Projects delivered precise and comprehensive existing conditions models that were crucial for our fast-paced coordination. They not only met our tight deadlines but also maintained exceptional transparency throughout. The ability to securely share the model through the intuitive IPX platform made coordination across the large group of stakeholders involved seamless and efficient.”
— Will Carlson, AIA, Architect at Gresham Smith