Amy Schaap, VDC engineer at Turner Construction, draws on her biology background to argue that BIM is the brain of a building. She makes the case that the information in the model, not the 3D geometry, is what pays off from preconstruction through operations.

Amy Schaap, VDC Engineer, Turner Construction

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In this conversation

How a digital fabrication class taken alongside biology and neuroscience pulled Amy away from biomedical engineering and toward buildings.

Her map of building systems onto the body, with electrical as the nervous system, HVAC as the lungs, and water and wastewater as the circulatory and digestive systems.

Why she tells a new owner to ask BIM questions before buying, and what old landlord CAD drawings can cost on a full repositioning versus a two-floor fit-out.

When LOD 200 is enough and when a hospital or a building renovated many times needs more, so a clash does not become a six-week delay.

What she does when someone asks her to "BIM this": ask what the deliverable is, because the same word means different things to different teams.

A walk through her day as a VDC engineer, from laser scanning and crane logistics on tight New York sites to clash detection across trade models.

Buildings aren't quite at the level of humans yet, of living, breathing animals, but I don't think we're that far off.

Amy Schaap

Chapters

From biology to buildings

Amy's path from South Africa to a liberal arts college, where biology and digital fabrication came together.

The building as a body

How she links nervous, respiratory and circulatory systems to a building's electrical, HVAC and plumbing, and what retrofits can do for existing buildings.

BIM as the brain

Why the contractor's model is the place where all the information meets, and how it feeds digital twins, tracking and predictive analytics.

Advice for a new owner

The questions to ask before and after buying an underused office tower, and when landlord CAD drawings are not enough.

LOD and shared vocabulary

What level of development means in practice, and why terms have to be agreed on at kickoff.

A day in VDC

Preconstruction logistics, clash detection between trades, and why the information in the model is where the value lives.

BIM is building information modeling. It is a tool. It's not a thing. A thing would be the 3D model, but without information it's just a 3D model.

Amy Schaap

Takeaways

She maps building systems to the body: electrical as the nervous system, HVAC as the lungs, water and wastewater as the circulatory and digestive systems.

A 3D model without data is just a pretty model; the value comes from quantities, load tests, install tracking and predictive maintenance.

Owners should ask BIM questions before buying a building, since old landlord CAD drawings carry schedule and cost risk on a full repositioning.

LOD 200 can be enough for a simple fit-out with a communicative team, but hospitals and much-renovated buildings need higher detail.

When someone asks her to 'BIM this', she asks what the deliverable is, because shared vocabulary set at kickoff prevents costly misreads.

My hope is that VDC isn't a department, BIM isn't a department. It is, as I said, just a tool.

Amy Schaap