Bates & Associates Architects needed to deliver a new higher education facility for Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) in Waynesville, Missouri, but had never used Revit or the BIM process, and neither had their MEP consultant. Hagerman & Company delivered three rounds of custom training across Bates' team, their consultants, and even the building owner, getting the entire project team fluent enough in BIM to deliver a fully coordinated model. Bates now offers full BIM services to every client.
The Challenge:
Moving an entire project team from 2D CAD to full BIM, mid-project, with a mix of experience levels across firms, is a hard problem, and that's exactly what Bates & Associates took on with the OTC Waynesville Education Center.
Bates' standard project delivery method was AutoCAD Architecture, and the firm had no prior experience with Revit or the broader BIM process. The project's Structural Consultant had used Revit before; the MEP consultant had little to none. To deliver a fully coordinated project across all disciplines, Bates needed its entire extended team, not just its own staff, proficient in a tool most of them had never touched.
"With very limited exposure to BIM, we had to become experts in a very short timeframe in order to achieve the goals we set for the project," said Marin Pastar, AIA, NCARB, Director of BIM Technology and Project Architect at Bates & Associates. Pastar was also clear that the firm wasn't interested in a minimum-viable approach: "Unlike many professional design firms that pursue limited BIM only to get by their owner's requirements, Bates is fully dedicated to exploring and utilizing all the benefits of the entire BIM process, and go beyond 3D modeling just for the purpose of producing 2D documents."
The Solution:
Bates purchased Autodesk's Building Design Suite for Revit model integration and coordination. The predecessor to today's Autodesk AEC Collection, and brought in Hagerman & Company to train the people who'd actually be using it.
That meant training across three separate audiences: Bates' own architecture staff, their MEP consultants, and even OTC's ownership team, so the building owner understood the BIM deliverable they'd be receiving. Hagerman ran three total training sessions, one round of classroom training at Hagerman's offices, plus two rounds of custom, on-site training at Bates' own office.
"We understood that in order to deliver the superior product we envisioned, we had to make sure our entire design team understood the process and was properly trained to utilize the Revit software suite," Pastar said. "Even the best tools in the world are useless without the capable team to use them to their full potential."
The Impact:
Bates delivered a fully coordinated BIM model to OTC — and came out of the project with a repeatable BIM capability, not just a one-off deliverable.
The first project came with a real cost: hours went up compared to their AutoCAD workflow, as is typical the first time a team moves to BIM. But Bates saw the tradeoff pay off in better coordination across disciplines, and the firm now offers full BIM services to every client, using the OTC Waynesville Education Center as its proof point.
"There is a learning curve in every process," Pastar said. "We continue to explore the latest technologies and push the envelope in order to bring our clients the best service in the industry."
For architecture firms serving higher education and campus facilities clients, Bates' experience is a realistic preview: the first BIM project costs more time than the workflow it replaces, but training the full project team — including outside consultants and the owner — is what turns that investment into a standing capability rather than a one-time deliverable.
Ready to Bring Your Whole Project Team Up to Speed on BIM?
Whether it's your own staff, outside consultants, or the building owner who need to get fluent in Revit, Hagerman & Company's custom training programs are built to train an entire extended project team, not just one firm. Our AEC/BIM Solutions team can also help you plan the transition itself.
Read our blog about Bates & Associates for more information.
