Hinson Miller Kickirillo Architects (HMKA), a 9-person architecture firm in Brentwood, Tennessee, needed to deliver a 69,000-square-foot replacement hospital on an accelerated design schedule without expanding headcount. With Revit Architecture and hands-on training from Hagerman & Company, HMKA's small team produced a fully coordinated set of construction documents on time — proving that BIM lets a small firm compete for large, complex projects.
The Challenge:
A small architecture firm taking on a large, fast-tracked hospital project faces a real resourcing problem: coordinating a high volume of construction documents with a limited team, on a schedule the client wants compressed, not extended.
That was the situation HMKA faced with its 25-bed critical access replacement hospital near Fort Valley, Georgia. The firm's largest and most complex project to date. The client wanted design documents finished and construction started as quickly as possible, which meant HMKA's early release package had to be tightly coordinated from day one. Without a better way to manage that volume of documentation, a firm of HMKA's size risked falling behind on a project of this scope.
HMKA also needed to produce photo-realistic renderings of the hospital's interior and exterior, a resource the client would use to present the design to the local community and build public support for the project.
The Solution:
HMKA turned to Autodesk Revit Architecture to move off traditional 2D CAD workflows without abandoning them overnight. The firm engaged Hagerman & Company during its initial BIM evaluation for guidance on software and hardware requirements, specifically looking for a path that would let the team keep working in 2D CAD while gradually building comfort with 3D modeling.
Hagerman jumpstarted that transition with an introductory, hands-on Revit Architecture training course, giving HMKA's team a shared baseline of core Revit knowledge to build on. From there, HMKA and its engineering consultants used Revit's coordination tools throughout the design process to keep the hospital project on schedule, even with the accelerated timeline, and issued a fully coordinated set of construction documents on time
The Impact:
Revit's coordination and visualization tools let a 9-person firm take on a project scope that would typically require a much larger team.
"BIM allows a smaller firm like ours to engage in larger and more complex projects. The enhanced coordination capabilities, intuitive documentation tools, and overall project organization allow jobs to be completed in a shorter amount of time and with more efficiency. The end result is a well-managed, carefully planned facility for our clients." — Neal Hinson, Principal, HMKA
Beyond the hospital project, HMKA has carried the workflow forward: the firm now works hand-in-hand with contractors using a shared, usable model for design intent clarification, and sees potential to extend the same model into shop drawing production and subcontractor conflict coordination. As Hinson put it, "We believe BIM/VDC software has increased our ability to collaborate across disciplines and industries" — with clients seeing the benefit through shorter project schedules, faster and more accurate estimates, and better-coordinated construction documents.
For small building design firms weighing whether BIM adoption is worth it at their scale, HMKA's experience is a clear answer: it's what let a 9-person team credibly compete for and deliver a 69,000-square-foot hospital project.
Ready to Scale BIM Like HMKA Did?
Whether you're just starting to explore Revit or looking to expand BIM adoption across larger, more complex projects, Hagerman & Company can help. Our AEC/BIM Solutions team provides implementation guidance, and our certified instructors offer hands-on Revit training courses to get your team up to speed quickly.
Read our blog post on HMKA for more information.
