Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf project wins prestigious buildingSMART International Award for Best Design

Nemetschek brands ARCHICAD, Bluebeam, dRofus and Solibri mission critical in delivering award-winning design

BUDAPEST, January 16, 2020 – In an outstanding display of IFC collaboration and Open BIM teamwork, PDC (a division of DBM Vircon) has won first prize in the design category at the recent 2019 buildingSMART International Awards. The award recognized PDC’s Digital Engineering team for its pioneering and innovative efforts on the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf project in Brisbane, Australia.

Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane is a world-class integrated resort development that will transform the Central Business District (CBD) and river’s edge. The Destination Brisbane Consortium is delivering the development, which will cover more than 26 hectares across land and water — equivalent to 10% of Brisbane’s CBD. The development encompasses 50 new bars, cafes and restaurants; 2,000 apartments across three residential towers; and more than 1,100 premium hotel rooms operating under four hotel brands, one with a casino.

“We made the decision to utilize BIM for two main reasons,” said Simon Crooks, Project Director, Destination Brisbane Consortium. “In the short term, for design coordination. This is an asset with over 340,000 square meters of built form — and that, from a coordination viewpoint, is critical. In the longer term, we’re talking about maintenance and facilities management of the asset, and we intend to operate for 99 years as per the terms of our lease. Again — BIM is critical to that process for us,” he concluded.

“Iconic projects like Queen’s Wharf are important learning experiences for us software vendors,” said Gergely Kmethy, Director, Customer Support Services at GRAPHISOFT. “The lead architect on this project, Cottee Parker, used ARCHICAD. We also worked with the PDC project team to explore best practices around IFC collaboration, involving software like dRofus for data management and Solibri for model checking. This experience proves that open BIM works on very large-scale projects as well,” Kmethy added. In addition, Bluebeam Revu is being used for faster, more accurate and thorough Quality Assurance (QA). On a massive and complex project like Queen's Wharf that has quick turn-around times, Cottee Parker has created a more efficient QA process that minimizes risk, saves time and increases transparency, all using Bluebeam Revu.

The equivalent of 12 football fields of public space has been integrated into the design of the development as well. This public space will help to accommodate the additional 1.39 million visitors expected in Brisbane as a result of the project. Impressively, the development is also sustainable, having earned a 6-star Green Star Communities rating. In delivering the project, 16 different pieces of software were utilized by 39 contributing organizations. PDC (DBM Vircon) had over 340 models under management, with 215 individual models processed weekly.

“Queen’s Wharf is a flagship project for PDC, pulling together a team of highly skilled digital engineers to deliver a complex project with multiple interfaces, stages, programs, software and teams,” said Alastair Brook, Director, Digital Engineering, DBM Vircon. “This allowed PDC to develop an integrated model that is already being tested in operations, some four years before delivery.”

To learn more about the Queen’s Wharf project, watch the video here.

About PDC (A division of DBM Vircon)

DBM Vircon, a premier construction modeling and detailing company, delivers high-profile projects with state-of-the-art technology, uncompromising detail and nano precision. As the virtual construction company of DBM Global, DBM Vircon leverages its deep expertise, far-reaching experience and innovative platform of technologies, to give transparency to critical path activities enabling project stakeholders to make better-informed decisions during the design, pre-construction planning and execution phases of even the most complex construction projects. With operations in eight countries spanning four continents and a team of 850+, we are uniquely positioned to manage large-scale and labor-intensive projects.

DBM Vircon is an amalgamation of BDS Vircon, Candraft and PDC, three companies each with long histories and deep expertise in 3D Modeling, Detailing and Digital Engineering with extensive experience across a broad spectrum of projects, including airports, arenas and event centers, bridges, commercial buildings, government facilities, high-rises; hospitals and clinics; hotels and casinos; industrial and mining facilities; stadiums; universities, and more. For further information, visit.

About buildingSMART

buildingSMART is the worldwide industry body driving the digital transformation of the built asset industry. buildingSMART is committed to delivering improvement by the creation and adoption of open, international standards and solutions for infrastructure and buildings. buildingSMART is the community for visionaries working to transform the design, construction, operation and maintenance of built assets. buildingSMART is an open, neutral and international not-for-profit organization.

About Bluebeam, Inc.

Trusted by over 1.6 million individuals in more than 130 countries, Bluebeam's smart, intuitive markup and collaboration solutions advance the way technical professionals work, manage and collaborate on projects digitally. Founded in Pasadena, CA, Bluebeam has grown to include additional US offices in California, Illinois, Texas and New Hampshire, as well as offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Bluebeam is part of the Nemetschek Group. Download a 30-day trial of Bluebeam Revu on our website.

About dRofus

dRofus is a unique planning, data management, and BIM collaboration tool. dRofus provides all stakeholders with comprehensive workflow support and access to building information throughout the building lifecycle. Plan, manage and maintain data for departments, rooms, room templates, finishes, items, systems, and components – all in a single cloud-based platform. dRofus is a SQL server database that will provide state of the art performance and speed regardless of project size, type or complexity. For a detailed description about key features and modules visit the dRofus website.

About Solibri

Solibri Office is a BIM quality assurance software solution that analyzes Building Information Models and architectural and engineering designs for integrity, quality and physical safety. In addition, Solibri Office includes functionality for information take-out, analyzing and extracting the information available in BIM models. Solibri Office targets zero design errors, producing cost savings in construction projects, and in more effective modeling and quality assurance.

About GRAPHISOFT

GRAPHISOFT® ignited the BIM revolution in 1984 with ARCHICAD®, the industry-first BIM software for architecture. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the industry with innovative solutions such as its revolutionary BIMcloud®, the world’s first real-time BIM collaboration environment; and BIMx®, the world’s leading mobile app for lightweight access to BIM for non-professionals. GRAPHISOFT is part of the Nemetschek Group. www.graphisoft.com

About ARCHICAD

GRAPHISOFT ARCHICAD is the architects’ BIM software of choice. Natively available for both Windows® and Macintosh®, ARCHICAD offers a complete end-to-end design and documentation workflow for architectural and design practices of any size. According to user and analyst reviews ARCHICAD is the easiest to learn and most fun to use, while providing best-in-class capabilities. ARCHICAD’s unique multithreaded software architecture offers unrivaled performance for projects of any size.