The Importance of Design in Pre-Construction with Donn Calaway

Design in pre-construction plays a critical role in this phase of a project. At VCC, their In-House Design and Construction Integration team gets involved in all projects from start to finish. Donn Calaway, Chief Design Officer at VCC, heads up the design and construction integration group. He sat down with Gabrielle Bejarano on Deconstruction to talk about some of the essential aspects of his work.

One step of design in pre-construction processes Calaway’s team is involved with is peer reviews, which provide an in-depth study of the construction documents. “What VCC brings to the table is we have a fantastic group of architects, number one,” Calaway said. “But we have a great deal of experience on both sides of the project; in the design field and the construction side of the project.”

Technology is the crucial driver for Calaway to accomplish project missions. On the project front end, VCC utilizes Bluebeam Studio® software and Autodesk® Revit® to review drawings and specifications. “Or if the design team hasn’t modeled the project, we do a lot of internal modeling and check for coordination based on the contract documents,” Calaway said.

Calaway said they use LiDAR technologies for scanning as the construction process progresses. It’s a way to capture a project at a point in time through point cloud generation. “We’re able to use that point cloud file to bring it into a Revit platform, compare it to our modeling and check the accuracy of the work in place. It’s been extremely beneficial in projects prior to placing concrete.”

In addition to Lidar, drones scan the exterior of a building through every stage of construction. This process allows Calaway and his team to review progress remotely without being on-site.