Interview with Halsall Associates Limited

Company name	Halsall Associates Limited
Division	Structures
Address	2300 Yonge Street
City, state, ZIP Code	Toronto, Ontario M4P 1E4
Phone number	416-487-5256
Web site address	www.halsall.com
User	Ian Trudeau
Title	Senior Project Draftsperson

Ah… Toronto! What a city! It is by far one of my favorites.

What made my trip to Toronto even more exciting was the opportunity to visit Halsall and to have lunch with Ian Trudeau, Michael Parker and David Brand. After having a great conversation and a few laughs while eating spinach and ricotta Angolotti, Ian and I sat down for a great interview about Halsall and his use of Revit® Structure. Below is my interview with Ian as well as some really impressive images that Ian shared with me. I look forward to my next trip to Toronto!

• Culotta: Please tell us about your business, the markets you serve and the services that you provide.
  • Trudeau: Halsall is a consulting engineering firm based in Toronto with six offices across Canada, one in Dubai, UAE and one in the Cayman Islands. Our consulting services include structural engineering, green buildings, restoration engineering, cladding engineering and capital planning.

• Culotta: What is your role in the company? How long have you been with the company?
  • Trudeau: As a senior structural project draftsperson I have the added responsibility for Revit integration, development and developing and conducting internal training. In addition I am part of an internal task force to test and integrate design programs into the Revit platform. I have been with the company for over 5 years.

• Culotta: When did you and the company begin using Revit Structure?
  • Trudeau: We began as a Beta test facility for Autodesk prior to the release of Revit Structure in early 2005 and were a contributor to the Revit online tutorial for Canadian content. We have been using Revit Structure extensively since its release.

• Culotta: What were you using before? For how long were you using it?
  • Trudeau: We have been using AutoCAD since 1988 and converted to ADT in 2005. Some work was done using the 3D capabilities on specialty projects but 3D was never used in working drawings
• Culotta: Please share with us a few projects you've created with Revit Structure? What was the situation and how did you deliver the solution?
  • Trudeau: There are two more prominent projects we have done to date.
    • The first is a 240,000 sq.ft Quantum/Nano research facility for the University of Waterloo with Toronto architects KPMB and U.S. firm HDR. Very stringent vibration criteria and a very complex structure, including concrete waffle slabs and an 8 story steel tower with a "honeycomb" curtain structure suspended from the roof, supporting the edge of the floors below, as well as 2 steel bridges to adjacent existing buildings and an underground service tunnel.
    • The second is Honda's new Canadian Head Office with ZAS and HOK architects in joint venture, Toronto. The campus includes a 140,000 sq.ft., 4-storey office building to house 500 staff, 88,000 sq.ft. Technical Resource Centre to be used for training and research and a 225,000 sq.ft. Product Distribution Centre for small parts storage and distribution. A Central Plant services the heating and cooling needs of the campus.
  • Our clients on both of these projects were also using Revit.

• Culotta: Are there any images you can share with us of these projects?

DWF files of the projects below are available at:

Trudeau: The below images are:

University of Waterloo, Quantum Nano Centre

Waterloo, Ontario

Download DWF model 

Architecture:     Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects

Structure:     Halsall Associates Limited

Mech. & Elec.:    H.H. Angus and Associates Limited

Trudeau: The below images are:

Honda Canada Campus

Markham, Ontario

Download DWF model 

Architecture:    ZAS Inc. & HOK Canada, Architects in Joint Venture

Structure:    Halsall Associates Limited

Mechanical:    Stantec

Electrical:    Mulvey + Banani

• Culotta: What made your company switch to Revit Structure and how did you do it?
  • Trudeau: We have not switched to Revit Structure, but have added Revit Structure to our list of tools we use. BIM is exciting technology and Revit Structure seems well positioned to be the industry leader. Autodesk has the commitment and where-with-all to continue the necessary development to satisfy the growing market trend into BIM. 

• Culotta: What is the biggest advantage or benefit to your company in using Revit Structure?
  • Trudeau: Ease of visualization has proven to be our biggest advantage over 2D drawing. We have done large and complex projects with Revit Structure and it has proven to be very useful in visualizing the building complexities in the early stages. Additional benefits include faster detail creation and automatic drawing coordination for section marks etc.

• Culotta: How does your company transfer the benefits gained in using Revit Structure onto your client?
  • Trudeau: It is much easier to communicate our design intent with a Revit Structure model. If our client also uses Revit it is easier to coordinate our structure with the Architectural elements, i.e. Partitions, cladding, openings, etc. This avoids changes and corrections during the construction phase of a project, ultimately saving money for the building owner.

• Culotta: What kind of return on investment have you seen since using Revit Structure?
  • Trudeau: It is early to determine the ROI at this point since we still consider ourselves to be in the development and training stages of the implementation. As we get more users trained we are expecting production savings combined with a much richer data set for our clients with potentially higher fees for our company.

• Culotta: Anything else you'd like to share about your experience with Revit Structure?
  • Trudeau: Our experience with Revit Structure has been very positive. It is intuitive, relatively easy to learn and the benefits of visualization have proven to be very powerful.
• Culotta: If you could give one piece of advice to someone in the field of structural engineering who is NOT using Revit Structure today, what would it be?
  • Trudeau: BIM is the future of our industry. For anyone using AutoCAD it is an easy decision to use Revit Structure as their BIM platform. Revit Structure should be embraced by any structural firm.

Comments

[Leonor Duran-Orozco]

Way to go Halsall and Autodesk