Overview

Vision

A global environment where all participants can readily and transparently share, apply and maintain information about facilities and infrastructure to enhance quality and economy of design, construction, operation and maintenance.

Mission

Improve all aspects of the facility and infrastructure lifecycle by promoting collaboration, technology, integrated practices and open standards.

Business Plan

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Created to spearhead technical, political, and financial support for advanced digital technology in the real property industry—from concept, design and construction through operations and management—the buildingSMART Alliance operates within the independent nonprofit National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). This public/private initiative expands on goals of the North American Chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI-NA), whose Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) have initiated open standards for national and international links among industry players. It provides developers and users of Building Information Models (BIMs), the digital tools that are increasingly helping to share highly accurate information throughout a facility's life cycle.

NIBS' Board of Directors unanimously approved the buildingSMART Alliance charter in January. "NIBS is an ideal home for the Alliance," says board chair Dr. James Broaddus, P.E., Ph.D., citing the Institute's Congressional charter and reporting relationship to the President of the United States. He says the Alliance envisions staff and resources to support "a very inclusive structure" welcoming "all organizations that have interoperability interests that need to be addressed, advanced and coordinated with other groups."

McGraw-Hill Construction president Norbert Young, FAIA, who as chair of IAI-NA helped originate the buildingSMART concept, praises the buildingSMART Alliance as "a unified approach where we will devote our resources to a combined effort, managed through a single entity."

In contrast with centuries-old ways of documenting facilities with two-dimensional drawings plus specifications—a process recently automated with Computer Aided Design (CAD)—new digital technology brings together owners, operators, designers, constructors, regulators and other stakeholders around a single Building Information Model (BIM), a unified tool that offers unprecedented accuracy, speed and economy. The closely related concept of open standards that let all users communicate quickly and efficiently, nationally and internationally, led to the creation of the International Alliance for Interoperability and the coinage "buildingSMART."

The Alliance builds on such preexisting NIBS programs as IAI-NA, the Facilities Information Council, the National Building Information Model Standard (NBIMS) Project Committee, the U.S. National CAD Standard, the Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee's Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBIE) initiative, and AGCxml, a cooperative project with the Associated General Contractors of America.