March 24, 2010

Canada BIM Council and NIBS/buildingSmart International MOA signed

Mississauga ON, March 24, 2010. The Canada BIM Council (CanBIM) and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) located in Washington D.C. today announced the signing of an historic Memorandum of Agreement outlining principles of cooperation surrounding Building Information Modeling (BIM) standards globally.

The work that the two organizations will pursue will be part of an effort by the leaders of the BIM movement in Canada and the United States and draw from experiences, studies, research and development in countries such as Korea, Finland and Norway where BIM has been deployed in construction for close to a decade.

Highlights of the agreement include mutual granting of licensing to reproduce work, including a ‘BIM Standard for Canada’ based on research and development sharing around Industry Foundation Classes and ISO 16739. Seeking standardization using International Standards for Interoperability products and standardized fundamental principles behind collection, retrieval, storage and use of Facility related data also forms part of the agreement.

“This agreement will become a cornerstone for Canadians involved in construction as we begin to work with countries that are far ahead of the adoption rate and deployment of BIM than that of Canada en masse.” explained Derek A. Smith, Interim CEO of the Canada BIM Council and founding member of the Council. “As we move forward together with NIBS and buildingSMART International, this agreement and mutual understanding will place CanBIM front and centre for our member companies to glean business intelligence surrounding their data management. What’s more, it will offer the council clear guidance in a global arena to convey to its members what standards are coming into play as they move around the world to work - and how to adapt to that standard”. Explained Smith.

Photo – L to R - Derek Smith, Mark Casaletto, Albert Celli, Dana (Deke) Smith, Paul Loreto, Tom Strong, Allan Partridge. Missing from the photo are CanBIM Board Members, Al Prowse, Bob Hildenbrandt, Ganesh Bala, Amin Hammad. Photo courtesy of Albert Celli, Halsall Offices Toronto

Dana K. Smith (Deke Smith), noted author on BIM fundamentals and the Executive Director for the US counterpart council, also commented on the new agreement. “We are excited about the agreement with the Canada BIM Council as it helps ensure that we truly are the North American Chapter of buildingSMART International. We have a long-standing partnership with Canada, but it is always good to document and build on that relationship. BIM is making profound changes in our industry and we have still only scratched the surface. This is truly a significant step forward. Together we can work to reduce non-value added effort throughout the facilities industry”.

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