The challenge
Global design-build firm, Unispace, was looking for innovative ways to share progress on construction sites, which became essential after COVID-19 hit. They needed a solution that would seamlessly integrate with their management program, Procore, and their 3D modeling software, uniBIM.
Company employees were already well-versed in remote collaboration, with project members often distributed throughout the country, but Unispace’s leadership wanted a way to provide ground truth and ensure that every stakeholder—from project managers and superintendents to designers and client representatives—always had an up-to-date understanding of the project status.
The solution
When Unispace first piloted OpenSpace, they were impressed by the in-depth site capture from the 360 photo documentation. It provided a more complete record of each jobsite—and in a fraction of the time manual capture with a camera or phone would take.
Excited to leverage this transformational technology, Unispace incorporated OpenSpace into several projects, including a New York-based project for Mediterranean Shipping Company, a Canada-based project for HCL Technologies (which the U.S.-based project team had to manage 100% remotely due to COVID-19 travel restrictions) and a Des Moines-based project for law firm, Fredrikson & Byron.
Prior to using OpenSpace, Unispace teams typically took still photos and occasional videos during biweekly walkthroughs. With OpenSpace’s continuous capture functionality, team members walked the site with a 360 camera strapped to their hard hats and were able to get a more complete record of the project. Since the imagery was automatically mapped to project plans, OpenSpace made it possible to track progress more quickly and zoom in on how specific areas were progressing week by week.
“OpenSpace helps streamline our quality control and quality assurance processes, which is important given the large territories we cover and clients who consistently bring us to different parts of the country,” said Tom Prasky, a Region Principal of Delivery at Unispace.
By surfacing issues that may otherwise be detected at a later stage, a real-time view of site conditions benefited stakeholders. During a virtual walkthrough powered by OpenSpace at a recent Owner-Architect-Contractor meeting, the decision-making team noticed the color of the window mullions and opted to have them painted, resulting in a change order. Without OpenSpace, they may not have noticed until after construction was complete.
“Sometimes it’s hard for clients to understand the status of a project when they’re not on-site regularly,” said Daniel Juchima, a Senior Project Manager at Unispace. “Seeing how it’s coming along in real-time is hugely beneficial for them.”
[OpenSpace] has given clients peace of mind and additional confidence in Unispace. No matter where they’re based, they can see for themselves that a project is on schedule instead of just taking our word for it.
The results
Based on the success of the pilot projects, Unispace has entered into an enterprise agreement with OpenSpace to scale usage of the platform globally.
10X faster
30% reduction
Tens of thousands
Reduced travel costs
By enabling virtual walkthroughs, OpenSpace has cut back on the need for some Unispace team members to be on-site. For example, designers based out of Ohio were able to conduct some of their inspections via OpenSpace instead of traveling to their site in Iowa. On the same four-month job, the Senior Safety Manager responsible for all North American projects only needed to be on-site twice, and completed the rest of his monthly inspections remotely with the same attention to detail.
Improved collaboration with subcontractors
On a recent project, Unispace managed access for subs by creating virtual folders with specific imagery instead of providing full access to the site. This has proven to be an efficient way to get bids, especially in the COVID-19 era when physical access to job sites has been curtailed. On the HCL project in Canada where the team had to contract with a local GC because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, Unispace’s Project Manager relied on OpenSpace to keep tabs on the schedule. “OpenSpace has been a tool for us to manage the accountability of our vendors so we can be confident in the product we’re delivering to our clients,” said Adam Petersen, a Regional Principal at Unispace.
Savings on rework
More complete documentation and better collaboration helps Unispace detect issues at an earlier stage and avoid rework. Catching a significant punch list item and getting it fixed saved Unispace “additional time that would have been required for rework after project completion,” according to Prasky. In another instance, a designer picked up on a discrepancy between the drawing and how a bulkhead had been built. Unispace was able to correct the error before a walkthrough with the client.
Improved internal collaboration
By letting every internal team member see real-time conditions more quickly, OpenSpace helps field teams and designers work together more efficiently. For example, design teams can quickly address questions or issues without having to come to the site or rely on manual photos. “It’s very helpful to give designers an idea of the status of an entire room,” said Michael Cosimano, a Superintendent at Unispace. “It helps us communicate and collaborate more effectively.”
More transparency for clients
OpenSpace has significantly improved communication with clients. “It has given clients peace of mind and additional confidence in Unispace,” says Daniel Juchima. “No matter where they’re based, they can see for themselves that a project is on schedule instead of just taking our word for it.” Clients have also benefited from being able to see a side-by-side view of current site conditions alongside the BIM model. Unispace has started detailing its relationship with OpenSpace in RFP responses to assure globally dispersed clients that they’ll be able to track progress in granular detail no matter where they’re located.
