The Tianbao Rocky Mountain Campus, located in Westminster, Colorado, spans a total area of 11,613 square meters. This four-story steel structure features a full glass curtain wall façade and serves as a multifunctional building. It is a demonstration project showcasing extensive technical collaboration aimed at enhancing construction efficiency. The planned construction period was 13 months, with groundbreaking taking place in May 2012.
Thanks to the seamless integration from design to construction, the project achieved zero installation errors in the embedded steel structure framework layout. The maximum deviation for the final steel column was just 6.4 millimeters. The steel structure layout was completed within 10 weeks without any rework. Additionally, the efficiency of mechanical, electrical, and pipeline installation improved by 50% compared to previous projects.
From SketchUp to on-site layout, from robotic total stations to tablets, from digital levels to prisms, and from BIM to 3D laser scanners, the Rocky Mountain Campus exemplifies how advanced technology can support and coordinate collaborative work among various project teams. This approach reduces waste while enhancing both the speed and quality of construction. The results are impressive.
Using SketchUp to Overcome On-Site Communication Challenges
JE Dunn Corporation, the largest general contractor in the United States, was founded in Kansas City in 1942. Today, the company operates 19 offices with over 4,000 employees nationwide. JE Dunn handles a wide range of projects, including medical centers, commercial office buildings, government facilities, universities, hospitals, and more.
Each JE Dunn project involves numerous tasks, such as assembly, delivery scheduling, construction process coordination, and safety planning, covering all phases from start to finish. Their engineering services team comprises both office-based designers and field engineers responsible for ensuring construction quality. This team includes owners, architects, engineers, and specialized subcontractors—all collaborating throughout the construction process to ensure the complex model system functions smoothly and effectively guides the site personnel.
The JE Dunn team faced challenges in communication and coordination across multiple project teams within the complex scope of their construction projects. Coordination during the installation phase was especially critical, as it directly impacts the quality of the finished product. To address this, JE Dunn adopted SketchUp as an effective, clear, and meaningful communication tool.
By visualizing complex project components in SketchUp’s 3D model, teams could better understand intricate details and processes on-site. This allowed everyone involved to “turn on the lights” and gain clarity.
JE Dunn’s use of SketchUp significantly deepened contract collaboration, improving early problem identification and resolution. This fostered better solutions and ensured all stakeholders signed off, guaranteeing high-quality construction outcomes.
The company and its subcontractors quickly simulated prototypes and compared various design options. JE Dunn accurately and effectively optimized the installation process for building facades. Using LayOut—part of SketchUp Pro, a 2D drawing document generation tool—JE Dunn combined traditional 2D drawings with 3D model data to create comprehensive documents for use by construction teams.
“LayOut helps us standardize everything together, like glue that beautifully binds everything together!”
— Rodd Merchant
(Vice President, Rocky Mountain Engineering Services Group, JE Dunn)
In combination with Google Earth, the company used SketchUp to plan project logistics—from construction fencing and deliveries to site organization flow. This visual approach helped clients better understand the project status and adapt to different construction phases, including temporary site adjustments, such as handing over a wing of a building during construction.
Ultimately, the company improved construction quality, reduced costs, and standardized the use of SketchUp for 3D visual models and project construction model services.
BIM Models Combined with Hardware
Achieving benefits throughout a building’s lifecycle requires accurately sized digital models used in design, construction coordination, detailed drawings, manufacturing, and site management. To minimize repetitive work, the Westminster project team aimed to use the same model from design through construction.
For example, in the staircase and elevator sections of the core tube, JE Dunn integrated SCI’s Tekla Structures steel model, Zimmerman’s Tekla and CAD building models (derived from SCI’s Tekla model), 2D CAD templates, and separate elevator drawings into a unified, clearer set of documents.
JE Dunn, SCI, MTech, Encore Electrical, and Frontier Fire utilized Tekla BIMSight for collaborative modeling, clash detection, and on-site verification. Andre Schlappe, an engineer at Martin and Martin Consulting, noted that early design-stage clash detection saves construction time and reduces rework. Moreover, collaboration across disciplines is enhanced through color coding and 3D models, shortening the design cycle.
Using a fully accurate 3D model throughout construction, JE Dunn’s measurement team linked the model to the site to layout building corners, pile foundations, and concrete column bases.
Initially, surveyors from Accurate EngiSurvey used the Trimble® DiNi® digital level (a high-precision electronic level) to collect vertical measurement data, transferring reference points to site control points. Then, the Trimble S6 total station was used to complete the layout of all horizontal points. Surveyors praised the system’s efficiency, reducing tasks from 30 minutes to just 2 minutes with high accuracy. The horizontal and vertical data formed the core network controlling the entire site.
After data processing from the total station and electronic level, the information was imported into Tianbao Business Center (TBC) software, which manages, synchronizes, tracks, and controls all site control points.
JE Dunn’s on-site BIM manager used the Tianbao TRS633 robotic total station and 360-degree MT1000 activated prism to calibrate control points and road edges. Then, pre-defined points from the BIM model were transferred to the Trimble Field Link Construction Layout software on a Tianbao tablet. The primary control point, with an accuracy of 3.2mm over distances exceeding 300 meters, was established along with measurement control points for pile foundations in collaboration with Accurate EngiSurvey.
With earthworks and electrical subcontractors involved, JE Dunn used control points and roadside boundaries to ensure precise grading, preventing future construction soil from encroaching on roads during temporary storage. Once pile foundations were poured into supporting templates, surveyors verified the anchor bolt positions using Tianbao’s robotic layout solution.
Surveyors also provided critical support for other site positioning tasks. For instance, JE Dunn’s surveyor located the lamp post centerline 0.9 meters away from the 3D model to allow for trenching and power pipeline installation.
Encore Power personnel recorded the precise location of the power pipe trench and uploaded this data to the owner’s construction collaboration model. This detailed information helps avoid conflicts with future nearby construction activities.
Brad Schenck, Vice President of JE Dunn, summarized: “The Tianbao Rocky Mountain Campus project gave us a unique opportunity to showcase, evaluate, and document the value of our collaboration, technology, and innovation. By establishing a forward-looking and widely accepted workflow, we bring more value to our clients. Perhaps the greatest benefit to the industry is that we have truly made significant progress in reducing materials, shortening processes, and saving labor.”
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