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Completed in August 2011, the Ladue Early Childhood Education Center provides a stimulating environment for the education and development of the young children of Ladue, Missouri, and the surrounding communities within the Ladue School District. The 50,000-square-foot building features engaging play areas, a teaching kitchen, colourful classrooms, and parents-as-teachers workspaces. Replacing a facility constructed in 1936, the building better supports the space needs of the school's dedicated teachers - and helps children gain a solid foundation for a lifetime of intellectual, social and physical development.

Eager to begin using the much-needed facility as soon as possible, the Ladue School District chose to design and build the school as a fast-track project. The district tapped US based Bond Architects to design the building and S. M. Wilson & Co., a general contractor and construction services company, to help manage the project. Larson Engineering and BRIC Partnership provided engineering services.

Knowing that this was going to be a complex project to pull off, the team turned to a suite of Autodesk BIM solutions to get the job done. The team used Revit and Navisworks Manage software, which helped it connect and collaborate. "BIM allowed us to work from intelligent models and gave the big picture of the project from the beginning," says Mary Beth Oberlin, the project architect for Bond Wolfe. "We stayed ahead of the planning, coordination, and constructability issues that can throw accelerated project schedules off track."

THE CHALLENGE
The site selected for the Ladue Early Childhood Education Center presented a pressing design and construction challenge: It was occupied by a school that would be operating during most of the construction process. The plan was to build next to the existing school, which served students in grades 7 through 12 (elementary or junior school), and then demolish a portion of it after completion of the new children's center, with one wing to be renovated later in the project.

"We had to design a building that could be constructed without interfering with the existing school," says Susan Pruchnicki, a principal with Bond Wolfe. "At the same time, we did not want to compromise the new building's design due to a temporary site condition."

"The existing building would be as close as 14 feet to the new one," says Dan Behler, a project manager with S. M. Wilson. "We wanted to really understand the construction sequence so we could minimise any impact on the current tenant. From a logistics perspective, staging the site was challenging. An operating school is more than just buildings. Students and faculty fill the parking lot every day. You have to account for the usual fire truck access requirements associated with any construction site, plus the requirements of an operating school."

THE SOLUTION
From the beginning, the architects at Bond Wolfe relied on Revit to support their BIM process. They developed a preliminary site model in Revit Architecture, exploring basic building concepts that worked for the site. A 2-storey building soon emerged as a leading option, although 1-storey buildings are more typical for schools that are intended for young children.

"We began sharing our initial models with our client contacts," explains Oberlin. "They liked the idea of students using stairs to move between floors because it can help promote physical development. The model showed that a 2-story concept could work with the site and provide the good sightlines teachers want when supervising young children. Working from a model helps us and the client understand how to get the most out of the space available during and after construction."

CONTROLLING COSTS
Working closely with the architects, the team from S. M. Wilson helped make sure design decisions took costs into consideration. Bond Wolfe shared models of different design options developed in Autodesk Revit Architecture, and S. M. Wilson then did material takeoffs and analysed the cost implications.

"The automated material tracking capabilities within Revit Architecture made it easier to account for costs," explains Corey Bell, BIM implementation manager for S. M. Wilson. "Within a couple of days of getting the models, we had better insight into material and construction costs for every option. Doing cost analysis using the more traditional manual method simply isn't as fast or precise."

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