CHARLOTTE, N.C. & SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Aug 19, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Little Diversified Architectural Consulting (Little), one of the nation's largest diversified architectural consulting firms, has differentiated its practice by developing a multidisciplinary approach to design that is made possible by the firm's innovative use of building industry solutions developed by Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK). Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with offices across the United States, Little has expanded its core design services to include sustainable or "green" design analyses, facility management strategies, and virtual environment and graphic design services for workplace, retail, and community clients. To successfully deliver such a broad range of services, Little adopted the Autodesk(R) Revit(R) building information modeling platform after evaluating competitive software solutions. In an innovative current project for the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Little has used this Autodesk strategy to address clients' strategic building lifecycle issues while completing construction documentation more quickly and accurately.

"Autodesk Revit provides us with a competitive advantage," said Phil Kuttner, chief executive officer of Little. "We can address design decisions and revisions more fully and more quickly than we have ever been able to before. Not only can we offer our clients greater speed-to-market and fewer change orders, we can also deliver daylighting, visualization, facility management, and other services to differentiate ourselves from other architects."

Little has received multiple awards from organizations like the International Interior Design Association and the American Institute of Architects, as well as industry publications like Chain Store Age magazine and Retail Traffic (formerly Shopping Center World magazine). The firm has been ranked 6th in the Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine's 2002 Top 50 Retail Design Firms list.

University of South Carolina Living / Learning Center

Currently under construction, the new Living/Learning Center at the University of South Carolina in Columbia is the first green design project of its kind in the state. The complex offers housing for 500 students, a multi-purpose assembly space, classrooms, and offices. Incorporating state-of-the-art sustainable design strategies, the Learning Center is a freestanding "earth coupled" building featuring a turf roof that helps to absorb rain water and becomes part of the "quad." Little won the project as design architect along with a Columbia-based firm, The Boudreaux Group, on the basis of its promise to effectively use technology to deliver a sustainable design within budget and on schedule.

Throughout the project, Little used Revit software to help the client make more informed design decisions. During planning, the firm combined Revit and AutoCAD(R) software to select the best site and orientation to maximize solar access for balanced natural lighting and energy conservation. The Autodesk building information modeling platform also proved useful in calculating points for the building's LEED(TM) (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating from the US Green Building Council. Along with sustainability analyses, Little turned to the Revit application for generating quick 3D visualizations, which helped to speed the design approval process. This capability facilitated consensus since the client could more easily understand design concepts and the architect could rapidly incorporate project stakeholders' suggested design changes.

"In the past, we had to send a project like this out to a laboratory for daylighting analyses," said Chris France, chief information officer of Little. "Now we can perform them in-house. The biggest advantage with Revit is that it mainstreams the technology, so our core designers can do the work themselves."

In the future, Little plans to use the Revit building information modeling platform to assist clients with ongoing facility management, connecting the Revit database to clients' financial databases.

"We're always looking for new ways to multipurpose a model, helping our clients use it to track assets, or plan for future modifications," said France. "We are excited when we can do something for a client beyond the standard architectural process. This is the sort of thing Revit software is perfect for."

About Little Diversified Architectural Consulting

Little Diversified Architectural Consulting (formerly Little & Associates Architects), headquartered in Charlotte, NC, has offices in Dallas, TX; Detroit, MI; Irvine, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Orlando, FL; Research Triangle Park, NC and Washington D.C. The firm specializes in Office, Interiors, Facilities Management, Financial, Civic, College & University, School and Retail industries, and delivers results beyond architecture through a complete array of diversified architectural consulting services such as: Architecture, Engineering, Interior Architecture, Land Development Services, Graphic Design, FM Strategies (Facilities Planning and Space Management Consulting), Building Technology Applications and Skyscraper Digital services (Computer Animation and Internet Application services).

About Autodesk

Autodesk is the world's leading design software and digital content company, offering customers progressive business solutions through powerful technology products and services. Autodesk helps customers in the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields increase the value of their digital design data and improve efficiencies across their entire project lifecycle management processes. For more information about the company, see http://www.autodesk.com. For more information on building information modeling and Autodesk's building design solutions, see http://www.autodesk.com/buildinginformation .

Autodesk, AutoCAD, and Revit are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.(C) 2003 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE: Autodesk, Inc.

Autodesk, Inc.
Carol Lettieri, 415-507-6908
carol.lettieri@autodesk.com

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