New Autodesk Revit BIM Experience Award to Recognize Firms that Achieve Competitive Advantage with Autodesk Revit Platform

LAS VEGAS, Autodesk University, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced that CO Architects has received the first Autodesk Revit BIM Experience Award. This new award honors firms for their innovation and excellence in implementing the Autodesk Revit platform for building information modeling (BIM) to create quality, complex designs and collaborate across the building design disciplines.

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CO Architects, a nationally recognized expert in academic, research, healthcare planning and design, is based in Los Angeles. The firm is known for its collaborative approach to determining the strategic needs of each project and the company strives to leverage the latest technology and take advantage of the most current trends to design graceful buildings that fulfill technical and functional expectations. Early on, the firm realized that BIM was the direction the industry was headed. CO chose the Autodesk Revit platform for BIM because they felt it was the most established and reliable solution on the market and because of its ability to continually integrate the various project stakeholders. CVIS, the local Autodesk reseller and Autodesk Consulting, Autodesk's professional services group, provided training and implementation services to facilitate CO Architects move to BIM.

"The ability to refine our workflow and process by using leading edge technology is our competitive advantage, so implementing BIM in our projects was the obvious choice," said Anthony Moretti, AIA, principal at CO Architects. "We made the investment in the Revit platform because we wanted to work with the technology of the future. With Revit, we've been able to reduce and automate the monotonous tasks of our workflow process and focus on the actual design."

CO Architects used Autodesk Revit Building and Autodesk Revit Structure applications to design the Palomar Medical Center West, a new, 725,000 sq. ft. hospital in Escondido, Calif., currently in the construction documents phase. Because the building's green roof has an irregular shape, the designers needed to work closely with structural engineers on difficult intersections. The Revit platform enabled the two firms to work together to determine the best detailing and resolution for the design. In addition, by using the 3D modeling capabilities in the Revit platform, CO Architects is able to collaborate with the mechanical engineer and identify areas of improvement such as collision detection. CO Architects is also using Revit Building and Revit Structure to design medical education buildings at the University of Virginia and Texas Tech University, and the complete Revit platform including Autodesk Revit Systems to design an experimental sciences building at the University of Texas.

"BIM is about not only better design and coordination, but also better business. We are pleased to honor CO Architects -- a firm that demonstrates how BIM is transforming the present and future of the building industry -- with the first Revit BIM Experience Award," said Jay Bhatt, vice president, Autodesk Building Solutions. "Autodesk is committed to recognizing the firms that are pushing the limits of BIM and serving as examples for their peers, and we applaud CO Architects for their vision and innovation."

About the Revit BIM Experience Award

Each month, Autodesk will honor one firm with an award for its innovation and excellence in implementing the Autodesk Revit BIM platform (Revit Building, Revit Structure, Revit Systems, or any of the Revit Series products) on one or more projects. The Revit BIM Experience Award celebrates building industry professionals and educators around the world who are helping to drive transformation of the building industry through building information modeling. Each month, Autodesk will honor an organization for its innovation, leadership and excellence in implementing the Autodesk Revit platform for BIM.

Winners will be selected for a range of accomplishments, including:

• Degree of Experience with BIM Projects
• Level of Integrated Practice -- file-sharing with multiple disciplines; informed early design decision-making, analysis, fabrication, or 4D construction phasing
• Value Delivered to Client -- complexity of building design realized; budget and time savings; improved building performance
• Business Practice Transformation -- creating new business models; establishing best practices; driving industry change
• Innovative Use in an Educational Program
• Autodesk is establishing the Revit BIM Experience Award Program to encourage integrated practice within the building industry, where projects are optimized for client outcomes and information flows freely among fully collaborative, highly productive teams.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is a Fortune 1000 company, wholly focused on ensuring that great ideas are turned into reality. With seven million users, Autodesk is the world's leading 2D and 3D software company for the manufacturing, building, infrastructure, wireless data services and media and entertainment fields. Autodesk's solutions help customers create, manage and share their data and digital assets more effectively. As a result, customers turn ideas into competitive advantage by becoming more productive, streamlining project efficiency and maximizing profits.

Founded in 1982, Autodesk is headquartered in San Rafael, California. For additional information about Autodesk, please visit www.autodesk.com.

NOTE: Autodesk and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

Contact: Elizabeth Bennett, 503-471-6831
Email: elizabeth.bennett@edelman.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc. 11/29/2006


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