Overcoming the BLUes of construction documentation

When building an eight-story, 285-unit luxury apartment complex in Florida, USA, developers had to pay careful attention to ensure construction progress was kept on schedule and on budget. To precisely track the progress of Miami’s BLU at North Bay Village project, the developer, ZOM, turned to the construction documentation expertise ofMultivista.

Zom成立于1977年，实际上是从佛罗里达州领先的开发商开始的。尽管其首次房地产投资活动是广泛的，但ZOM最终专门从事奥兰多​​及其周边地区的多户开发项目。如今，该公司已成为美国最受尊敬的多户开发人员之一。

Jointly and directly responsible for developing more than 16,500 apartments, ZOM is meticulous in terms of deliverables and quality assurance on every project. While architects are mandated to provide regular reports and photos detailing construction progress, ZOM wanted a more efficient and comprehensive method of tracking its projects as they were built. According to Brett Gelsomino, Development Project Manager at ZOM, “Before Multivista, the process of tracking the progression of our construction was much more manual. Aside from the regular architect reports, a ZOM employee or the contractor would snap pictures randomly or as needed. Although these were useful, we had to dig through phones or cameras to find shots, time stamp images, upload, and organise. It just took more time away from other important tasks.”

Once introduced to photo documentation services, ZOM was hooked. Providing these services from start to finish, Multivista documents, visually tracks, organises, and communicates the progression of construction projects through an easy-to-use and highly efficient online platform. “When a Multivista photographer comes on-site to take pictures, we are getting hundreds of shots. That was incredibly difficult for us to do on our visits of yesteryear. We were really only taking specific shots, so it wasn’t nearly as thorough as compared to the amount of information and pictures we now have access to in the Multivista platform,” explains Gelsomino.

改善质量控制和获取信息

Zom已经熟悉专业照片文档的重要性，再次重新列入了Multivista，以在北湾村建造Blu。对于此公寓开发，ZOM选择了以下拍摄类型：

• Interior and exterior progressions
• 机械，电气和管道（MEP）精确构建®
• Window Installations Exact-Built®

Gelsomino说：“使用Multivista对我们来说，主要的优势实际上是维持最高水平的质量控制和验证。”“ Blu的施工一直很好，但是如果我们确实遇到任何事情，那么有图片可以看到事情是如何组装的，或者在墙壁后面发生了什么，而没有与拆散事物相关的重大延误或费用。”

ZOM使用MEP照片积极地识别和协调管道和机械细节。Gelsomino还远程访问了外部和内部进度照片，从而为他节省了对工作现场的无数访问。Gelsomino不必每次需要对细节进行引用时就在现场上进行物理上的时间，而只是登录了多维斯塔平台，在该平台上，在鼠标的单击时，所有信息都可以轻松访问。

“Multivista has definitely made my job easier, especially when it comes to photographic reporting. I get such a variety of images and angles that I can share with stakeholders, whether it’s interior or exterior photos, micro or macro level details; it’s all there in the platform - dated, organised, and easy to find.”

The advantage of remaining informed between site visits extended to ZOM’s capital partners as well. “Multivista has been really helpful in keeping our capital partners informed about the progress of construction from far away,” explained Gelsomino. “We always keep them plugged into the development, but a picture is worth a thousand words; and in this case, a hundred pictures are worth far more words.”

Keeping everyone on same page

Working with the construction documentation team has been seamless for ZOM. Multivista worked with the general contractor to schedule shoots and the photos are uploaded to the project site after each site visit. An unlimited number of users assigned to the project logged into the Multivista platform to pull up the pictures indexed directly to the CAD drawings, highlighted details, browsed thumbnails, added comments, and created favourite folders.

“My favourite feature in the Multivista platform is being able to select a few pictures and generate a report with date and time stamps, location markers, and all associated information,” explained Gelsomino. “Either it can show the evolution of one detail over time, or it can show specifics in an area at a certain time, and then I can print it or email it to anyone involved in the project.” Architects, general contractors, third-party inspectors, and other stakeholders were given access to the BLU project site and found the system beneficial. For ZOM, the streamlined flow of information between all parties is another key benefit of construction documentation services.

“Again, Multivista saves us time in terms of sharing information, but it also saves us money with being able to avoid conflicts and refute change orders. Generally speaking, the verification of change orders has become much more streamlined. Minor disputes that do arise are much more black and white, and it is easier to get everyone on the same page if we can prove conditions with photos,” added Gelsomino.

Future benefits and long term projects

In the 17 months that Multivista captured the BLU site, a total of 19,625 images were taken and attached to the project plans. In addition, Gelsomino and the ZOM team used the Multivista App to snap their own pictures on site and directly upload and index them to the architectural drawings; access their project floor plans and photos from the field; and view their hi-resolution, live streaming webcams from anywhere at any time. This direct access from the field is yet another time-saving asset.

在一份总结声明中，Gelsomino解释了为什么Zom继续在Multivista上投资于Blu以来的另外11个多户家庭开发项目。“对于ZOM来说，多维斯塔服务和平台有很多价值，我们可能会继续将其用于所有基础发展。简而言之，我宁愿拥有它，而不需要它不需要它而不需要它。这是一个很好的工具和资源，可以记录和存档施工进度的所有阶段，并且该文档在项目完成后很长时间仍在存档。”