ager who just manages how
to start off a project, how to
police a project, and makes
sure everyone follows the
right rules. We did the same
thing 10-15 years ago with
AutoCAD. “From WZMH’s
standpoint, there is a big, big
learning curve. In fact, after
completing several projects,
we sat down last year as a
group and discussed lessons
learned on different BIM proj-
ects. We often take retrospec-
tive looks at methodology for
doing work as well as what
lessons we learned during the
course of a project… I think
that [the industry] is going to
be changing quickly over the
next 5 years.”
In recent years, the firm has
successfully incorporated sus-
tainable principles into the
majority of its projects, and
is currently involved in the
LEED (Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design)
certification of over five mil-
lion square feet of built space
and has received numerous
domestic and international
LEED awards.
“One thing that our firm is re-
ally pushing right now is sus-
tainability. All of our build-
ings start out with that as a
base. Another thing we’ve
been doing lately is the re-use
of existing buildings,” said
Nicola. Richard added, “Typi-
cally, we get a LEED consul-
tant on board early on in the
project, and they help guide
us through the process. As
Nicola was saying, for some
of these projects we re-use
existing buildings. When you
can take a building that is old,
inefficient, or contaminated,
and turn it around into a LEED
Platinum office environment,
it is very gratifying, not only
for us but also especially for
the owners of the property.
JANUARY 2014
H
business elite canada
57