Building Design and Drafting for Californian Architectural Firm to Accelerate Wildfire Recovery
About the Client – Californian Architectural Firm
Established in 1983 and located in Manhattan Beach, California, the client is an award winning, registered architectural and interior design firm with a varied portfolio that has earned them national recognition. Their focus on aligning classic design theory and environmental psychology with the needs of their clients produces highly unique, rich environments whose beauty reflects the natural, carefree style of the West Coast.
Project Requirements – Building Design and Drafting
Deeply committed to restoring California’s architectural landscape following the devastating Southern California wildfires in December 2019, the client wanted to draft new building designs while remaining in compliance with legal guidelines. They required a CAD service provider to partner with them on an ambitious ongoing recovery project and help them produce 3 site plan drawings and 1 site section drawing based on provided surveys.
After researching and interviewing an extensive list of prospective partners, the client discovered IndiaCADworks (ICW) and decided to contract our services due to the following:
- Commitment to working alongside the client to restore the original aesthetic of the destroyed buildings through innovative use of CAD tools and software.
- Ability to meet the requested deadline of 3 projects completed in a month, and guarantee ongoing communication with the client throughout the duration.
- Proven experience creating CAD drawings and draftings for both commercial and residential sites.
Challenges Faced by IndiaCADworks’ Engineering Team
ICW came up against some specific challenges over the course of this new building design drafting project:
- A high-level of coordination was required between ICW and the client’s teams, which was an initial challenge.
- As the restoration nature of the assignment called for the new buildings to mirror the appearance of those destroyed in the fire, the level of detail was difficult to replicate without extensive research.
ICW’s Approach to This Building Design Project
The challenges were addressed head-on, and a productive workflow was implemented as the result of ICW’s custom approach to the design drafting for the 3 site plan drawings and 1 site section drawing:
- Two experienced ICW CAD drafters were assigned to work exclusively on this project.
- The client delivered images, details, and drawings of the building conditions before the fires so that ICW could accurately replicate this during drafting, along with Google maps of the site location.
- Based on the client’s instructions and the markups on what changes were necessary, ICW’s engineers began creating the preliminary designs for the buildings.
- The scale of the survey was 1/16” = 1’-0,” rather than 1:10 as described in the drawings.
- Drawing 1 required a CAD drawing of the survey, with a 1/16” scale described per the site plan, and a sheet size of 48” x 36.”
- Drawing 2 required a CAD drawing of the survey, with a 3/64” scale described per the site plan, and a sheet size of 24” x 36.”
- Drawing 3 required a creation of a section through the site, with cut line shown, a 3/64” scale, and a sheet size of 24” x 36.”
- Drawing 4 required a footprint of a house in compliance with the tax assessor’s plan, photos, and aerial images to help approximate the footprint at 1/16” scale.
- Details were added to the designs based on the original conditions and ICW’s own research.
- Following a Quality Control (QC) check from a Senior Engineer, ICW submitted the first drafts.
- Minor change requests were promptly addressed, and another QC check was performed before formatting the final CAD files and PDFs were delivered to the client.
Software Used During the Course of the Services
- AutoCAD
IndiaCADworks’ Assistance Made the Client Handle Larger Project Volume
This drafting project to restore building lost in the California wildfires was completed successfully, with the following key takeaways:
- The client was able to increase their project volume at a cost savings of 25% due to working with ICW’s capable team, and restore the damaged buildings faster than expected.
- ICW continues to provide support for the client as a full-time CAD service provider partner across all of their drafting projects, and is pleased to work alongside them to help restore Southern California’s architectural landscape.
