A movement to be part of: openBIM turning silos into connected, smart systems across the lifecycle.
Assets move at the speed of bytes now. They aren’t static. Planes move through airports. Bridges can fail. Trains run through cities. Even buildings adjust. None of these assets are frozen drawings or static files; they have a heartbeat; ; they live, change, and demand open data.
This is bigger than standards. It’s a movement, pulling together planes, trains, buildings, and systems into something smarter. If you’re an owner, a builder, or even an AI, you can be part of it. The data is here.
For owners, the driver is clear: Total Cost of Ownership. Not partial, not just handover, not one phase of the lifecycle, total. And total means total. The only way to get there is through open data that flows across design, construction, operations, and beyond. Without openness, “total” collapses back into silos and partial pictures.
Smarter, automated buildings and cities won’t happen through siloed tools. They need a common language that lets systems talk to each other, a foundation for BIM, digital twins and a system-of-systems. It’s innovation in its purest form: taking proven parts and connecting them in new ways that deliver real value. That’s the connective tissue between buildingSMART, smart cities, and building intelligence for both humans and machines.
Part 2: Reflections from Redlands
“Anybody who’s spooked out about AI is just a damn fool.”
Jack Dangermond of Esri
This is Part 2 of my reflections on the buildingSMART USA openBIM Workflows event. In Part 1, I traced the arc from early Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) experiments to today’s proofs that BIM standards can be validated at scale, showing how decades of work are finally delivering results.
This series is about more than reporting. My aim is to demonstrate where BIM, GIS, and digital twins are converging, and where the greatest opportunities for innovation lie. If you’re an owner, vendor, or practitioner, these posts are about spotting patterns and trajectories: where enforcement works, where integration is happening, and where breakthroughs are still needed.
From Hammers to Touchpoints: What I Heard at buildingSMART USA
This report focuses on what I heard at the buildingSMART USA openBIM Workflows event, held at Esri HQ — with BIM and GIS at the center, and signals pointing to a broader convergence.
If you read on, here’s what you’ll see:
- The toolbox is maturing: BIM standards, such as IFC and COBie, are proven, GIS integration is advancing, and adoption is no longer theoretical.
- Owners are raising the bar: The Department of State, Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), Caltrans, and others have demonstrated that validation and enforcement deliver real results at scale.
- Vendors are signaling alignment: Autodesk, Esri, and LeapThought can no longer avoid openBIM or the demand for synchronized data flows.
- Infrastructure proves urgency: Bridges, airports, and rail are already system-of-systems networks; buildings must learn the same lesson.
- The opportunity lies in live connections: Esri’s Zurich demonstration showed how dashboards can synchronize real-time feeds and BIMs have met GIS.
- The path ahead: Beyond BIM and GIS, touchpoints must extend to many other parts of the industry, connecting domains through a common language.
Each section here follows a rhythm:
🎥
A short caption of what they covered and a link to the presenter’s talk
A Café ZAi observation, my take on what it means for lifecycle, interoperability, and the future of smarter systems. These observations are part of an ongoing Café ZAi series, where I’ve been recording conversations (see Part 1) and now use the same lens to reflect on what I heard at this conference.
2.1 Why This Conference Mattered
In this industry, every camp has its hammer. For the BIM world, it’s IFC; every problem appears to be a file exchange issue. For the controls world, BIM isn’t even on the radar; context is all that matters, and IFC might as well be a foreign language. Vendors hold up “smart building” platforms as the solution, but too often the hammer is disguised as lock-in, presented as a single solution. And owners? They’re now asking why their AI is hallucinating when it should be helping them run facilities. The list is extensive: IFC, GIS, CAD, BAS, BMS, IWMS, CMMS, and even a simple CSV. Each domain sees the world through its own hammer, but none of them alone is enough.
The good news is the toolbox is no longer theoretical. It’s maturing, already in use, and expanding to many domains. BIM standards, such as IFC and COBie, are established. GIS integration is proven. BAS and BMS data are entering the conversation. AI is starting to take the lead. What I came to hear at buildingSMART USA was whether this toolbox is expanding even further — whether the wave of convergence I’ve watched for decades is finally cresting.
I’ve been a supporter of BIM standards for decades, COBie, NBIMS, IFC, and more. But what feels different now is convergence. The BIM standards are solid, owners are pressing harder, and other domains, GIS, BAS, asset management, and AI, are circling the same problems from different directions. This is the moment to connect the dots, and I wanted to hear whether that urgency was surfacing in the openBIM conversation.
The event was also shaped by the leadership of buildingSMART USA. Calvin Kam, chapter president, opened with a global and U.S. perspective, reminding us that standards are as much a leadership priority as a technical one. Many other members of the executive committee were also present in person or participating remotely. Their involvement underscored that the openBIM conversation is being driven not only by practitioners but also by executive leadership.
This gathering was hosted by buildingSMART USA, but it is part of a broader initiative. buildingSMART International now spans dozens of chapters worldwide, with active work in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and beyond. Calvin Kam’s opening slide, showing the global map of chapters, was a reminder that openBIM is not a U.S. initiative alone; it’s a worldwide collaboration, and the U.S. work sits within that larger framework.
🎥 0:07:28 Calvin Kam of SBI provided a global overview of buildingSMART’s 30 years and 28 chapters, emphasizing that IFC, COBie, and bsDD are enforceable standards that owners can demand.
2.2 Setting the Pulse: Workflows & Validation
From vision to enforcement: the opening block showed that standards only matter when they’re checked.
Esri and HDR framed the day with the convergence of BIM and GIS. buildingSMART followed with the global context, showing how decades of standards are now enforceable. Plannerly and AISC shifted the lens to practicality, focusing on requirements that are truly needed and calibrating details to the specific use case. HDR and MBI demonstrated IFC in bridge pilots, and WSDOT/HNTB showed how validation ensures deliverables are accurate. Together, the message was clear: progress comes not from bigger models, but from enforceable requirements and continuous checks.
“When you ask for everything, you don’t get what you need.”
Clive Jordan – Plannerly
🎥 0:00:00 Marc Goldman of Esri opened the day by highlighting the long-running partnership between buildingSMART and OGC, and the need to connect BIM and GIS for infrastructure at scale.
Watch a short Cafe ZAi Interview with Marc here.
Will Sharp of HDR sets the stage for the day.
🎥 0:30:15 Clive Jordan of Plannerly urged owners to move away from “everything at once” demands and define smaller, more manageable sets of information requirements. made the case that “when you ask for everything, you don’t get what you need. He drove home the point that 96% of building data goes unused, unless owners clearly define a smaller, enforceable scope.
🎥 0:44:49 Luke Faulkner of ASIC emphasized that levels of development must be calibrated to project phase and use case, not overloaded with unnecessary detail.
🎥 0:55:38 Grant Schmitz of HDR & Joe Brenner of MBI showed bridge pilots proving IFC datasets in projects.
🎥 1:23:16 Rick Brice of Washington DOT, and Scott Lecher of HNTB discuss BIM IFC Validation Service.
Café ZAi Observation: Enforcement is the Pulse
The heartbeat of a digital twin begins with enforceable requirements pulsing through every stage. Without validation, models drift into “Hollywood BIM”, glossy but hollow. With it, they become trusted steps toward living systems. buildingSMART defines this rigor as openBIM, anchored in IFC, COBie, bsDD, and IDS. I like the word “open” in openBIM, and I came with an eye for open everything. The same principles of openness can be extended to GIS, BAS, BMS, IWMS, CMMS, and even simple formats like CSV, ultimately encompassing applications such as digital twins. Some dislike or mistrust the term “digital twin,” or see it as competing with BIM, but for me, it’s just another application of openness: synchronized systems, not silos.
buildingSMART has proven that open standards for BIM can work. But openness by definition doesn’t stop there. The same principles that make openBIM valuable are what will let us connect across every other system. That’s the next step, and the opportunity to take “open” to a whole new level.
Acronyms in Play
For readers less familiar with BIM jargon, here are the key acronyms used throughout this report:
- BIM — Building Information Modeling: structured 3D models and data used to design, build, and operate facilities.
- GIS — Geographic Information Systems: mapping and spatial analysis tools for cities, infrastructure, and assets.
- BAS — Building Automation System: controls for HVAC, lighting, and other building systems.
- BMS — Building Management System: broader platform integrating multiple BAS functions for facility oversight.
- IWMS — Integrated Workplace Management System: software for real estate, space, and facilities management.
- CMMS — Computerized Maintenance Management System: systems to schedule and track maintenance and work orders.
- CSV — Comma-Separated Values: a simple, widely used text file format for exchanging tabular data.
- COBie — Construction-Operations Building Information Exchange: a standard for exchanging building handover data.
- NBIMS — National BIM Standard–US: the U.S. framework for BIM practices and data exchange.
- bsDD — buildingSMART Data Dictionary: an international reference dictionary for consistent terms.
- OGC — Open Geospatial Consortium: a global group setting standards for GIS and spatial data.
- IDS — Information Delivery Specification: a standard for checking whether BIM models meet requirements.
- LOD — Level of Development: a way of defining how much detail a BIM model element should contain.
2.3 Proof at Scale: Review and Deliver
Agencies proved that openBIM works at scale with fewer staff and more results.
Caltrans illustrated what it means to shift from analog delivery to BIM-enabled workflows inside one of the country’s largest DOTs. NIBS then shared the first public results from the State Department’s OBO program, hundreds of buildings validated with IFC and COBie at scale, all managed by a lean team with no site visits. Together, these examples made the strongest case yet that open standards deliver value when enforced by owners.
“We validated 396 buildings across 44 projects, averaging 15–20 per month, all with just 2.5 BIM managers and zero site visits.”
Jay Kline, Roger Grant – NIBS
🎥 1:54:34 Devin Porr & Lynn Hiel of Caltrans shared a transition from analog delivery to BIM-enabled workflows
🎥 1:54:34 Lynn Hiel of Caltrans discusses the Gartner Hype Cycle and where BIM currently stands on it.
🎥 2:16:58 Roger Grant & Jay Kline of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) demonstrated how openBIM is supported
🎥 2:16:58 NIBS discusses the OBO BIM checking tools created by ONUMA, along with NIBS. Jay Kline discusses OBO BIM Metrics and Impact on all projects. Watch a short Cafe ZAi Interview with Jay here.
NIBS presented results from the U.S. State Department’s Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO). Together, we validated 396 buildings across 44 projects, averaging 15–20 per month, all with just 2.5 BIM managers and zero site visits. This was the first time these numbers were shared publicly, and they demonstrate that openBIM standards (IFC, COBie) can scale globally when used tactically.
Café ZAi Observation: Trust by Enforcement
Caltrans and OBO proved that openBIM scales only through enforcement and validation. Owners don’t need more models; they need trusted data they can use for real lifecycle decisions.
2.4 Industry Updates: Sponsors
Autodesk, Esri, and LeapThought all Rally around openBIM
Autodesk outlined its roadmap, which includes IFC 4.3 in Civil 3D, BCF for issue tracking, and cloud data flows. Esri demonstrated GeoBIM, which embeds IFC models into GIS dashboards for city-scale analysis. LeapThought closed the sponsor set with compliance tooling, emphasizing enforceable requirements, audit trails, and transparency. Together, they underscored that even vendors recognize: openBIM is no longer optional.
Jack Shea outlined Autodesk’s interoperability roadmap, which includes IFC 4.3, BCF, and cloud workflows.
🎥 2:33:28 Marc Goldman of Esri shared data about OGC/IFC, GeoBIM integrations.
🎥 4:59:49 Jeffrey Avina of LeapThought showcased sponsor tools for enforcing requirements and tracking issues.
Café ZAi Observation: Sponsors Show Their Hand
Vendors are supporting buildingSMART and showing alignment. Now is the chance to prove it at scale. Roadmaps, integrations, and compliance tools all point toward interoperability; yet, many organizations still struggle with chaos and slow adoption. If you call it “openBIM” or “smart buildings,” then this is the moment to bump it up: from promises to feeds that actually run systems.
2.5 The Backbone of Adoption: Building the Scaffolding
Training, standards, and national frameworks facilitate adoption.
This block turned from tools to the scaffolding needed for adoption. Tony Rinella emphasized the importance of training and resources, reminding the audience that standards are useless without practitioners who can effectively apply them. John Messner then connected NBIMS with ISO 19650, showing how U.S. and international frameworks are converging. Will Sharp closed by stressing the importance of U.S. national standards to support infrastructure-scale projects, setting the stage for the transportation sessions that followed.
🎥 2:49:44 Tony Rinella of SBI and buildingSMART presented training and resources, stressing education as key to adoption.
🎥 2:57:30 John Messner of Penn State linked NBIMS to ISO 19650, highlighting convergence between U.S. and global standards. Watch a short Cafe ZAi Interview with John here.
🎥 3:14:02 Will Sharp of HDR called for U.S. national standards and positioned openBIM as essential for managing infrastructure at scale.
2.6 Networks Don’t Wait: openBIM Transportation
Bridges, airports, and railways necessitate interoperability.
Trisha Stefanski and Will Sharp showed pooled fund bridge pilots under AASHTO, where IFC 4.3 proved workable for roads and bridges. Cindy Baldwin extended the case to airports, emphasizing operational demands. Luke Faulkner returned with a building-sector lens, showing how structural steel ties into the same framework. Juan Serrano and Moses Scott demonstrated rail projects that required system-wide connectivity. Jeffrey Ouellette and Min Song closed with a technical perspective, surfacing schema implementation challenges as standards expand. The message was unmistakable: infrastructure domains are outpacing buildings because their networks demand it.
🎥 3:25:55 Roads & Bridges Trisha Stefanski – Minnesota DOT & Will Sharp -HDR
🎥 3:33:25 Cindy Baldwin of VDCO Tech shared airport examples, demonstrating how openBIM supports complex facilities with operational requirements.
🎥 3:44:55 Luke Faulkner of ASIC demonstrated structural steel’s role in the openBIM framework.
🎥 3:55:55 Juan Serrano of Arup & Moses Scott of Woolpert showed rail pilots using IFC 4.3
🎥 3:59:35 Jeffrey Ouellette of jo consulting & Min Song provided a technical view, highlighting schema implementation and extension challenges.
Café ZAi Observation: Urgency Across Domains
Bridges, airports, and railways can’t survive in silos; their systems are connected end to end. That urgency is pushing transportation further and faster than buildings. The same expectation is now coming to facilities: connectivity is no longer optional.
2.7 Pilots to Payoffs: openBIM in Action
Pilots, dictionaries, and business cases: data made usable.
Grant Schmitz and Hanjin Hu presented ADCMS bridge pilots, treating IFC 4.3 as a contractual deliverable and testing it with contractors. Aaron Costin introduced the U.S. Data Dictionary, which tackles ambiguity to ensure terms are validated consistently across systems. Calvin Kam and Tony Rinella closed by making the business case: owners don’t buy models, they buy outcomes, reduced change orders, faster onboarding, and reliable flows into operations.
🎥 4:10:35 Grant Schmitz of HDR presented IFC 4.3 bridge pilots, testing legal deliverables and contractor use.
🎥 4:10:35 Hanjin Hu of MBI presented IFC 4.3 bridge pilots, testing legal deliverables and contractor use.
🎥 4:47:09 Aaron Costin of the University of FloridaUFL introduced the U.S. Data Dictionary, clarifying terms for consistent validation.
🎥 5:07:55 Calvin Kam & Tony Rinella of SBI made the business case: owners pay for outcomes, enforced through validation and ROI.
Café ZAi Observation: From Data to Decisions
Pilots proved standards in practice, a dictionary reduced ambiguity, and business cases tied it all to outcomes. The shift is clear: owners don’t want more files; they want decisions they can trust, and that trust depends on connecting BIM data into the wider lifecycle.
2.8 From Policy to Pulse: NEXT STEPS
Stack updates and calls to action: fewer requirements, proven in the open.
Min Song shared updates on the openBIM technology stack, including steady growth of bsDD, more apps integrating, and a preview of IFC5, which has been modernized with JSON and is aimed at transactions rather than just file exchanges. Calvin Kam and Will Sharp then shifted to a call to action. Owners, they argued, must specify fewer enforceable requirements; practitioners should publish pilots that prove outcomes; and vendors need to align in shared sandboxes.
🎥 5:32:25 Min Song of SBI shared openBIM technology stack updates on bsDD growth and previewed IFC5 with JSON for cloud transactions.
Update on IFC5 – buildingSMART International dedicated half a day to IFC5 alpha implementations. Vendors, including Solibri, Autodesk, Trimble, and the Open Design Alliance, showed proof-of-concept work, with example files published on GitHub by ACCA, Trimble, On-Track BIM, SierraSoft, and PORR Romania. While these efforts are still in the alpha stage, the lessons learned will be directly incorporated into the next beta release. I’m looking forward to hearing more details and to seeing how IFC5 evolves into a truly modern, API-friendly standard.
🎥 5:41:15 Calvin Kam of SBI & Will Sharp of HDR called on owners, practitioners, and vendors alike: specify less, enforce more, prove it through pilots and shared sandboxes.
Café ZAi Observation— Aligning Through Sandboxes
The message was simple: fewer, clearer requirements, enforced consistently, and proven in practice. IFC5 is still in its early stages, but its trajectory is promising, with a lighter approach, more transactional capabilities, and closer to real-time integration.
This is an area I’ve been tracking for nearly 20 years in my own work on cloud BIM and digital twins. Back then, the vision was always about transactions and live connections, not just files. IFC5 points in that direction, but the real test will be moving beyond roadmaps to working sandboxes where these capabilities can be exercised, refined, and trusted.
I’ll be reporting more on this in my next post, because IFC5 isn’t just another update, it’s the pivot from static handoffs to dynamic flows, and it could finally align BIM with the needs of digital twins.
2.9 Zurich GIS Demo, Navigating GIS and BIM
City-scale showcase: convergence visible
The day concluded with a city-scale demo from Esri of Zurich that integrated BIM, GIS, utilities, flood analysis, ServiceNow, and even tree-root simulations into a single dashboard. It was an impressive display of convergence, demonstrating how different domains can be integrated for insight at scale. But it also revealed the limit. BIM remained file-based: attributes could be edited in GIS, but geometry updates still required remodeling and re-importing.
Esri’s Zurich demo showed what becomes possible when BIM and GIS converge.
Café ZAi Observation: BIM and GIS Synchronization
Zurich’s dashboard displayed live feeds, including utilities, floods, and even tree roots, all streamed in real-time. The opportunity is clear: extend that same live capability to buildings.
“IFC, COBie, and bsDD are enforceable standards that owners can demand.”
Calvin Kam – SBI and buildingSMART USA
2.10 Closing: From Exchange to Execution: Making openBIM Data Live
Assets don’t live in files. A bridge doesn’t wait for a quarterly update. A plane doesn’t pause until a new model is exchanged. Buildings aren’t static drawings, they shift, breathe, and change every day.
File exchanges have been the backbone of collaboration, and buildingSMART’s standards have made them open, enforceable, and trusted. That foundation is essential. But it’s not enough on its own. The next step is to operationalize that openBIM data, to make it flow continuously, synchronizing across systems so assets can be trusted and resilient in an openBIM way.
OpenBIM means open everything. Not just models, but data that crosses domains and keeps assets alive. We already know how to design and build aiports, transportation systems, buildings, and bridges. The challenge now is different: make the data accessible, connected, and flowing. That’s the work ahead, and opportunity.
Eight Challenges
If all the tools are on the shelves, the next step is simple: pick them up and use them.
- Validate deliverables and treat data as an asset.
- Break free from proprietary traps.
- Open up data so it can flow.
- Guide owners with proactive expertise.
- Prepare AI with clean, trusted data.
- Share best practices, successes, and failures.
- Deliver value in agile cycles, not Hollywood BIM.
Collaborate across domains — because openBIM means open everything.
Photo: buildingSMART USA
This is Part 2 of a four-part series from buildingSMART USA’s openBIM Workflows at ESRI HQ. Here’s what’s coming next:
- Part 1 – Everything BiM-Everywhere GiS-All Together DigitalTwins-All at Once Ai
- Synchronizing the chaos into a system of systems
- Part 2 – Planes, Trains, Buildings & Synchronized Assets
- Voices from the stage: OBO, Plannerly, Autodesk, ESRI, DOTs, and more. What worked, what didn’t, why validation matters, and how to openBIM.
- Part 3 – Unsafe by Design for Operations
- The inherent dangers of siloed building data, and why open source is the solution.
- Part 4 – From Sandboxes to Action and Ai
Media Sponsors at the buildingSMART USA openBIM Workflows: AutomatedBuildings and Café Zai.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to all the presenters at buildingSMART USA’s openBIM Workflows sessions, hosted at Esri HQ in August 2025.
I’d like to thank buildingSMART USA for inviting AutomatedBuildings and Café Zai to be media sponsors. It was an honor to support the event and help extend these conversations to a broader community of systems, controls, and digital twin professionals.
Slide content by presenters
Photos, unless otherwise noted, are by: Kimon Onuma
Slides and materials are provided by each presenter.
Cover Image by SORA
