Building Data Centers Before We Build Them: How BIM Creates Speed, Safety and Certainty

Data center construction leaves little room for uncertainty. These projects bring together dense MEP systems, structural requirements, sophisticated equipment, aggressive schedules and multiple trades working within tightly coordinated spaces. At Klover, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and prefabrication help bring those moving pieces together earlier, allowing potential conflicts to be identified before they reach fabrication or the field.

For Klover, BIM is much more than creating a 3D model of a data center. It is a collaborative construction process that connects architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and framing information within a coordinated digital environment. Our BIM team works alongside general contractors, engineers, designers, MEP contractors, project managers, our prefabrication shop and field teams to understand how those systems interact and translate complex designs into constructable, fabrication-ready solutions.

That coordination becomes particularly important in mission-critical construction. Data centers contain an extraordinary amount of infrastructure competing for space, and even a small change can affect several systems downstream. Ductwork, conduit, cable pathways, structural steel, wall framing, equipment openings and fire-rated assemblies all need to coexist while maintaining the tolerances and performance requirements of the building. BIM gives Klover and the other trades an opportunity to work through those relationships before materials are fabricated and installation begins.

Connecting BIM, Prefabrication and Data Center Construction

The real power of BIM at Klover comes from connecting the digital model directly to prefabrication. We are not simply modeling a data center to visualize what it will eventually look like. We are using building information to determine how components can actually be manufactured, transported and installed.

Klover’s BIM team takes architectural, structural, engineering and MEP information and develops coordinated models that ultimately become detailed fabrication drawings for our prefabrication shop. Individual studs, structural components, openings, connections and penetrations can be considered before a panel reaches production.

Senior BIM Designer Dan Chomkowski describes the process as essentially building in a “perfect world.” Inside the digital model, our team can see the entire structure without physical walls, floors or equipment obstructing the view. We can understand how framing aligns from one level to another, where critical building systems intersect with our scope and how individual assemblies connect to the larger data center.

This allows Klover to move critical decision-making upstream, where changes can be evaluated digitally instead of being discovered after crews and materials are already in the field.

Coordination Matters When Every Inch Matters

In data center construction, inches matter.

Klover Design Specialist Sierra Loveless uses that idea to explain how seemingly minor adjustments can create a chain reaction. If another trade moves a duct or penetration by half an inch, an opening may also need to move. That change can affect the stud layout, structural requirements, fabrication drawings and ultimately the panel itself.

Multiply those decisions across a large mission-critical facility and the value of detailed BIM coordination becomes clear.

Through BIM and clash detection, Klover can collaborate with mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural and other project teams to identify conflicts while they are still digital. The objective is not simply to protect Klover’s framing scope. It is to find constructable solutions that respect the requirements of every trade and help the entire data center project move forward.

That approach is particularly valuable on fast-track projects where waiting until field installation to resolve coordination problems can have significant schedule consequences.

Designing for Fabrication, Logistics and Installation

A successful data center prefabrication strategy has to account for much more than the final location of a wall.

Every prefabricated assembly must move through a physical construction process. It has to be manufactured efficiently in Klover’s shop, loaded for transportation, delivered to the project, lifted into position and installed safely and efficiently.

BIM allows those considerations to influence design earlier.

Panel dimensions can be evaluated against transportation limitations. Panel weights and sizes can be considered alongside crane capacity and lifting strategies. Truck loads can be optimized, and installation sequencing can influence how assemblies are broken down for fabrication.

This integration of BIM, Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), and prefabrication helps turn logistics into part of the construction strategy rather than an issue that has to be solved after fabrication.

For data center owners and general contractors working against aggressive schedules, that can mean fewer surprises between design and installation.

BIM as the Connection Between the Trades

The technology behind BIM is important, but Klover’s approach ultimately depends on collaboration.

Dan describes the BIM team as the “glue” connecting architecture, engineering, project management, prefabrication, field installation and the other trades. On a data center project, where numerous specialized contractors may be working simultaneously toward critical milestones, that connection becomes even more valuable.

Klover’s designers communicate directly with our prefabrication shop to make sure details can actually be manufactured. They work with field teams to understand installation conditions and incorporate field information when necessary. They coordinate with engineers to satisfy structural requirements and collaborate with MEP and other trade partners when multiple systems need the same space.

Technology including Revit, Navisworks, Revizto and StructSoft helps facilitate that process, but software alone does not create constructability. The value comes from combining digital coordination with Klover’s experience designing, fabricating and installing complex building systems.

Accelerating Mission-Critical Construction

Data center schedules are measured against demanding milestones, which makes schedule acceleration about much more than adding labor.

Real acceleration begins by removing uncertainty.

A clash discovered in a BIM coordination meeting can potentially be resolved before fabrication begins. A conflict discovered after a prefabricated assembly arrives onsite can affect crews, equipment, sequencing and other trades.

That difference is why BIM and prefabrication are such natural partners for mission-critical construction.

Klover’s experience demonstrates what that approach can accomplish. On one major data center cold-formed metal framing scope, Klover’s prefabrication strategy contributed to approximately 177 days of schedule acceleration, demonstrating the potential impact of moving coordination and construction activity away from traditional sequential field methods.

The objective is not simply to build faster. It is to create a more predictable path to the milestone.

Creating Speed, Safety and Certainty for Data Centers

BIM also supports a more controlled approach to construction. By resolving more decisions before installation and moving appropriate work into Klover’s prefabrication environment, project teams can reduce the amount of cutting, measuring, material handling and assembly that must occur in active field conditions.

That planning supports safety while simultaneously improving productivity and consistency.

Most importantly, BIM helps create something increasingly valuable in the data center market: certainty.

Certainty that building systems have been coordinated. Certainty that assemblies have been evaluated for fabrication and installation. Certainty that logistics have been considered before panels arrive onsite. Certainty that the project team is identifying challenges as early as possible instead of reacting to them later.

For Klover, BIM and prefabrication are not separate capabilities. They are part of an integrated approach to mission-critical construction that connects people, technology, manufacturing and field expertise.

As demand for data center capacity continues to increase across the Mid-Atlantic, that integration will become even more important. Projects will need to move faster without sacrificing quality, safety or constructability, and the contractors that succeed will be the ones capable of solving complex problems before they reach the field.

At Klover, we are helping do exactly that by building data centers virtually, coordinating them collaboratively, prefabricating them intelligently and installing them with greater certainty.