Building It Before We Build It: How BIM Is Creating Speed, Safety and Certainty at Klover
Construction has always been about solving problems, but the best time to solve a problem is before materials arrive, crews mobilize and installation begins. That idea is at the heart of how Klover approaches Building Information Modeling (BIM). By bringing together design, engineering, prefabrication, project management and field expertise in a coordinated digital environment, Klover is using BIM to make increasingly complex construction projects more predictable.
BIM is often described simply as 3D modeling, but that definition misses much of its value. For Klover, BIM is a collaborative construction process that allows the team to understand how architectural, structural and MEP systems interact before they are fabricated or installed. Klover’s BIM team works alongside architects, engineers, general contractors and other trades to bring those different systems together, identify potential conflicts and develop solutions that consider the needs of the entire project.
That collaboration is increasingly important as buildings become more technically demanding. A duct may need to pass above a doorway while maintaining the required framing and fire-rating tolerances. A structural post may conflict with an architectural opening. A seemingly insignificant adjustment by one trade can affect framing, engineering and fabrication several steps downstream. BIM gives teams the opportunity to see those relationships before they become expensive field conditions.
Design Specialist Sierra Loveless describes the process through a phrase that has become particularly appropriate for BIM: “Because inches matter.” A duct shifting half an inch may require an opening to shift the same distance, which can then change the stud layout surrounding it. In isolation, half an inch seems insignificant. Across a coordinated building containing thousands of individual components, those small dimensions can have enormous consequences.
Connecting BIM and Prefabrication
Where Klover’s BIM capabilities become especially powerful is in their direct connection to prefabrication. The digital model is not created simply to visualize the building. It becomes information that Klover can use to manufacture it.
Once a project is awarded, the BIM team begins by understanding the scope and bringing together the available architectural, structural and engineering information. As coordination progresses, the team develops panel layouts, incorporates engineering requirements, coordinates openings and evaluates interfaces with other trades. Those coordinated models eventually become detailed fabrication drawings that Klover’s prefabrication team can use to build individual wall panels.
Senior BIM Designer Dan Chomkowski describes BIM as an opportunity to build the project in a kind of “perfect world” before construction begins. Inside a 3D environment, the team can see through floors, walls and other physical obstructions to understand the building as a complete system. Studs can be coordinated from one level to the next, penetrations can be evaluated against framing, and potential conflicts can be identified while they are still digital.
That ability to see the entire building changes the conversation from reacting to conditions in the field to anticipating them during design.
Technology including Revit, Navisworks, Revizto and StructSoft supports that process, but the technology itself is only part of the story. Klover’s advantage comes from connecting those tools with people who understand how buildings are actually fabricated and installed. A model may work perfectly on a computer, but it still has to pass the constructability test in the real world.
Designing Beyond the Building
One of the most important aspects of Klover’s BIM approach is that the team is not designing panels solely around how they fit into the finished building. They are also considering how those panels will move through every stage of construction.
A panel has to be fabricated efficiently in Klover’s shop, loaded onto a truck, transported to the project, lifted by a crane and installed safely by the field team. Truck dimensions, site access, crane capacity, panel weight and installation sequencing can all influence how a prefabricated system should be designed.
This is where BIM can directly contribute to speed and cost efficiency. By considering logistics during design, Klover can look for opportunities to maximize truck loads, reduce unnecessary oversized transportation, optimize panel sizes and make crane picks more productive. Decisions that might otherwise be made reactively in the field can instead become part of a coordinated construction strategy.
The Avon Grove Charter School project demonstrated that approach. Klover’s BIM team expanded beyond its traditional modeling scope by incorporating the GreenGirt system used to support exterior cladding into the prefabricated panel design. Work that would traditionally require additional layout and installation in the field could instead be coordinated digitally and incorporated into the prefabrication process, helping create a more efficient path to exterior wall installation.
BIM as the Glue Between Teams
Perhaps the most important aspect of BIM at Klover has little to do with software. It is communication.
Dan describes the BIM team as the “glue” connecting architecture, engineering, project management, prefabrication and field installation. That description captures what BIM can become when it is integrated throughout a construction company rather than treated as a standalone drafting service.
Klover’s designers communicate with the prefab shop to make sure details can actually be constructed. They work with field teams when dimensions or site conditions need to be incorporated. They coordinate with engineers when structural requirements affect panel design, and they participate with other trades when systems compete for the same space.
Sierra describes Klover’s philosophy as being a team player not only internally, but for the project as a whole. The objective is not simply to make Klover’s portion of the building work. It is to help find solutions that allow every trade to succeed while maintaining the architectural and structural requirements of the project.
That mentality is particularly valuable in prefabrication because decisions become increasingly difficult to change once manufacturing begins. The more coordination that can happen before fabrication, the greater the opportunity to create certainty later.
Building Speed, Safety and Certainty
The construction industry often talks about speed as though it simply means building faster. Klover’s approach to BIM suggests something different. Real speed comes from removing uncertainty before it reaches the field.
Finding a clash in a coordinated model is fundamentally different from discovering it while crews, equipment and materials are waiting on a jobsite. Resolving an opening before a panel is manufactured is different from modifying that panel after delivery. Coordinating crane picks and installation sequences ahead of time is different from improvising them during construction.
The same thinking supports safety. BIM cannot replace comprehensive safety planning, but it can provide teams with better information about what they will encounter before installation begins. Combined with prefabrication, it also creates opportunities to perform more work in a controlled shop environment and reduce the amount of field fabrication required.
Ultimately, both speed and safety contribute to something owners and general contractors increasingly value: certainty. Certainty that systems have been coordinated. Certainty that panels have been designed with fabrication and installation in mind. Certainty that potential conflicts have been examined before they become jobsite problems.
For Klover, that is where BIM is taking construction. It is not about replacing builders with technology. It is about giving experienced builders better information and bringing the people responsible for design, fabrication and installation into the conversation earlier.
The result is a construction process where digital design and physical construction increasingly operate as one. Klover can build the project virtually, coordinate it collaboratively, fabricate it intelligently and install it with greater confidence.
And in an industry where every inch, every day and every decision matters, that connection is helping Klover deliver what modern construction demands most: speed, safety and certainty.
