Construction Management Explores Laser Scanning with Trimble in New York
Ian Warner, Trimble's director of industry workforce development and innovation, demonstrates the X9 3D laser scanner in front of the Audubon Terrace building in New York City
Wentworth Institute of Technology's Sweeney Programs in Construction Management is looking at how to bring 3D laser scanning into the classroom after a hands-on session with technology firm Trimble at the former headquarters of the American Geographical Society in New York City.
Wentworth Associate Professor Hariharan Naganathan represented the program at the Audubon Terrace building. He was joined by Ian Warner, Trimble's director of industry workforce development and innovation, who demonstrated the company's X9 3D laser scanner and walked through a full reality capture workflow, planning scan locations, collecting data in the field, and ultimately reviewing and registering those scans into a single coordinated 3D point cloud.
The Beaux-Arts style building, designed by Charles Pratt Huntington and completed in 1911, is part of the landmarked Audubon Terrace complex on Broadway at 155th Street.
Reality capture is used to document existing and as-built conditions on renovation and retrofit projects, and to feed Scan-to-BIM workflows, where point cloud data becomes the basis for a building information model. This technique connects what is physically on a site to the digital information teams rely on for planning, modeling, and construction decisions.
The visit opens the door to further work between Wentworth and Trimble, including integrating laser scanning into the Construction Management curriculum, which could provide students with earlier exposure to tools now standard in construction, virtual design and construction (VDC), and existing-building work.
