SEPTEMBER 2025CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM8IN MYOPINIONHOW TO LEVERAGE BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING (BIM) FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGSThrough this article, Michael Carrancho explores the innovative use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for historic buildings, a practice dubbed "Heritage BIM." Carrancho highlights the potential for BIM to preserve and analyze historical structures, despite limitations in current modeling software. The project also revealed the possibility of leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for future restoration efforts by categorizing material deterioration and creating a standardized glossary of deterioration mechanisms.For over ten years, the Smithsonian Institution has been collaborating with the Georgia Institute of Technology through Georgia Tech's Digital Building Laboratory on a pioneering research project to leverage Building Information Modeling (BIM) for historic buildings, which we call "Heritage BIM." Initially, the project's goals were unclear and undefined; however, we were confident that specific objectives would emerge through engagement with historic buildings.Two Smithsonian buildings were selected as pilot projects to explore the potential of BIM technology for documenting, analyzing, interacting with and improving historic structures. The first building was a wooden tenant house located at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. This structure, believed to be a pre-civil war building, was thought to have been assembled from two cottages initially built to house enslaved people. The second building was the Freer Gallery of Art, an Italian Renaissance-style structure that opened in 1923 on the National Mall in Washington DC.By Michael Carrancho, Deputy Director Office of Planning Design and Construction, Engineering and Design Division, Smithsonian InstitutionMichael Carrancho
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