As president of the New York City Revit User Group (NYCRUG), I am proud to be associated with Array Architects and our decision to support NYCRUG with a significant contribution of in-kind services. I know from many years of firsthand experience the effort and time it takes to run a “local” user group with a global reach, so I’m very excited that Array Architects recognize the value of the resources needed to do a world class job. It will certainly assist our group in leveraging technology to improve the practice of architecture, engineering, construction and operations.
Array’s contribution, valued at $25,000, will elevate the Group’s already highly regarded reputation by dedicating time to organize and manage the needs of this effort and will allow the Group to better deliver Revit and Design Technology knowledge to the professional community throughout NYC and beyond. Array’s president, Carl Davis, appreciates the importance to the design industry our group offers, “Robert is a design industry thought leader, one I am proud to have on Array’s team. He is a positive influence on our industry and on those who share his passion for advancing technologies.”
The purpose of NYCRUG is to share knowledge of how the flagship Autodesk products: Revit -Architecture, Structure and MEP - Dynamo, Vasari, Navisworks, and similar competing products fit into the modern professional’s workflow. In addition to specific software products, the NYCRUG leadership likes to mix it up a bit by presenting broader topics of how Building Information Modeling, Design Technology and other issues affect the AEC industry.
NYCRUG has an active membership of more than 1,250 architects, engineers, contractors, construction managers, specialty trades, building owners, and allied professionals who support one another in their quest to improve their knowledge and their industry.
NYCRUG meets monthly at Pratt Institute’s Manhattan campus. Meetings are live, plus, broadcast over the internet and recorded and posted online to share the knowledge as broadly as possible. To spread the message, NYCRUG uses Meetup.com, Twitter, and Facebook social media to announce upcoming meetings, topics and speakers.
Being the nation’s largest Revit User Group allows NYCRUG to attract Design Technology leaders from across the U.S. Recent speakers and topics, widely attended, include Steve Jones of McGraw Hill Construction “How BIM is Transforming the Global AEC Industry,” Rebecca McWilliams, AIA, Esq “The Legal BIM Frontier: Contracts, Execution Planning & Recent Case Developments,” and Phil Bernstein, VP of Strategy at Autodesk “Four Thoughts about the Future of BIM.”
Past speakers include Matt Jezyk, Zach Kron and Tatjana Dzambazova of Autodesk; David Fano, Don Rudder and Michael McCune of CASE; and, Jonatan Schumacher and Robert Otani of Thornton Tomasetti, to name a few.
To pull off monthly meetings, NYCRUG is led by a hardworking team of volunteers from throughout the NYC AEC community, including Jason Chen (SOM), Ian Atkins (KPF), Ilkay Can-Standard (KPF), Robert Yori (SOM), Andre Voss (Ricci Greene Associates), Aaron Gonzales, Alfred Huang (MAP), James Vandezande (HOK) and Snigdha Mittal (Sciame Construction).
Upcoming events and learning opportunities include:
BIM2FM: Delivering Building Information to Owners presented by Birgitta Foster and Michael Tardif; What’s new In Revit 2015 and the Autodesk ecosystem by Roger Liucci of Microsol; The Current State of Reality Capture by Peter Marchese of Microdesk; and, Leveraging the Revit API by Harry Mattison of Boost Your BIM. There are more great topics in the pipeline.