Building the "Unbuildable" Walt Disney Concert Hall

In the late 1990s, We were tasked to construct a building that was deemed to be “unbuildable” by others in the industry. We knew that all of the traditional tools and processes used to plan, communicate, and understand project sequencing would need to be re-engineered and challenged.

This challenge presented a great opportunity for our team members to partner with industry thought leaders at Stanford University’s Center for Facility Engineering (CIFE) and Walt Disney Imagineering. This partnership led to an R&D effort to envision and develop 4D modeling tools, which link the project 3D model to the project schedule, to allow the project team to solve the project planning problems that were nearly unsolvable. At the time, this was nearly unheard-of in the construction industry. This collaboration led to software development, new ideas, and a continued appreciation for the value of academic and industry partnerships.

Sharing knowledge is crucial in today's environment, as our world becomes smaller through globalization and the efforts to advance our business through advanced technology is the new reality. Mortenson is continually reaching out to develop relationships and focus on areas of research that will allow us to maintain our bleeding edge advantage and enables us to provide the best possible solutions to our customer.