The Impact of BIM on Design and Construction—Legal and Practical Perspectives

• Pages: 8-22
• Date: 01 April 2025
• Published date: 01 April 2025
• Author: Kristine A. Kubes
• Subject Matter: Derecho Civil

Published in The Construction Lawyer Volume 44, Number 2, ©2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with

permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any

means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Forum on Construction Law The Construction Lawyer Spring 2025

8

The Impact of BIM on Design and Construction—Legal

and Practical Perspectives

By Kristine A. Kubes

Kristine A. Kubes is a Minnesota-licensed construction lawyer, litigator, and mediator at Kubes Law

Office PLLC in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum

on Construction Law and has served in various committee roles over the years. The author thanks her

colleague Laurie W. Meyer for gathering resources and research cited in this paper and Rachel Riopel, AIA

(MN), and Connor Christian, P.E. (MN), for access to critical industry data.

“In any given moment, we have two options: To step forward into growth or step back into safety.”

—Abraham H. Maslow1

Introduction

Design is a process of communication and translation. Listening to understand is a critical component

of communication. A project often originates when a client has a problem that needs xing or a concept

in their imagination that they want to bring to life. The client meets with their architect or engineer,

describing in words what the client sees in their mind as the goal they seek to accomplish—the project, the

style, the accessibility accommodations, the project’s energy and environmental goals.

Translating those words into graphics, the design professional then begins to develop a plan for a

constructed environment—whether vertical (architecture) or horizontal (infrastructure). That process

requires the design professional and the client to confer—likely multiple times—to ensure that the design

matches or exceeds the concept that originated in the client’s mind.

The process of converting possibility into reality is complex, nuanced, messy, and … beautiful. And it can

be complicated, not only because of the architecture or engineering required, and the intricacy of designs

involved, but also because not all persons can envision a 3D environment from a plan on a piece of paper

or computer screen. The necessary communication from design professional to client to first hear and then

confirm design intent can become strained due to simple human limitations in envisioning what the plan

will look like when completed. That natural complexity is only amplified when designing for accuracy

among the various trades that may be contributing to the project, or when renovating or remodeling an

existing and/or historic structure.

Enter building information modeling or building information management (BIM), which is a method

of gathering and delivering project and design data digitally, as opposed to a static 2D image on paper

or PDF. BIM collects and processes millions of data points in order to aid a project—including but not

limited to documenting existing site conditions, designing the project, planning for how the project will

respond to environmental conditions, coordinating and phasing construction elements, and operating and

maintaining the asset once completed.

The broader category of “digital data” is immense and constantly growing and developing. Technological

companies regularly deliver to the market tech tools to track construction progress, worker presence