On a crisp Wellington morning, we joined the Harrison Grierson survey team onsite at the Bowen Campus buildings adjacent to Parliament Grounds in Wellington.

This large construction project spans a 1 hectare site comprising of four commercial office towers that will house approximately three and a half thousand workers when complete. The site includes a series of retail and hospitality venues that opens out onto a pedestrian laneway, going through to Parliament buildings.

Harrison Grierson’s client, Precinct Properties, needed to find a way to bring the project to life, before it was built. The challenge was to find a way to visualise how people would physically interact with the building and how they would move from one location to the next.

The Harrison Grierson team chose to use the latest Leica Geosystems laser scanning technology to create a 3D digital model of the building.

“We find that the Leica BLK2GO has created a huge amount of efficiencies especially with our site work, that has enabled us to deliver really great deliverables for our clients efficiently and quickly. We’ve also found that it’s allowed us to use the data for multiple uses.” Ashley Jelley, Technical Lead – Harrison Grierson Wanaka

Using a mobile laser scanner was an efficient way to capture a lot of data really quickly and safely on a busy construction site. There was no need to get people out of the way to set up an instrument on a tripod, or to close down construction during the process, the user simply walks through the site collecting data as they go.

“It was really important that the client could understand what we were doing onsite and how we were working on the project. The visualisation meant that they could interact with the project, as we were completing the work. The process that we went through was to capture the data onsite with the Leica BLK2GO, bring the data into Leica Cyclone Register 360, then it is self-registered to match the cloud, put through a QA process to ensure they are happy with the quality and accuracy of the data. Finally, it is handed over to their visualisation team to produce the 3D model.” Josh Mason, Technical Manager – Harrison Grierson Tauranga

On this project, the end deliverable was an interactive Revit 3D digital model that the team produced to make it easier for the client and their stakeholders to navigate through the Bowen Campus buildings. The ability to interact with the building before they are built brings new insights for the design, the flow of people between the buildings and assists in communicating and getting early buy-in from stakeholders.

The Leica BLK2GO is brilliant, it’s very seamless, very easy to use, very fast paced. Wherever we were able to walk, we were able to capture information and data for the Revit model. It doesn’t have to be a Surveyor that uses it, it can be an Engineer, or an Architect, or a Project Manager.” Andrew Purvis, Associate & Senior Surveyor – Harrison Grierson Auckland

“Working with the Global Survey reality capture team is amazing. No matter what the questions are, they always seem to have the answer.” Ashley Jelley, Technical Lead – Harrison Grierson Wanaka

The Leica BLK2GO integrates seamlessly into Leica’s field to finish software workflow, from the BLK2GO Live app in the field, through to Leica Cyclone Register 360 in the office for visualising, quality checking and exporting the data in the required design format. Users of the BLK2GO mobile laser scanner are free from the restrictions of a tripod, this enables them to walk and capture an enormous amount of data in a very short amount of time, effectively capturing an entire site in one visit.

“We love working with the Harrison Grierson reality capture team, they’re unlocking real value for their clients and are particularly forward-thinking with their digital strategy. As technical specialists in the reality capture technology space, our team prioritise customer support and technical training. It’s something that we do on a daily basis.” Lennon Bedford, Technical Specialist – Global Survey

As a future-focused company, Harrison Grierson is focused on harnessing the power of the latest technology to create efficiencies on projects. They have a large team of specialists across New Zealand and work in a highly collaborative way to produce the best possible deliverables for their clients.

Visit Harrison Grierson for more information on their capabilities and completed projects.

Connect with Lennon Bedford on LinkedIn for more on Leica reality capture technology.