Lexhold Technology Center - Building A is one of two newly constructed sister buildings in the University of Kentucky's Coldstream Research Campus to provide tenants space for office, research/development, and laboratory users. The structure is a five-story, 170K SF, steel-framed office building in which lateral stability was attained using concentric braced frames in each direction.

This was the FEG team's first building completed using Building Information Modeling (BIM) to share schematics directly through a CIS/2 file with the fabricator/detailer. After linking the analytical model to the structural BIM, adjustments could be made throughout the design process duration to frame the building exactly as it was expected to be built. Changes included modifying the top of steel in depressed and sloping areas, and adding miscellaneous framing that was not originally in the analytical model but necessary to brace the design loads. The architectural fins at the front and rear of the building and the curved rotunda were designed outside of the link to our analytical model. We modeled these portions by hand in BIM, and although the architect was also working in BIM, interference detection was not used.