H2M Features Virtual Reality Services

H2M Features Virtual Reality Services


This photo was taken at H2M’s booth at the Long Island Building Institute Home, Trade, and Remodeling Expo. Pictured are Chris Silliman (left) and John Rousso (right).

H2M now offers virtual reality (VR) services to their clients. These services include VR modeling of designed spaces that enable clients to “walk” through their buildings long before construction begins. VR technology is a useful visualization tool for anyone unfamiliar with the art of reading top-down plans and other construction documents.

John Rousso, Project Designer at H2M, is taking the lead with this new company offering. As a long-time enthusiast of virtual reality, Rousso is dedicated to mending the potential disconnect between “what our clients are expecting in design versus our design understanding.” Rousso went on to explain, “I love when clients say, ‘Oh, that’s what that looks like!’ It’s useful when clients can point out when windows, finishes, or even entire rooms don’t match their vision.” Rousso estimates that using VR technology to realign our client vision with project plans has already saved certain projects tens of thousands of dollars and countless construction delays by avoiding changes.

H2M’s President and CEO, Richard Humann, P.E., is excited to start offering VR services. “It’s a whole new world of opportunity in client engagement during design,” Humann said. “Virtual reality technology opens the door to a new way of more efficiently presenting our design work, improving project understanding, and building stronger relationships with our clients.”

VR technology for architectural design is fully built out and ready to be put to work. VR models are built-to-scale and are one-to-one representations of exactly how the end product will look and feel. If the design calls for a 20-foot-high ceiling, looking up while wearing the VR headset will make the ceiling appear 20-feet away. Rather than physically walking through a space, movement is controlled with a pair of handheld controllers. H2M feels the opportunity to identify and resolve client concerns during design, instead of construction, is “priceless.”

For users and clients who have yet to develop their VR “sea legs,” Rousso offers to navigate through the space for them and projects what he sees onto a large monitor. Clients can then see a three-dimensional perspective of what Rousso sees as he explores each room of the model. Any time a client points out design details that differ from their vision, Rousso uses a voice-to-text feature to immediately record the difference within the VR space. Afterwards, the design team can update the design documents based on the client’s direct comments.

“It’s exciting to see VR technology applied to architecture,” Rousso added. “The better we can engage with our clients in a collaborative design vision, the better the entire project execution process.”

This news was recently featured in Long Island Business News. Read the full article by clicking here!