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No. 1: Vinci A82A4New Water Treatment Facility |
10 Year Retrospective | No. 1 of 10 | New Water Treatment Facility | May-June 2009.
It’s no secret that mid-2009’s sprawling wet infrastructure project, reaching under lakes, carving through rock, and spanning a couple miles, is my favorite project. The project involved sifting through thousands of sheets and spec pages, modeling square miles of hilly terrain and bathymetry, and building dozens of models of facilities. Some of the resultant visuals are stunningly beautiful. The only thing that would amplify my esteem for it would be a win. (EXTRA! Continue to see one of the very first of my projects, one that triggered a change in my career! Early Project→)
A Virtual Construction Roller Coaster.
The project brings Vinci LLC’s SubVision Solid™ expertise seen at A7A04, terrain capabilities similar to M8B46, industrial rendering capabilities shown at A8948, and wet infrastructure rendering exhibited at A7B54. Some unique visuals include underwater intake construction, a "Moses"-style parting of water, tunnel boring, and convincing community relations vignettes (1→, 2→). Vinci LLC produced temporary and permanent equipment models according to client and specialist recommendations.
The project has an unfortunate downside. The cost of convincingly defining everything on a worksite chain like this begins to get heavy, and builds perceptions that Vinci LLC service is necessarily expensive. I think it had this effect on the client. The work was Vinci’s best at the time; operations intended to cover all the topics this viewset covers are going to be labor intensive no matter how you cut it. Still, this stands as a set of some of my finest work. It registered on the radar of the world’s largest wet infrastructure builder. Perhaps it overglorifies construction of what many might consider pipes underground, but in a location as sweet as this, it might not be unwarranted.
Here’s a frank and sober, emotional bit. Over the past 5 years, the construction industry has been through the ringer; this is not news. Initially Vinci LLC was not too affected. It soon became evident, key client reps were “retiring” or moving. The landscape of client reps has completely changed over. Since early 2010, we’ve seen ocean swells of intense crushing demand and harrowing months-long quiet spans. This project seems like the last big job when it seemed Vinci LLC could expand each year to new and bigger things. I’ve sort of lost that dream after several iterations of boom-bust. I no longer think the business will ever return to the heyday of 2009, when the crest of demand was so great, you could be convinced Vinci LLC would last forever. Even though my capabilities have gone beyond A82A4, and that certainly some current projects outshine it in their visual impact and success, it’s a sort of favorite because things seemed so good then, and now it seems those golden days are gone forever. I feel this way not because I think Vinci capabilities are unable to keep up, but that the industry is and seems to promise to continue to be sick, for a variety of macroeconomic and political reasons. A82A4 perhaps represents Vinci LLC’s glory days.
Visit the project page or click the images below for more about Vinci LLC's favorite project! (EXTRA! Continue to see one of the very first of my projects, one that triggered a change in my career! Early Project→)
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This page last modified Monday 4 August 2014.