Embracing Boundless Technology
Kelar Pacific helps building industry professionals overcome rolling software challenges
Kelar Pacific looks to the future. The tech company based in San Diego, California, adopts, masters and then shares and sells ever-evolving, computer-aided solutions in the design and build industry.
Its forward-thinking direction throughout its 35-year history has benefited many firms, big and small. Kelar Pacific’s services and products enable organizations to rise to the challenge of incorporating increasingly sophisticated digital planning as well as navigate computer-aided construction. An “Affiliate of the Year” award received in 2019 from the Associated Subcontractors Alliance, San Diego is proof positive.
Kelar Pacific is on firm footing. The project solutions provider was founded in 1984 by Adriana Vernon, a visionary in her own right since computer-aided design for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry was in its infancy at that time. Only a year earlier, a group of software developers released the first version of AutoCAD, which worked on the equally nascent personal computer. By its third anniversary, Kelar Pacific had begun incorporating building information modeling (BIM) software, which brought 2D and 3D capabilities to the forefront of work in the building industry.
The company’s history includes all the milestones of the advent of digital technology in the AEC field. For instance, Kelar Pacific partnered early on with Autodesk, adopted 2D and 3D skills, then moved away from AutoCAD and adopted BIM technology, jumping on board when Revit software debuted.
Vernon’s goals were simple and are still part of the culture of Kelar Pacific today: to help people on projects. Original services provided technical expertise in design, cost estimating, project management and scheduling, says Chuck Keeley, Vice President.
“Kelar Pacific was on a track—even back then—to help a variety of firms that ever since then have incorporated the most advanced technology available to do their jobs,” Keeley says.
Start to Finish
Customer firms contact Kelar Pacific for a number of reasons. A firm may want to land a prospective contract and needs to bolster its tech capabilities to qualify. Another may want Kelar Pacific to weigh in on an existing project’s digitized components. Or perhaps a firm wants to outsource the work because of deadlines or employee limitations. Kelar Pacific, with 20 employees, also gets calls to provide software training or basic troubleshooting of existing software.
The company offers customers assistance anywhere along the way—from conception to completion. Besides hourly or contractual services, the company is a certified reseller and trainer for software lines that have expanded exponentially since days of the basic packages for Autodesk and BIM.
“Some companies sell software and some do service,” Keeley says. “We’re unique in that we do both.” Kelar Pacific also leads its customers, as needed, to incorporate cloud computing services, project management software and any or all of the full range of BIM components for a building project, including 3D modeling, framing detail services and BIM coordination services.
Additionally, the company offers other technology services related to drone images, 3D scanning services and virtual reality perspectives anywhere in the lifecycle of the structure, from groundbreaking to retrofitting and beyond.
“Kelar Pacific partners with design and construction firms to advance the use of technology on their building projects,” Keeley says. “In some cases, the company helps firms adopt technology through training and implementation consulting, and in others, we perform the 3D modeling requirements for construction firms so they can participate in BIM projects.”
Democracy of Technology
Not content to claim ownership of the evolving technology in the AEC industry, Kelar Pacific is known to assist companies—training their employees to work with customers and even selling customers the software—so they can one day thrive on their own and not even need Kelar Pacific’s assistance.
“A lot of times we start out helping customers by doing it for them,” Keeley says. “But as we work with them and show them how to do it, then we sell software to them and they go off and do it themselves. Then, we may even help them find that first new employee to run the software. We eliminate our service customer effort and gain in software sales. It goes against logic, but we’re first and foremost evangelists and educators.”
Kelar Pacific sells solutions from Autodesk, Fuzor, Oracle Primavera, Procore and StrucSoft as well as Bluebeam Revu, BIM Track, ClashMEP and ClearEdge3D products.
The business also hosts numerous training sessions each month at its San Diego and Los Angeles offices. Recent courses include training to run Bluebeam, Microsoft Project and Oracle Primavera software and also work with Autodesk products, both Revit and AutoCAD.
Kelar Pacific stays on top of AEC and technology industry trends and is well connected through its numerous professional affiliations. Besides the Associated Subcontractors Alliance, there’s the American Institute of Architects, the Associated General Contractors of America, the National Electrical Contractors Association, the American Subcontractors Association, and the American Fire Sprinkler Association. The team participates in technology and educational committee work with these organizations as a regular course of its efforts.
“We pride ourselves in helping construction companies be competitive in the AEC market, so we’ve always had to remain ahead of the curve and be evangelists of that next new thing,” Keeley says.
A Desire to Give Back
Beyond helping customers, Kelar Pacific supports various efforts for the good of the community and of people in general. The company’s favorite causes include the Green Beret Foundation, the Wounded Warrior Project, AIA San Diego’s Women in Architecture Committee, the ACE Mentor program in San Diego, Citizens for SWAT and the National Association of Women in Construction, San Diego.
The company also donates time and/or money each year to support mentorship initiatives and fund scholarships for students, and employees visit local high schools to educate youth about the tech industry.
“Working at Kelar Pacific is a lot of fun, and supporting great organizations and charities gives us additional purpose to what we do in the AEC industry,” says Tony Wheeler, Customer Acquisition Manager. “It’s not just about business; we are always looking for ways to give back to the community that surrounds us.”
Image-Conscious
Each project comes with its own unique set of variables. No two projects that Kelar Pacific gets called into are alike.
One of the company’s gems is Portside Pier, a dining destination with four upscale eating establishments positioned right above the waters of the San Diego Bay. Pacific Building Group wanted to win the project, and so the firm hired Kelar Pacific to transform the job’s lackluster 2D plans into a 3D version that helped win the project. The two-story, 42,000-square-foot development that includes banquet facilities and a public viewing deck is expected to open in late 2019.
“They won the project with our 3D help, and when the time came to get started with the construction, they hired us to do the BIM coordination,” Keeley says. “We also became their BIM modeling team for some of the trades that didn’t have BIM skills.”
Much of the work on the Portside Pier project entailed coordinating 3D models from all trades, like the plumbing and even the kitchen equipment locations. However, one solution that Kelar Pacific delivered initially was confirming the exact location of pilings that stood in the water, which held up the entire above-water structure. Through the use of 3D laser scanning, Kelar Pacific discovered the pilings were installed slightly different from the original design, and the utility elevations for water and sewer were 2 feet higher than elevations shown in the design documents. Discovering that situation early helped to mitigate major problems before construction began.
Challenged with a multiyear expansion plan for Westfield UTC, an outdoor shopping center in La Jolla, California, Kelar Pacific brought together various aspects of the work for project management integration. The digitized plan included an animated BIM coordination construction timeline that showed extensive demolition of existing retail space and the addition of a five-level parking garage, even while maintaining an active transit center.
At San Diego International Airport, the company delivered several projects resulting in a 430,000-square-foot expansion at the Terminal 2 West building, as well as development of an additional 1.5 million square feet of airside pavement. A variety of technology was used, including Revit, Navisworks and Civil 3D.
Single-family homes sometimes get Kelar Pacific’s attention, too. A home in Solana Beach was set for major renovations, and Kelar Pacific helped by scanning the interior and exterior, using 3D laser scanning to create point clouds, and then developed drawings of plans in a 3D Revit model for changes being made to walls, doors, windows and basic millwork.
Kelar Pacific is increasingly called on to digitize existing buildings that are due for major renovations or makeovers. The company uses 3D laser scanning and drone technology to capture existing structures and conditions, bringing all visual and statistical information into a new BIM model.
“Mechanical and electrical equipment, pipes, columns, braces—and it’s all above the ceiling. How do you capture all that with a measuring tape accurately? You can’t,” Keeley says.
These projects and others demonstrate how Kelar Pacific has proven itself to be a welcome tech-savvy partner for AEC firms of varying capabilities. As the fundamentals of designing and building continue to change to be more technically sophisticated, the team will continue working on ever-more advanced digital 3D plans.