Charles (Chuck) M. Eastman (May 5, 1940 – November 9, 2020) was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

and a pioneer in the areas of design cognition,Eastman, C. M. (1969). “Cognitive processes and ill-defined problems: A case study from design.” Washington, DC. building information modeling (BIM), solid and parametric modeling, engineering databases, product models, and

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...

. He is best known for his work on building description system, which later gave him a title as the 'father of BIM.'

Biography

Eastman was a pioneer of computer-aided design for the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry, developing research 3D and early solid and parametric modeling systems for the building industry starting in the mid-1970s. Trained as an architect at the

UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design The College of Environmental Design, also known as the Berkeley CED, or simply CED, is one of fourteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. The school is located in Bauer Wurster Hall on the southeast corner of the mai ...

, he focused on tool development for practitioners with the 'building description system (BDS)' and 'Building Product Modeling,' later re-branded as ' Building Information Modeling (BIM).' He was a founder of ACADIA (the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture) and CIB W78 Information Technology for Construction. CIB W78 created the Charles M. Eastman Top Ph.D. Paper Award in his honor. He served as an editorial board member of major journals including Research in Engineering Design, Automation in Construction, Computer-Aided Design, Design Studies, and Journal of Information Technology in Construction. He taught briefly at the University of Wisconsin and, then, at Carnegie-Mellon University (1967-1982), UCLA (1987-1995), and Georgia Tech (1996-2018). In 1969, he published the paper "Cognitive processes and ill-defined problems: A case study from design", which is regarded as the first paper in the area of design cognition. At Carnegie Mellon University, he was jointly appointed a professor of the faculty of architecture and the faculty of the School of Public Policy (the Heinz School). He started the PhD program in Architecture there. He founded a parametric modeling start-up (called Formtek) in 1982 and sold the company to Lockheed Martin in 1987 before he joined

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

, where he was for eight years. In 1996, he moved to

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

and worked there as a professor in the Colleges of Design and Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology and the director of the Georgia Tech Digital Building Lab (DBL) until his retirement in 2018. His research group at Georgia Tech worked with industry groups to develop new generation parametric modeling tools including Tekla Structures and the courthouse BIM tools, and BIM exchange standards including improved IFC semantic foundations. His research partners included the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, the Charles Pankow Foundation, General Services Administration (GSA), the American Institute of Steel Construction, the

American Concrete Institute The American Concrete Institute (ACI, formerly National Association of Cement Users or NACU) is a non-profit technical society and standards developing organization. ACI was founded in January 1905 during a convention in Indianapolis. The Institu ...

, and the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

Awards

* Design Intelligence 30 Most admired Educators for 2014, Design Intelligence * Best Paper Award for the “Relative productivity of Onsite and Offsite Construction Activities” paper in the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and management (best of 186 papers in 2008) * 2006 Open Data Award from BuildingSMART. For CIS/2, Washington DC, November, 2006 * Lifetime Research Achievement Award, Bentley Systems International Conference, October, 2000

Books

* Sacks, R., Eastman, C., Lee, G., & Teicholz, P. (2018). BIM handbook 3rd edition: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers, and contractors. Wiley. *Eastman, C. Teicholz, P., Sacks, R., & Liston, K. (2011). BIM handbook 2nd edition: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers, and contractors. Wiley. *Eastman, C. Teicholz, P., Sacks, R., & Liston, K. (2008). BIM handbook 1st edition: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers, and contractors. Wiley. * Eastman, C. M. (1999). Building product models: computer environments, supporting design and construction. CRC press. * Eastman, C., Newstetter, W., & McCracken, M. (Eds.). (2001). Design Knowing and Learning: Cognition in Design Education: Cognition in Design Education. Elsevier. * Augenbroe, G., Eastman C. (Eds.). (1999). Computers in Building: Proceedings of the CAADfutures'99 Conference: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures. Atlanta, Georgia, USA on June 7–8, 1999. Kluwer Academic Publishers. * Dasu, S., Eastman, C. (Eds.). (1994). Management of Design: Engineering and Management Perspectives. Springer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eastman, Chuck Georgia Tech faculty Place of birth missing 20th-century American architects 21st-century American architects Design researchers Carnegie Mellon University faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty 1940 births 2020 deaths