Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?

• What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?

I think its definitely the foundation and partially submerged structural walls in the lower levels.

When designing a project...

• Should the building adapt to the terrain?
• Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?

What considerations affect a project team's decision-making when deciding the floor-to-floor height to use in a multi-story building?

• From a real estate developer's perspective?
• From a designer's perspective?
• From an engineer's perspective?
• From a builder's perspective?
• From an owner's perspective?

What are the advantages of stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically?

• Can you share an interesting example of a building that doesn’t vertically stack (where the floor plates change their shaped radically between the floor levels)?
• What were the advantages or reasons for non-vertical stacking?

Why do stairs follow specific proportions with a set relationship between the tread length and riser height?

• How can building modeling help prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs?

I think it would be helpful because once you are able to model a staircase that works, you will know how many steps you need and their exact proportions given the same top and bottom constraints.

Describe a case when it would be worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit… How do you decide when customize versus using readily available components?

I customized my topographical base. There wasn't much thinking that went into this decision. I just initially wanted to practice and then decided that Customizing my top would allow me to cater to some of the design decisions I wanted to implement.