Fentress Bradburn and Associates wins award for proposed Long Beach Design; AEC Design Competition and Keynote on engineering on the internet highlight Bentley's full roster of events at A/E/C SYSTEMS '96.

EXTON, Penn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 3, 1996--Bentley Systems, Inc. today announced that Denver-based C.W. Fentress J.H. Bradburn and Associates won the second annual AEC Design Competition. The firm developed the winning residential and commercial proposal for a Long Beach, CA location. The competition, along with Keith Bentley's keynote address and the AEC Executive and Press Summit, highlighted Bentley's full roster of events at the recent A/E/C SYSTEMS '96 in Anaheim, CA.

Judges chose the Fentress Bradburn proposal for its overall utilization of the site and its blend of the residential and commercial spaces. Specifically, the design presented a pleasing transition from the city to the sea, joining the two with radiating patterns across the landscape. The property is part of a 3 million square foot development, formerly the Pike Amusement Park and one of the largest coastal parcels of urban real estate in the country. All competitors finalized their proposals on the show floor using Bentley's building engineering products, which include MicroStation(R) 95, MicroStation TriForma(TM), and MicroStation MasterPiece(TM).

Also at the AEC industry's most popular tradeshow, Keith Bentley, CEO of Bentley, gave a keynote speech on "Engineering for the Year 2000". Mr. Bentley unveiled his company's vision for the new world of engineering collaboration over the Internet to the conference's largest gathering.

Mr. Bentley announced two new Bentley products: MicroStation Link, an integrated Web browser for MicroStation 95, and ProActiveM(TM), a new technology designed to create portable, or "active", engineering models for the Web. Mike Capuzzi of Bentley gave a live Internet demonstration of MicroStation Link. Using the integrated browser, he clicked to a user project home page, accessed and walked through the 3D design, and searched for and drag-and-dropped engineering content from supplier sites directly into the design.

Bentley also hosted over 160 top editors, analysts, and executives at the AEC Executive and Press Summit. The Summit featured three outstanding speakers: J. Parrish of Lobb Partnership presented his concept design of the center stadium for the Sydney 2000 Olympics; Howard Stussman, editor-in-chief of Engineering News-Record, offered his vision of the future of engineering; and Kevin McManus of KPMG Peat Marwick presented the enterprise-wide benefits of engineering automation.

Just prior to the show, over twenty leading architectural firms gathered at the second annual MicroStation Large Firm Architectural Forum, sponsored by Bentley, Gensler & Associates, and Kohn Pedersen Fox. At its 50 x 80 square foot show booth, Bentley demonstrated its new Web-enabled Engineering Links(TM) technology as well as new products in GeoEngineering, building engineering, and plant engineering. Bentley representatives and users participated in over 20 show panels and seminars.

More on the Design Competition

The panel of judges for the competition included several prominent Los Angeles architects: Katherine Diamond of Siegel Diamond Architects, Annie Chu from Israel Callas Chu Shortridge design associates and CHU+GOODING Architects, and Alex Ward of Alex Ward Architects. The panel also included Jim Russell from Architectural Record and Lisa Kempfer of Computer-Aided Engineering.

During the show, visitors to the booth selected their favorite design after viewing the works-in-progress. One particular attendee, Dr. Miroslaw Skibniewski, professor of construction engineering and management at Purdue University, had a special interest in the final decision of the judges. By correctly predicting the final decision and winning an earlier drawing, Dr. Skibniewski won a new 1996 Jeep Wrangler.

He commented on the winning design, "In my opinion, the Fentress Bradburn design is the most eye appealing with their use of glass and trusses. It is also the most functional with regard to the design assumptions which include pedestrian and vehicle access throughout the site."

Co-sponsors for the competition include Bentley Systems, Inc., Architectural Record, Computer-Aided Engineering, CADNET, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, The Ratkovich Company, and A/E/C SYSTEMS '96.

The Fentress Bradburn design team was led by Curt Fentress, Deborah Lucking, Mark Rothman, and Ned Kirschbaum. The design process took four weeks from concept to proposal completion at the show. All design work was performed using Bentley's MicroStation building engineering software and products from other sponsors. The presentation to the judges included a 3D design model, a 3D walk-thru and helicopter fly-thru of the proposed site, and an overview presented by Mr. Fentress, a principal of the firm.

For Fentress Bradburn, the AEC Design Competition served as a testing ground for expanded use of automation. Mark Rothman of Fentress Bradburn concluded, "We found that the design and visualization capabilities of MicroStation 95 and MicroStation MasterPiece will allow us to communicate more effectively with clients. Based on these positive results, we will be expanding our use of these products in our firm."

For more information on the AEC Design Competition, any MicroStation products, or Bentley, please contact the company at 1-800-BENTLEY, [phone] (US), [phone] (Europe), [phone] (Asia), via e-mail at [e-mail], or through the World Wide Web at http://www.bentley.com/.

More on Bentley

Bentley Systems, Inc. is a worldwide leader in engineering software products and user services. The company now serves over 220,000 professionals in building/plant engineering, GeoEngineering, and mechanical engineering. Its MicroStation products are proven at over 70% of the largest U.S. engineering firms and are the software foundation behind the engineering of well-known buildings, airports, hospitals, highways, machines, bridges and industrial plants throughout the world. With annual revenues of over $95 million in 1995, Bentley has risen to number three in the AEC software segment and become one of the world's fastest growing software companies. -0-

MicroStation is a registered trademark; and Bentley, MicroStation TriForma, MicroStation MasterPiece, Engineering Links, and ProActiveM are trademarks of Bentley Systems, Inc. Other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Boston Communications

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