Running a major transportation hub is no small feat. From servicing tens of millions of passengers to maintaining massive facilities, keeping operations running smoothly requires constant coordination, data accuracy, and efficient workflows. The larger the site, the greater the complexity – especially when every gate, runway, and corridor must function seamlessly to keep travelers and staff moving safely and on time.
This balancing act plays out on an extraordinary scale at Denver International Airport, a facility that’s size and activity redefines what “large” really means. According to Chelsea Seiter-Weatherford, Geospatial Supervisor at Denver International Airport, “[Denver International] operates on 53 square miles (sq mi) of land and is the largest airport site in North America, with six active runways and the capacity for 12 total runways, with over 82.4 million passengers traveling through the airport in 2024. Denver International is one of the busiest airline hubs in the world’s largest aviation market. It is also the primary economic engine for the state of Colorado, generating $47.2 billion for the region annually.”
With such scale, the challenge isn’t just moving people – it’s managing the digital and physical infrastructure that keeps the airport running efficiently. Every maintenance request, asset update, and layout change impacts daily operations, making accuracy and integration critical to success.
Managing a facility of this size raises an important question: how do teams streamline processes while maintaining consistency and efficiency across every system? Fortunately, advanced tools are available to make this all possible.
Last month, Autodesk University 2025 hosted a general session entitled, “Revit to Indoors: A Digital Transformation Journey at Denver International Airport,” to highlight how Denver International Airport’s geospatial system—among other advanced tools—is transforming the airport’s future.
During the session, Seiter-Weatherford; Brendan Dillon, Director of Digital Facilities & Infrastructure at Denver International Airport; and Patrick Gahagan, Aviation GIS Delivery Manager at HNTB, detailed how Denver International Airport’s digital transformation journey created a true digital airport campus in a revolutionary timeframe.
How it all started
For Denver International Airport, the path toward becoming a true digital campus didn’t begin with flashy new software or data dashboards – it began with standards. More than a decade ago, long before ‘digital twins’ or ‘smart airports’ were everyday terms, Denver International took its first steps toward transformation by creating a unified Building Information Modeling (BIM) foundation.
“Our digital journey began around 2007 with the initial development of our BIM standards and guides,” recalled Seiter-Weatherford. “Around the same time, the GIS team was building their internal web GIS presence.” That combination—a commitment to structure and a vision for integration—became the cornerstone of everything that followed.
Over the years, those standards evolved into one of the most robust BIM programs in the aviation industry. As Dillon explained, “Today we have a massive library of BIM information covering almost 17 million square feet (sq ft) of facilities across our 53 sq mi campus. This includes more than 600 Revit models representing 93 buildings.”
Each new project at the airport—from capital improvements like the Great Hall renovation to airline or concession upgrades—receives its own Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) environment. This ensures that every stakeholder, contractor, and internal team operates within a common data environment (CDE), maintaining ownership, consistency, and traceability of every modeled element.
“[The goal is] not just about the modeled elements – the data is the most important thing.” –Brendan Dillon
But the real secret to Denver International’s success lies in its BIM Standards—a living framework that ensures every digital asset, across every project, aligns to the same high-quality benchmark. These standards define everything from Revit templates and modeling requirements to data quality management and the BIM Execution Plan that governs how project teams deliver and maintain their models. As Dillon put it, the goal is “not just about the modeled elements – the data is the most important thing.”
Through these consistent model reviews and quality checks, Denver International Airport built more than just a digital asset repository – it built trust in the data. And with that trust, the airport created a reliable, centralized foundation that would soon unlock something even more transformative: the integration of BIM with ArcGIS Indoors, bridging the virtual and physical campus in real time.
A digital airport campus was born
By the time Denver International Airport began exploring indoor mapping and space management, its foundation was already decades in the making. Those early BIM standards had created something rare: consistent, high-quality data that could be trusted, connected, and reused across systems. When the time came to expand beyond design and into spatial intelligence, Denver International was ready.
In 2020, the airport entered an Esri Enterprise License Agreement with the City and County of Denver’s GIS program, giving the airport’s geospatial team access to a full suite of Esri tools. From that agreement came the Denver International Spatial Gateway, built on the Esri Enterprise Portal.
“This platform has since replaced all previous web GIS with its launch in November of 2023. From there, we continued our digital journey, and in less than two months, we brought ArcGIS Indoors online,” said Seiter-Weatherford. “This marked a key step in our journey toward becoming a true digital airport campus, with Indoors serving as the authoritative system of record for all indoor spaces.”
With ArcGIS Indoors, the airport could do something that was once only conceptual—create a living digital twin of its entire campus. As Seiter-Weatherford later highlighted, this new environment unified data from Revit, CAD, and other modeling sources into an interactive, floor-aware map, complete with wayfinding, occupancy tracking, and integration with critical airport systems like Maximo for asset management, Motorola 911 CAD Emergency Operations Center, and Genetec for security.
“By implementing ArcGIS Indoors and the Space Planner application, Denver International Airport’s DFI and GIS teams are working together to extract additional value from their BIM – monitoring and updating occupancy of staff, airlines, and concessions.” –Patrick Gahagan
The result: a digital ecosystem where every room, corridor, and cubicle could be seen, analyzed, and managed in real time.
As Gahagan explained, “By implementing ArcGIS Indoors and the Space Planner application, Denver International Airport’s Digital Facilities & Infrastructure (DFI) and GIS teams are working together to extract additional value from their BIM – monitoring and updating occupancy of staff, airlines, and concessions. And for the first time, having an accurate, up-to-date floor plan for all departments.” That visibility didn’t just make operations smoother – it fundamentally changed how the airport’s physical space was understood.
Behind the scenes, the process that made this possible was as precise as it was powerful. As Gahagan later explained, the HNTB and Denver International teams developed a workflow to convert Revit models into geodatabases, assigning each room, level, and building a unique BIM code – a standardized location hierarchy that connected directly to the airport’s other business systems, from leasing and facilities management to asset tracking.
What once required weeks of manual coordination now happened almost instantly, thanks to nearly two decades of BIM discipline and collaboration between DFI and GIS teams. Together, they didn’t just digitize the airport – they built a connected, data-driven digital campus that bridges design, operations, and experience in real time.
