A new building is being built in a highly desirable, competitive location in a growing urban area. Tenants are to be determined, and the owners aim for high-value office space, flexible retail options, and potential innovation centers for science and technology. The owner understood that creating a connected experience for occupants was crucial and needed a robust integrated network and technology infrastructure to support that experience. LEDG helped transform that vision into a digital strategy for the property, identifying how technology will enhance the experience on the property and how systems need to be designed, integrated, and deployed in order to do so.
A leading health organization created a new 60,000 square foot outpatient radiology facility and required a modern technology infrastructure including structured cabling, audiovisual, voice, data, and wireless communications. They also needed separate technology networks to accommodate large imaging files, exam rooms, workstations, wireless device access, and the design needed to ensure industry standards and prepare the facility for future building performance and occupant experience initiatives. Security and access control through IP-based and Power-over-Ethernet technology was imperative.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a typical laboratory is 3-4 times more energy-intensive than an average commercial building and can account for up to 70% of a campus's energy footprint. The rise in network-connected monitoring and instrumentation in today’s Smart Laboratories combined with the institutional risk of losing valuable research has made building systems integration a critical component of Smart Laboratory design. LEDG works with owners during the planning and design phase to identify how to integrate building systems such that monitoring and oversight can be centralized, proactive, and data -driven.
An academic institution with a large, flagship building that all students use needed to utilize metered building systems data to optimize efficiencies, improve costs, and plan for ongoing investments in the facility. The institution lacked the resources to evaluate data from energy management (EMS), building management (BMS), and other building systems; they recognized the value that data analytics and machine learning could provide and chose to pilot these technologies on campus in their flagship building. The data analytics and intelligence system aggregate internal data sources like energy consumption and third party weather data to build a predictive model for energy utilization in the building. The real-time data model and analytics engine the campus engineering team understand energy consumption patterns in the facility and to identify what systems are driving energy use deviations throughout the year.
Many owners and developers don't believe they can make an existing building technology-enabled. Using a Smart Building Implementation Model also works for repurposing a building. Defining the occupant and operational vision of the building through a digital strategy development and outlining an systems integration plan are part of the process. However, an important step in a brownfield project is evaluating current technologies and building infrastructure to determine if they can enable the occupant and operational goals, the most economical and systematic path for integration, and can their APIs and protocols be used. Once this evaluation is completed, a final technology and integration plan is completed - very similar to a new construction smart building plan.
The rapid advancement of smart building technologies enables organizations to implement technologies that provide a foundation for other initiatives. LEDG works with leaders to identify solutions, such as networked sensors to provide facility patterns and occupancy tracking. These networked systems provide a platform to easily install and adopt other smart building technologies. Depending on your industry, one smart building technology can help you lower operating costs, improve patient, student, and visitor experiences, or locate assets as an example. LEDG can help you map all the potential opportunities and create a budget and technology requirements to deliver the results and outcomes you need.
An organization managing a prominent commercial facility had strong ambitions to leverage a smart building's power and simplify building systems across a shared network backbone. LEDG served as the owner’s Master Systems Integration Consultant, working across design disciplines to ensure building technologies were designed, specified, and implemented to ensure access to building systems data, communication flow between systems, coordinated naming schemas, and centralized monitoring points for the operations staff. LEDG’s work integrated technologies like building management systems, lighting controls, energy management, parking, electrical vehicle charging, vertical transportation, and waste management across a shared network backbone and to a centralized interface for monitoring and control.
Significant changes in demographics, technology, and economics transform occupant experiences and reshape campus-based real estate strategy. Spaces are now, more than ever, focused on user success as well as the utilization of physical assets. Industries such as higher education, healthcare, high tech, and life sciences, which typically have campus environments, need a lifecycle and continuous improvement approach for sustainable and scalable smart building design and implementation. LEDG helps create a connected campus through digital and physical infrastructure assessment and planning.
The commissioning of today’s integrated building systems requires expertise beyond mechanical and electrical skills. Smart building and technology commissioning processes are necessary to create engaging, connected experiences for occupants in today’s modern facilities. LEDG works alongside owners to integrate smart building and technology systems into the testing and commissioning planning process, developing integrated systems testing plans that validate system performance, effective data transmission, and responsive digital experiences.