A July 2021 blog by the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) rounds up the association's list of 7 Key Examples Of Smart Buildings.
By way of introducing the topic, in response to the seminal question, "What makes a building smart?," CABA opines how:
Unlike the green building industry, which has firmly established the LEED standard, intelligent buildings have not had a definitive rating or evaluation system based on a set of specific criteria.
The more recently developed WELL and RESET standards, for their part, focus on aspects of building performance related to occupant health and well-being; and data structure and data quality.
As the industry continues to move toward more responsive and adaptable buildings, other assessment frameworks have been developed making it possible to certify a building as “intelligent,” and notable examples are the WiredScore certification, the SPIRE Smart Building Program, developed by UL and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and BOMA Canada’s BEST Smart Buildings Certification Program’s Pilot Project, which builds on the success of BOMA BEST Sustainable Buildings.
Each of these frameworks will give building players something to “lean” on—and work toward.
The CABA blog goes on to admit that "while industry participants are certain to draw on these frameworks in future when looking for smart-building examples, for now, coming up with a list of prominent intelligent buildings inevitably becomes a somewhat subjective and arbitrary exercise."
The association adds that "at the same time, the year of the pandemic did bring forward several innovative use cases and here are, in no particular order, seven examples. Each demonstrates innovation in certain key areas—HVAC, lighting, office design (especially post-COVID), and data analytics around occupancy and energy efficiency—all of which support the most valuable use cases for intelligent buildings today."
With fully detailed descriptions briefly excerpted from the full blog article, CABA's 7 Key Examples Of Smart Buildings are as follows:
- 1. Oakland City Center (Oakland, California) -- Oakland City Center is notable for its advanced variable air volume (VAV) system. Developed by Siemens, it collects temperature and humidity data and learns how the system responds to changes in demand via an AI-powered algorithm.
- 2. Frasers Tower (Singapore) -- Developed in conjunction with Bentley Systems and Schneider Electric, Microsoft’s Frasers Tower is a study in operational excellence. Its 179 Bluetooth Beacons and 900 lighting, air quality, and temperature sensors gather data in real-time
- 3. Fulton East (Chicago) -- This 12-story office and retail building was the first commercial building to be designed and constructed for a post-COVID-19 environment.
- 4. Vodafone Group Global Headquarters (London, England) -- In 2020, Vodafone won the Verdantix Smart Building Innovation Award in the 'Corporate Headquarters Retrofit' category for its innovative collaboration with GE. Together, they developed and deployed a multi-sensor network that gathers raw data on everything from air quality and energy usage to occupant sensing.
- 5. Corning Optical Communications Headquarters (Charlotte, North Carolina) -- The Corning Optical Communications HQ building served as a pilot for the SPIRE smart building criteria. It contains connectivity in the form of high-end fiber-optic networks, and an array of sensor-based digital health tools.
- 6. U.S. Green Building Council Headquarters (Washington, D.C.) -- Already a high-performing, LEED-platinum certified building since its inception, the U.S. Green Building Council headquarters underwent a retrofit in 2015 to address outdated lighting control systems.
- 7. The Sinclair Hotel (Fort Worth, Texas) -- After a major refurbishment, this 1920s-era structure was transformed from an office building to a Marriott Autograph collection boutique, luxury "digital hotel." The property has been retrofitted with Power-over-Ethernet connectivity and much more.
