Integrated solutions

Basically, buildings today are constructed by designing a shell. Then the plumbing, electrical, HVAC, security, and communications are bid out. Everyone goes to work. Many schedule conflicts, time extensions, change orders, and retrofits later, there is a building. It looks great inside and out. Functionally, it does the job. But how much better it might have been if built as a functional whole - not as a series of inter-connected systems. It might have cost less to build as well as to own and operate. Technology makes it possible to do more with buildings than ever before - provided the technology is used to integrate the many devices, systems, and functions within the brick and mortar. All who own, design, and construct buildings should be striving together to integrate technology - to deliver the most intelligent, most efficient, highest-performing buildings for the people who live and work inside them. Also, not incidentally, to do that at the lowest possible first cost.