Design Trends: Five Ways to Optimize the Office

Smart Parking Systems

Code and market requirements mean that the amount of parking in a building needs to support the office population. With new technologies, the footprint to provide this parking can be less. We saw this firsthand when we designed the parking facilities at Midtown Union. Even with two decks at the north and south end of the site, we weren't going to hit our target parking counts. Working with the group Parking Guidance Systems we installed an addressable LED-based system. Cameras in the facility read the vehicle’s license plate, which then connects to the gates. If the car is registered to a regular subscriber, the gates automatically open, making entering and exiting a swift process.

Parking for visitors is also easy. Each space has a colored LED indicator over it, which can be programmed to change as the various users/visitors come and go throughout the day. In the evening, when the office users are leaving, the LEDs will change colors and designations, opening those spaces up to multifamily or retail visitors. The system is also aware of how many spaces are open on each level, so you know immediately the best level to find parking.

The system saved about 10% of the parking space needs, which is equivalent to an entire parking level which costs millions of dollars.

App-Controlled Technologies

While destination elevators have been a go-to in projects for years, new app-destination dispatch elevators mean the elevator can be called prior to entering an elevator bay. We used the Agile system at Midtown Union. As users walk into the building, they can call the elevator with their phone without having to physically touch the keypad. The elevator will recognize your home floor destination. This was one of the touchless strategies. Other systems include power-activated revolving doors. These technologies mean workers get where they need to go faster and with less exposure to surfaces.

Well-Being Made Easy

Healthy building certifications, like Fitwel and WELL, are becoming a priority in design. At Midtown Union, we incorporated sound systems into stairwells to pump in music and encourage employees to use the stairs for floor-to-floor travel. We created more outdoor amenity spaces, featuring Upfit structures by Forms+Surfaces where people can conduct meetings or work remotely. For strong Wi-Fi, we installed repeaters throughout the project site so employees can get up and work from anywhere.

Check out our Insights for details on how we added biophilia to Midtown Union to support wellness initiatives.?

Automatic Sun-Shading Systems

Electrochromic glass systems, like View glass, are increasing in use, as are other programmable daylight options, like automatic blinds and roller shades. These adjust based on building orientation or sun-tracking sensors, which can be mounted to the rooftops of buildings.?With View glass, the surface of the fa?ade is an electrically tinted glass that can automatically adjust via sun tracking sensors. We pioneered the first use case in the Atlanta market when we designed the AC Hotel at Phipps. Through our relationship with the vendor, we were able to have the complete?glass package installed on the building for the developer, and now full office towers around the city are being built out of View glass.

We also recently used this technology on Avocet Tower, a LEED Platinum project. While these systems can be an expensive up-front cost, there are more benefits down the line from energy savings. There are also current Federal Tax incentives being offered to offset some of the intimal capital cost of these glazing systems that may help accelerate the adoption of these technologies over the next several years.

Calculating Data in Real Time

Corporations have embraced healthy building certifications and integrating dashboards to track things like energy consumption. These are being placed at key locations, such as the main public areas or at employee workstations, allowing users to see how their actions affect building performance. In some cases, landlords are letting their tenants share in the savings when they monitor and reduce their consumption through submetering. Tenants and employees can create policies within their own spaces and see the benefits in cost savings. More tenants are also demanding options like these to adopt ESG strategies in design.

“We as a profession would always love to see our buildings get smarter - if we can get good data, we can continually improve them.”- Mike Service , Associate Principal, Cooper Carry.

Let Cooper Carry help you integrate the latest tech into your next office project.