What started out as a consulting assignment ended with the installation of a new intelligent building platform, incubated by a leading engineering design firm, into two high-rise office buildings in Chicago.
The IoT-enabled platform, which unites a building’s various workflows, is from Cohesion, a company launched in August 2018 after being spun out from Environmental Systems Design (ESD), which has been at the forefront of designing intelligent buildings. The two buildings in which Cohesion’s app is now live are owned by The John Buck Company, a Chicago-based real estate services developer.
John Buck had initially hired ESD to upgrade the technology in different buildings within the developer’s portfolio. After John Buck asked about possible vendors, ESD decided that it would develop the app itself, according to Laura Hagan, Cohesion’s director of marketing.
She explains that the two buildings—the 35-story, 807,000-sf 151 North Franklin, which opened in 2018; and the 48-story 1.12-milliion-sf 155 Wacker Drive, which opened in 2009—are rigged with I-nodes, little black boxes that, she says, act like routers that connect different systems. The I-nodes transmit data to Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, which in turn supports the app.
One of Cohesion’s software partners is Iotium, whose product integrates with and connects systems already in the building.
Building occupants can use Cohesion's app to gain more direct access to a building's amenities. Image: Cohesion
Cohesion’s software provides building occupants with comprehensive and direct access to their building’s amenities, information, and documents. It also provides a single interface for occupants to take actions, such as reserving parking spots and bike storage, or viewing the availability of equipment in the building’s fitness center.
Select tenant companies have chosen to launch mobile credentials and/or building visitor management functionalities. So, for example, if a tenant invites a guest to a meeting in the wired building, Cohesion would streamline the process by setting up the appointment, alerting security and relevant parties about the guest, and would send an email to the company upon the visitor’s arrival.
All 13 tenant companies at 151 North Franklin and the 40 tenant companies at 155 Wacker are using the app. When a new tenant comes into the buildings, they are onboarded onto the app.
“The real estate industry is experiencing significant technological disruption, and our solution benefits all stakeholders across the operational lifecycle—from owners to tenants,” says Thru Shivakumar, Cohesion’s CEO. “By connecting all the systems and human interactions in a building, we can provide the most powerful insights to deliver efficient and sustainable building operations,”
Cohesion charges the building’s management a setup fee and a monthly service fee. “It’s up to them whether they want to pass along those costs to the tenants,” says Hagan.
The new company is currently in fundraising mode, and is expected to close its latest financing round in June, at which point it plans to hire 35 employees over the following 12 months. (Cohesion currently operates with a 24-person team located in Chicago and Banaglore, India.) Hagan says that, including John Buck, Cohesion has commitments from three developers across eight buildings.
It also has an innovation pipeline to develop new uses for its app, possibly including building performance analytics.
Related Stories
| Apr 18, 2012
Positive conditions persist for Architecture Billings Index
The AIA reported the March ABI score was 50.4, following a mark of 51.0 in February; greatest demand is for commercial building projects.
| Apr 17, 2012
Princeton Review releases “Guide to 322 Green Colleges”
The guide profiles 322 institutions of higher education in the U.S. and Canada that demonstrate notable commitments to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation.
| Apr 17, 2012
FMI report examines federal construction trends
Given the rapid transformations occurring in the federal construction sector, FMI examines the key forces accelerating these changes, as well as their effect on the industry.
| Apr 16, 2012
University of Michigan study seeks to create efficient building design
The result, the researchers say, could be technologies capable of cutting the carbon footprint created by the huge power demands buildings place on the nation’s electrical grid.
| Apr 16, 2012
Batson-Cook breaks ground on senior living center in Brunswick, Ga.
Marks the third Benton House project constructed by Batson-Cook.
| Apr 16, 2012
Drake joins EYP as science and technology project executive
Drake’s more than 30 years of diversified design and project delivery experience spans a broad range of complex building types.
| Apr 16, 2012
$80 million in export financing for solar project in India
The project, “Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy Private Limited,” is a subsidiary of Reliance Power and is being co-financed by the Asian Development Bank and FMO, the Dutch development bank.
| Apr 13, 2012
Best Commercial Modular Buildings Recognized
Judges scored building entries on a number of criteria including architectural excellence, technical innovation, cost effectiveness, energy efficiency, and calendar days to complete, while marketing pieces were judged on strategy, implementation, and quantifiable results. Read More
| Apr 11, 2012
Shawmut appoints Tripp as business development director
Tripp joined Shawmut in 1998 and previously held the positions of assistant superintendent, superintendent, and national construction manager.
| Apr 11, 2012
C.W. Driver completes Rec Center on CSUN campus
The state-of-the-art fitness center supports university’s goal to encourage student recruitment and retention.
