Commercial
Smart Building Integration vs. Traditional Construction
Building technology is sold as a category and should be bought as line items. Some of it pays back inside three years. Some of it is a maintenance contract with a screen attached.
February 24, 2026 · By Sandra Burga
What reliably pays back
Lighting controls and occupancy sensing, because Title 24 largely requires them anyway and the energy saving is real. Networked HVAC scheduling on multi-zone spaces. Leak detection in any building with tenant space beneath a wet area. Access control, which usually pays for itself the first time a key set is lost.
What to prewire and decide later
Conduit, pathways and panel capacity are cheap during construction and expensive afterwards. Cameras, sensors and displays get better and cheaper every year. Build the infrastructure, defer the devices.
What frequently disappoints
Proprietary systems with no local service, dashboards nobody logs into after month two, and integrations that depend on a single vendor remaining in business. Ask who maintains it in year five before you buy it in year one.
Questions on this topic
Does this add much to a tenant improvement budget?
Infrastructure and controls typically add a modest percentage. The expensive part is usually the ongoing service agreement rather than the installation.
Can you coordinate the integrators?
Yes. On tenant improvement and design-build projects, low voltage and controls coordination sits inside our scope rather than being left to the tenant.
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