Designing Impact: More Than a Century of Innovation Led to the Smart Buildings of Today

1879 Lighting

The Cotton Filament Lightbulb

Thomas Edison used a carbonized cotton filament — the part of the light bulb that glows — to produce the first long-burning light bulb. It lasted for an impressive 13 and a half hours. His work built on that of inventors Joseph Swan and Warren De la Rue. It’s debatable who invented the light bulb, but who commercialized it? That is a crown only Edison wears. "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles," said Edison. Much-needed capital to fund these early experiments at Edison Electric Light Company came from the company’s individual partners as well as Drexel Morgan & Co., which would go on to become JPMorgan Chase. Within a year, Edison had added carbonized bamboo as a filament, a move that resulted in 1,200 hours of light from a single bulb.

Reference: http://ethw.org/Early_Light_Bulbs

1882 Lighting & Power

Edison’s Power Station the Electrified Office

In just a few short years, Edison, ever the salesman, convinced the city of New York to allow him to light the length of Pearl Street. To do this he not only needed hundred of bulbs, but also a power station to keep them glowing. At 3 p.m. on September 4, 1882, Edison’s station (another invention) roared to life, and 400 electric light bulbs cast a glow over lower Manhattan. A few months later, the Drexel Morgan & Co. headquarters on Wall Street made the switch to electric bulbs. The company continued to show its support a decade later, when it arranged a merger between Edison’s company with Thomson-Houston Electric, thus forming General Electric.

Reference: http://www.menloparkmuseum.org/history/thomas-edison-and-menlo-park/

1885 Transport

Steam-Powered Elevators

The first skyscraper, the 10-story Home Insurance Building, opened in Chicago. Not to be outdone, New York City followed with the Tower Building in 1889. The tall structures were made more feasible as places of business thanks to the steam-powered elevators. To power these buildings, horse-drawn carts lined up with a constant delivery of coal needed to keep the buildings running. Progress smelled like burning coal.

Reference: The American Skyscraper, 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height by Joseph J. Korom and https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/02/worlds-first-skyscraper-chicago-home-insurance-building-history

1889 Climate

The First HVAC

Inventor Alfred Wolff turned Carnegie Hall into an experiment in cooling and ventilation by combining fans with large blocks of ice. Within five years, he would install the first true air-conditioning system in the New York Stock Exchange, which regulated both temperature and humidity.

Reference: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/an-apparatus-for-treating-air-the-modern-air-conditioner

1894 Communication

The First Intercom System

Early attempts at interoffice communication were a mix of “electric call-bells, speaking tubes and pneumatic [activated by gas or air] tubes,” according to The Boston Globe. Then came the Kellogg intercom, patented in 1894. Intercoms grew in popularity because they were less expensive to install than telephone systems. Even though the first telephone was demonstrated in 1876, it took another 25 years for American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) to complete a national telephone network, permitting business communications to reach far beyond the adjacent floor.

Reference: American Cities and Technology: Wilderness to Wired City By Gerrylynn K. Roberts, Philip Steadman

Reference: https://www.officemuseum.com/communications_equipment.htm

1962 Lighting

The Red LED

The never-ending race to light the world arrived at the light-emitting diode, better known as the LED. General Electric's Nick Holonyak invented a red diode that first appeared to consumers in the 1970s on calculator displays and as indicator lights on devices like remote controls, replacing small but power-hungry incandescent bulbs.

Reference: https://energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb

Reference: https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/corporate/pnnl-15149_market_assessment.pdf

1973 Management Systems

Computerized Building Management

Oil embargoes in the 1970s triggered an energy crisis in the U.S. Expensive computerized systems for controlling many aspects of a building–such as air-conditioning, lighting, mechanics–which appeared in the 1960s, became more attractive. They also became more sophisticated. Night and day schedules for lighting and the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) systems were adopted to sync with changing employee numbers throughout a 24-hour cycle.

But reducing energy consumption is not always simple. As buildings tightened windows and walls to prevent climate-controlled air from escaping, indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide increased. This could impact employee productivity by as much as 50 percent, a Harvard study would later find. A truly intelligent building management system was still lacking.

Reference: https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/corporate/pnnl-15149_market_assessment.pdf

Reference: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/15-10037/

1990s Lighting

The White LED

The invention of the blue LED by Professors Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, and Hiroshi Amano continued to push the LED along. They would later win a Nobel Prize for their work. The blue diode combined with a yellow fluorescent made the resulting light seem white to the eye. White LEDs would soon become a mix of red, green, and blue light. LEDs went on the market, but were relatively inefficient and expensive to produce commercially.

Reference: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29518521

Reference: https://energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb

1998 Sustainability

The LEED Rating System

The first version of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system launched, indicating that the world is paying attention to a building’s impact on environmental and human health through five categories: energy efficiency, materials used, water savings, indoor environment quality, and sustainable site landscaping.

Reference: http://enviroinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/GREEN-BUILDING-A-Retrospective-History-of-LEED-Certification-November-2012.pdf

2016-2017 Smart systems and sustainability

Sensors and Smart Building Systems

JPMorgan Chase collaborated with GE once again to pursue innovation and sustainability. With the help of Current, powered by GE, the world’s largest single-order of LEDs was installed across nearly 4,500 of the bank’s branches and 60 of their office sites. The initiative is on track to cut lighting energy usage in half. That is equal to taking 27,000 cars off the road or preserving more than 100,000 acres of forest. When the project is completed, an additional 25 million square feet of commercial space will be lit by energy-saving LEDs.

The collaboration will also add an intelligent environments platform to control lighting levels, irrigation, water, ventilation, heating, and cooling at branches. Through infrared and motion sensors, this system learns and predicts human behavior and adjusts accordingly. The sensors take into account moment-by-moment changes in weather and natural light, even identifying when the sun goes behind a cloud.

And to overcome the hurdle of increased carbon dioxide and indoor pollutants that have historically accompanied greener buildings, the sensors will monitor these levels as well. Using this collective data, the system adjusts lighting, airflow, and ventilation for maximum energy efficiency and comfort. Installing these systems will further reduce JPMorgan Chase’s electric and gas consumption by 15 percent, and water and irrigation by 20 percent.

Reference: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/15-10037/#tab2