Bisnow put on a gathering for commercial real estate construction and development to explore the implications of emerging technology on the industry.
Peter Campot of Suffolk Construction described how behind the times construction is, and as manufacturing and BIM come into play, buildings will finally achieve construction efficiencies that the auto industry figured out a hundred years ago. He finds it mindboggling how people still look at first costs of energy efficiency projects and design choices that will have such good paybacks. People seem to not believe the math. He also sees the future as iPads, wireless, and did not know where offices will need to be in five-ten years.
Kishore Varanasi at CBT Architects talked about the need to get beyond individual buildings and to look at the ecology of buildings in a neighborhood – creating “interesting fabrics” in “superblocks.” He noted that millenials are driving 33% less than the prior generation and want live-work areas like Kendall Sq. Inside offices, younger workers are fine with a reduction of personal space. They want food, team space, and multiple environments for multiple types of activities – like at home. Incubator spaces demonstrate this, and he observed these are no longer “leftover” spaces, but central to the vibrancy of cities and enterprises. We need more.
John Hannum of IBA/Viridian talked about energy efficiency changing the way people work and the cost of space, and Dan Ryan of Pegasystems talked about facilities managers who don’t get feedback from their employees about sustainability, that it is customer-driven. Peter Calkains (Forest City Boston COO) talked about buildings being flexible to handle changing technology and how teams are collaborating more to produce quality product. Jonathan Rosenthal at Meredith Management talked about his Fenway air-rights project and getting the neighborhood on board with some enticing solar panels (among other things). Dan Ryan closed the session wondering aloud about mobile technology and if people even need office space.
I found the morning very wide-ranging, packing a lot of diverse perspectives into a short conversation. But many good nuggets of observations about commercial real estate. I met a lot of good people, even a couple of leads. Always good to network at these things!