Interactive space planning, and virtual building amenity tours, is just some of the work that Heitman Architects is doing that has a broader effect than just building buildings. According to Karl Heitman, president of Heitman Architects, his company understands that there’s some data aspects of what they’re doing with the planning specifications that have a value for owners beyond occupancy as it helps with their facility management.
“We started Heitman Technology about five years ago,” he added. “It was a way for us to introduce what we do from a technical standpoint, where we wouldn’t be competing with other established architects, or even those offering architectural services, because it opens up to a whole different world for corporate real estate.”
The venture has certainly integrated the latest tech into their office space, as Heitman noted that it’s definitely something to see in person.
“If you see it in person, you’ll understand it better,” he said. “For instance, we’re working with Oculus Rift Goggles. Those are virtual reality goggles, and we can navigate through building models with XBOX 360 controllers. More than that, everything in the building can be identified with part numbers and costs.”
Heitman is also using laser scanning to record existing building conditions. “We actually have a drone that can do aerial photography at sites,” Heitman pointed out. “We can look at roof conditions and layouts that aren’t obvious from the ground. The use of Virtual Reality (VR) completely immerses you in a 3D computer environment that allows you to experience a building with a walk through.”
“Augmented Reality allows you to take a model that you’ve done for a future project, and actually insert it into existing conditions where you can overlap what is proposed and what exists,” he continued. “We use Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), where you can communicate with your owners and consultants, among other people, on a single platform. There’s also a program we’re using called Photo Stitch, that allows us to take photos, seam them together, and create 3D models of whatever we’re photographing.”
In 2013, Heitman Architects entered into a collaborative partnership with Tiger Hill Studio to provide cutting edge site and building 3D imaging services. “We can actually fly over sites taking photographs, and then stitch them together to create databases for sites.”
How technology is impacting commercial real estate, according to Heitman, is like what happened to the world when Google Earth put the earth into a virtually accessible model.
“It wasn’t obvious that technology would impact commercial real estate as it has, but technology has affected the entire world. Now we have things like traffic and weather reports that are real time. Everything’s based on a geographical location, so you’re using GSI positioning to overlay data. It’s creative to the point where you can be in a foreign city, take out your phone, put in an address, and it’ll tell you how to get to there.”
“Things like that are going to find itself in the real estate world in ways that the imagination is unlimited,” said Heitman. “For example, if you’re in a building doing maintenance and you need to change a filter on an air handler, on the 14th floor of the east wing in stairwell G, you can actually use a phone with the real estate data in it to navigate you to that location—and tell you what to do when you get there.”
“So all of that data that generally facility managers, building operators and engineers, are doing to maintain properties and buildings, you can basically automate through the same sort of features you have on your cell phone now for navigating the streets,” he continued. “The technology is here, and it’s the application of it that’s entering the real estate world. It’s fascinating.”
Overall in 2015, Heitman believes that things are going to happen faster with technology in the commercial real estate world.
“In the industrial sector, right now vacancy is at an all-time low,” he said. “I think that we’re going to see more creative people being able to leverage data, and information, in ways to move properties, build new properties, or adapt/re-use the existing properties in faster ways that are cost effective, with fewer errors. Basically, strategically hitting the target because of the focus we can now use with the technology we have.”
“The more that people are aware of the technologies out there, the more creative applications will start to emerge,” Heitman continued. “We’re seeing that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in real estate professionals, and how they start to interpret that within new technologies is really going to open this all up.”