Economies of scale make transformative technology affordable in new buildings

By Jeff Carpenter  The demand for technology solutions in buildings continues to increase, partially because of the ever-expanding role of technology in our personnel lives. We mature with technology as individuals and then we demand it as consumers and as employees. This means that if building owners who operate a business don’t keep up with transformative building technology, they find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.  Building costs, of course, are

Health Information Technology, or HIT: What is it, really, and why does it impact design?

By Corey Gaarde  With literally thousands of definitions of health information technology (HIT) surfacing from a simple Google search, it’s not always easy to understand what HIT is, exactly, and how it affects the design of a healthcare facility.   In the design world, HIT is sometimes referred to as electronic health records (EHR) such as Epic or Cerner; network; telecom; PCs, printers, and fax machines; low voltage systems; and medical