'Smart Connect 2022' honors inaugural 'Smart Building of the Year Award' winner

“Integrating the Ecosystem.” The tagline for CI&M's sibling publication Smart Buildings Technology is simple, but the reality is complex.

Ask anyone in the building industry why the sector isn’t as intelligent, streamlined, and productized as the auto or tech industries, and you will get everything from an emphatic nod to a sigh or patronizing pat on the back.

The multifaceted mechanisms—financial, tangible, and internal—of developing, designing, constructing, and operating the built environment are challenging to replicate across different job sites, cities, teams, and circumstances.

One component gone awry and the result can fall short or fail. That makes success stories all the more admirable and invaluable to SBT readers and the smart building industry.

To celebrate what is possible in the built environment when smart planning, design, construction, operations, and technology work together to foster positive outcomes for an owner, occupants, the community, and the environment, SBT has now announced the Smart Building of the Year Award.

2022 Smart Building of the Year award recipient: PAE Living Building, in Portland, Ore.

The inaugural recipient of this program is the PAE Living Building, in Portland, Ore., by ZGF Architects, MEP engineer and technology designers PAE, developer Edlen & Co., and Walsh Construction Co., among several other stakeholders.

Realized through a developer-led funding model, the five-story, 58,000-square-foot mixed-use building is designed to last 500 years through its strategic design, which integrates smart systems to monitor its energy and water independence, a seismic-resilient structure, durable and nontoxic materials, and biophilic, nature-inspired design principles.

Additionally, the PAE Living Building benefits the surrounding community, contributing renewable energy to a local affordable housing project.

"Our hope is to see many more buildings like the PAE Living Building," Marc Brune, PAE principal and mechanical engineer, tells SBT. "We need buildings that are smart about energy, water, materials, and ultimately carbon. Integrated technology stitches it all together and brings it alive."

Want to learn more about the project? Register today to attend the free, virtual conference Smart Connect 2022 on Wed., Nov. 16.

PAE's Brune will officially accept the award and present the project at 12–12:30 p.m. EST. Additionally, look for a feature article detailing the project’s execution in SBT’s forthcoming November 2022 issue.

The PAE Living Building was selected from a short list compiled by SBT's editors and reviewed by an esteemed jury of industry experts.

The three jurors are: Jeff Carpenter, senior principal and vice president of India operations, at IMEG Corp.; Carrie Goetz, principal and chief technology officer at StrategITcom and vice chair of Women in BICSI; and June Grant, design principal at Blink!Lab Architecture.

At the all-day Smart Connect program, you will also hear from industry experts from AEM, ABB Building Solutions, Dormakaba, Panduit, Belden, and other leading companies and associations.