Sub-Community Event: Integrating Smart Buildings Into The Design and Construction Phase

This is a virtual event recap. This event was be exclusive to building owners and a select group of Nexus Labs partner vendors who are knowledgeable about the design and construction phase.

One of the most valuable takeaways from NexusCon was the opportunity to connect with peers in breakout discussions—so we’ve brought that same energy to our virtual events.

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During the design and construction phase, smart building outcomes battle against misaligned incentives, fragmented responsibilities, and missed opportunities for long-term building performance. This event is all about learning from each other: how are your fellow building owners tackling these challenges, and what strategies are proving successful?

In this event, we prepped conversations some quick thoughts from industry experts about the topic (~10 minutes). Afterwards, we facilitated smaller breakout rooms to discuss. The heart of the event was open, peer-driven discussions.

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Introduction

Breakout Sessions

Within the breakout sessions, a recurring theme was that smart building systems are often treated as afterthoughts in the design process—frequently condensed to a single vague page in a spec book, while other systems receive detailed attention. Several owners and consultants emphasized the importance of embedding smart building requirements early, ideally through clear Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) documents that define technology infrastructure, integration goals, and expected use cases. For example, Brookfield Properties had success by designing and installing converged network infrastructure early, which allowed them to delay selecting fast-evolving technologies like DAS equipment until later in construction, without compromising system integration.

Participants also stressed the value of ownership advocacy throughout the project lifecycle. Successful teams had dedicated owner reps or IT/security ops teams actively involved as contractors, ensuring alignment between design, construction, and operations. Projects often failed when stakeholder involvement was too narrow or too broad—either one person making all decisions or too many stakeholders leading to confusion. Several organizations have created standardized smart building specs across their portfolios to streamline integration, but these still require persistent advocacy to avoid value engineering and disjointed vendor execution. Ultimately, the key takeaways were: engage early, focus on infrastructure first, establish a clear long-term vision, and continuously reinforce the operational value to keep smart building goals intact through design and construction.

Conclusion