• Posted: June 9, 2021
• automation, better construction, Construction Technology, contactless office, thermal camera systems

At the beginning of 2020, the local commercial real estate market was booming. There were almost 30 percent more jobs located in Chicago’s central business district than there were a decade earlier, and the downtown office market was coming off its best year since 2007. Then, on March 11, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in a downtown office building was confirmed. Though it wasn’t immediately apparent, it’s now clear that the commercial real estate market in the Chicago metro area was permanently changed that day. Within weeks, the vast majority of employees downtown and in suburban Cook County were working from home, where many remain.

While it remains to be seen how individual companies will handle the return to the office, the pandemic made clear the need for increased health and safety measures in the workplace. Safely reopening offices throughout Chicagoland requires a broad evaluation of how the workplace has traditionally been set up and a plan to modify the environment in ways that mitigate the risk of COVID-19 and other infectious disease transmissions for the long term. This can be accomplished both by reimagining the physical layout of office spaces to create space between employees and by leveraging technology to reduce opportunities for virus transmission. 

Through automation, Powering Chicago contractors can create a virtually touch-free experience from the moment an employee enters an office to the moment they exit, powering a better workplace for all. In fact, for years the unionized electrical industry in Cook County has been installing a range of technology solutions that make possible a contactless environment, and now is the time to deploy them widely in office buildings throughout the region.

For example, automatic doors are ubiquitous at newer commercial properties, and with the ease and speed with which they can be retrofitted in older buildings, there are few barriers to installing them in offices. Less common, but similarly straightforward to install, are thermal camera systems in highly trafficked locations that provide a contactless first line of defense against the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses. Access points like security gates can be controlled with fobs or mobile devices that don’t require an ID badge to touch another surface and elevator controls need not require someone to press a button with their hand. In bathrooms, motion-activated faucets, toilets, and paper towel dispensers eliminate several additional high-touch surfaces. And with continued uncertainty about how a return to in-person work will unfold and the ways it will affect businesses’ spatial needs, investments in wireless connectivity offer the potential for office spaces to be quickly reconfigured as needs change.

While these modifications require an upfront investment from building owners, managers, or tenants, the cost is negligible when considering an alternate reality in which the buildings that drive our economy sit empty. The sooner we take advantage of the technology available to us and implement it through Chicagoland, the sooner workers will be able to safely return to their offices and the stronger Chicago’s economy will be. 

To learn more about the range of contactless solutions offered by our members to power Chicago into a better workplace for all, visit poweringchicago.com/contactlessoffice.