Insights

Virtual Reality Fire Drills and Life Safety Training

January 13, 2021

Virtual Reality is proving to be extremely useful for far more than just running fire drills during the pandemic period.  Buildings deploying SafetyNet VR plan to use it for routine life safety training and ongoing fire drills over the long run. To date, office and medical research buildings in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York,…

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Seattle Office Tower Deploys First Virtual Reality Fire Drills

October 18, 2020

As noted in Markets Insider and the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Russell Investments Center will soon be the first commercial office building in the world to conduct fire drills through virtual reality (VR). With the COVID-19 pandemic making traditional fire drills impractical, the Seattle high-rise opted to deploy AK’s new virtual reality technology to help ensure its occupants know how to respond in an emergency.   The 42-story commercial office…

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Desktop Stairwell

Virtual Reality Fire Drills

June 29, 2020

Traditional fire drills, which require hundreds of building occupants to gather in stairwells and in assembly areas, are problematic during a pandemic. Even after public officials authorize a return to full occupancy, tenants in high-rise office buildings will remain leery of participating in drills for the foreseeable future. To help buildings maintain their life safety…

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Life Safety Training and Drills When You Cannot Gather

May 11, 2020

With a widely available vaccine to COVID-19 not expected for another 12 to 18 months at the earliest, commercial office property managers will be challenged to maintain their life safety and risk management programs. Gathering people together for fire drills and staff & floor warden training is now untenable, and yet buildings remain responsible for…

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Building Operations After Reopening

April 22, 2020

With the end of stay-at-home orders approaching in many states, property and facility teams are focusing on how building operations will need to adapt during the pandemic’s next phase. Until a Covid-19 vaccine is widely available (at least a year from now, and likely longer), the risk of infection will remain high even in already…

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Building Operations During Extended Low Occupancy

April 4, 2020

With states extending the duration of their stay-at-home orders from weeks to months (now into June in some locations), many property teams are adjusting building operations to reflect an extended period of low to no occupancy.  From a health and life safety perspective, the two main considerations are air and water, but property teams are…

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Pandemic Response for Property Teams (Volume 2)

March 17, 2020

Now that many major US jurisdictions are making big moves to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, property teams need to begin moving into the next phase of their response. Most office buildings have already implemented the initial response procedures (escalating cleaning protocols, educating tenants, encouraging work from home, etc.).  The second phase involves…

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Pandemic Preparedness for Property Teams

February 24, 2020

With the Covid-19 coronavirus spreading within the United States, now is a good time for property and facility managers to review their pandemic preparedness plans. Basic protocols for infectious diseases help minimize transmission between building occupants, reassure tenants that management is doing all it can to protect their health and safety, and reduce business disruption…

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Pets in the Workplace

November 2, 2018

The increase of tenants with pet-friendly policies creates a host of challenges for property and facility managers. Buildings must establish clear rules and disciplinary procedures surrounding pet behavior – fighting, noise, accidents. Cleaning protocols and janitorial contracts need to be escalated (it takes up to six times longer to clean with an upright vacuum equipped…

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Weather-Caused Disasters Remain the Most Destructive

March 7, 2018

Terrorist attacks and active shooter events garner extensive media attention, but in terms of lives lost, property damage, and overall social disruption, weather-related disasters dwarf man-made incidents. With World Meteorological Day quickly approaching (March 23), we thought it was an opportune time to provide some context for weather-related disasters: As was noted extensively in recent…

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