HOUSTON – Pennzoil Place has been named the “Most Intelligent Office Building Project” in the 16th annual Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards (“Digie”) competition presented by Realcomm and IBcon.
Transwestern leases and manages the 1.4-million-square-foot, Class A high-rise in downtown Houston. Pennzoil Place, owned by Metropolis Investment Holdings Inc., utilizes Cisco’s Internet of Everything to connect all building systems, increasing the building efficiency, improving tenant satisfaction and identifying opportunities that have since lowered energy costs by 32 percent.
Said Transwestern’s Roger Vasquez, director of engineering – management services. “We continuously work to optimize the technology performance of Pennzoil Place, and this recognition is a testament to the ownership’s accomplishments in providing the best possible environment for its tenants through sustainability and intelligent building automation.”
Transwestern began by automating processes for temperature control to work-order management. Through the Internet of Everything system, building engineers can monitor and manage building systems remotely from tablets or laptops. These efforts reduced energy costs by 21 percent from 2011 to 2012 and another 11 percent in first eight months of 2013.
Pennzoil Place, 36-story towers developed by Hines in the early 1970s, was named the Building of the Decade in 1975 by famed New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable. Pop artist Any Warhol photographed the building.