Page 20 - Security Today, February 2018

Luxury in Your Apartment New Kansas City homes offer best in security, plus convenience
BCy Howard Carder
ommerce Tower on Main, in Kansas City, Mo., is redefin- ing downtown apartment liv- ing by creating an energy-ef- ficient, vertical neighborhood
with luxury apartments, exclusive amenities and a connected lifestyle. The building’s LEED Gold Certified community combines the best of traditional craftsmanship within a resort-style setting.
With 355 apartments, Commerce Tower on Main also features on-site restaurants, a pharmacy, outdoor kitchen and an indoor dog park. It is the place where technology and service come together to create a com- plete urban community.
Natalie Scott, director of operations for EPC Real Estate Group, said that there are several key points of focus for renovating and upgrading the Commerce Tower. Originally built in the mid-1960s, Commerce Tower is a historic site, requiring a great deal of care and planning to preserve the original character while making room for modern upgrades.
“Once upon a time this building was 500,000 square feet of office space,” Scott said. “We basically came in, emptied it out and turned it into apartments and about 150,000 square feet of commercial space. It was impor- tant that the building’s new space be energy ef- ficient, built with sustainable materials and be as modern, safe and secure as possible.”
Adding security to the facility required products that were not only sustainable but also worked with mixed-use residential facili- ties and provided the appropriate aesthetics for a historic retrofit. ASSA ABLOY was able to help Commerce Tower meet the challenges of environmental product declarations and provide labels for sustainable construction with its access control, locks, doors, frame, exit devices and power supplies.
“Providing solutions that work with every single need is critical to our shared success with our clients,” said Cliff Smith, integrated solutions specialist at ASSA ABLOY Door Security Solutions. “We love when we get to partner together on projects that require multiple levels of specificity. The end goal is always to protect the people, places and as- sets involved. But protecting the planet and providing a high level of good design in the process is also a critical part of our efforts.”
Access Control
Part of the modernization of Commerce Tower includes the use of keyless, wireless door locks for all apartment doors and resi-
dential access points.
To achieve this level of credentialing,
management selected SARGENT IN120 Wi- Fi mortise locks and doors and frames from both Graham and Curries for all 355 apart- ments. The facility also implemented HID card readers on the perimeter of the facility, and SARGENT electrified exit devices, Se- curitron Power Supplies and Norton Power Operators.
A keyless, battery-powered door lock also served the purpose of both bringing in an ex- ceptional level of modern convenience for res- idents while also allowing for the lock instal- lation without running any wiring or cabling through the historic walls of the building.
“This is basically a keyless community where residents use a mobile app for creden- tials to enter their apartments,” Scott said. “This is the first time that this type of com- munity has come to downtown Kansas City. It’s an exciting feature, and residents have embraced the technology and are enjoying the benefits.”
Mixed-use Solutions
Using the space as both commercial and residential also introduces a unique set of re- quirements for access control and security, as the building doesn’t behave simply as apart- ments nor does it operate only during com- mercial business hours. The introduction of community amenities such as a gym, swim- ming pool, sauna and playground introduces
another layer to the system’s complexity. Add to that the fact that multi-family and multi-use buildings are door-dense en- vironments. That means the management of hundreds of brass keys and mechanical lock- sets is an extremely cumbersome solution. It results in the risk of lost keys and the high cost and inconvenience of having to rekey locks. Mechanical key systems are difficult for property managers to effectively manage access for tenants, employees, visitors and contractors while ensuring that only those
who are authorized can gain access.
“One of our priorities with mixed-use facilities is to find ways that simplify the system and minimizes touchpoints for staff that are managing the system,” Smith said. “This largely links back to the credentialing component. In many buildings today you see environments where they need to manage different parts of the building with different software and different credentials, but at the Commerce Tower they selected components that are interoperable with their chosen fla- vor of management software. This means their staff can manage the system more ef-
fectively and efficiently.”
Locks such as the IN120 offer advance-
ments in technology that make it possible to deploy a secure, manageable and cost-effec- tive multi-family housing solution without the need for complex or expensive infra- structure. Further, the locks improve on the ability to manage access remotely, assist with
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