How One Condo Leveraged BuildingLink Platform to Bolster Its Technological Front Line
Gani Gjonbalaj
June 29, 2015 — In Manhattan, Gani Gjonbalaj has been superintendent since 2006 at a state-of-the-art condominium that comes with many bells and whistles. The Lion's Head, at 121 West 19th Street, was the scene of a headline-making explosion in 2002 and was subsequently gutted and converted from a commercial space into residential condos. The building opened in 2005 and now attracts A-List celebrities.
"The renovation meant that we had the opportunity to put in new systems and new technologies," says Gjonbalaj, who boasts of the building's 21st-century heating systems, cooling tower, security cameras, fire alarms, and video intercom systems that are all monitored or controlled by computer. While those digital cogs turn over behind the scenes, Gjonbalaj says it is a communication platform called BuildingLink that most residents recognize as their building's technology front line.
"We scan each package that comes in and residents are sent a message saying they have mail, dry cleaning, or UPS," he explains. "I can message all residents that we're having water shut down and people who are home or away or at work know. It is very effective."
An enhanced security add-on offered by BuildingLink is a computerized log of spare apartment keys that requires a fingerprint scan to unlock a storage box. Apartment keys are tracked and their time out of the box — while in the hands of contractors, staff, or residents — is monitored. There are few lost keys and no question marks over who had a key at a specific time.
"In the old days, we didn't have so much computer usage," says Gjonbalaj. "We didn't have cameras where you could monitor things. Now, I can be on vacation and still monitor cameras from my computer or my telephone and see how everything is running."
Gjonbalaj says building management keeps staff up to date on technology advances but old-fashioned techniques — like talking to other supers and building staff who work in neighborhood buildings — can be helpful as well. Superintendents, it turns out, can be super-competitive.
"Talking to other supers keeps me up to date so I can see what I might want to use and maybe I can gloat and say I have this and you don't and maybe I can teach you a thing or two," laughs Gjonbalaj. "For me it is always a challenge. I want to be the best at what I do. We are competitive. Healthy competition is always good."
Click here to read more about how technology is changing the role of the superintendent.