Virtual Service Secures Luxury High-Rise Condominium

Although an encrypted card access system was not required to make tenants at developer John Lari’s new luxury building feel secure, he chose to go over and above in his latest residential project at 8 Union Square South. The state-of-the-art system installed by Virtual Service not only secures the building’s entrance, but also provides the necessary elevator floor lockout security for the large, national bank which inhabits the building’s ground level commercial space that shares the common elevator. With a bank as the commercial tenant, there is no room for the slightest error with building security.

For additional convenience and safety, the system also logs every door accessed and card used. In the event of a lost or stolen card, the system can be administered remotely and the card can be deleted. A replacement card specific to the tenant can be activated in a matter of seconds by Virtual Service. Virtual Service manages the tenant information and access rights, eliminating the cost of training building staff or management on such a sophisticated system. By doing so, tenants are provided with a higher level of security because all cards are issued and managed by Virtual Service. The system can also be configured to allow limited and supervised access for delivery services, maintenance and domestic staff.

The building also features a multi-camera CCTV system with a digital video recorder. The enterprise level recorder is currently used by clients such as San Francisco Municipal Railway’s Light Rail, Wachovia Bank, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and Miami-Dade Transit. In today’s competitive real estate market, unique features such as the ones at 8 Union Square South are critical for developers in order to ensure that their property will stand out from the crowd to prospective buyers. Tenants are willing to pay the extra premium for an apartment in a building where the security system makes them feel safe and comfortable.

The challenges for Virtual Service at 8 Union Square South were twofold. The first was its unique “sky lobby” area on the second floor of the building. During the day, the building’s doorman attends the small lobby on the first floor and greets visitors and tenants. In the evening, the doorman periodically relocates to the second floor’s larger “sky lobby”. From both positions, he is able to monitor the building’s camera system. When in the upstairs lobby, the infrared beam in the building vestibule alerts him of a visitor and displays the associated camera so that he is aware of activity downstairs. This allows the doorman to provide services to the tenants in the sky lobby while still able to handle delivery persons entering downstairs. From both lobby positions, the doorman can release the elevator and allow delivery persons or guests access to tenant’s specific floors without unlocking the entire elevator and granting access to the bank’s space. In order to expedite a delivery, the doorman can speak with a person at the first floor lobby and remotely grant them access to the tenant’s floor from their position in the second floor lobby.

The second challenge was that Virtual Service faced was having to interface with multiple contractors and sub-contractors throughout the installation as multiple parties were responsible for various phases during construction. Virtual Service consulted with the Claremont Group from the beginning of the project in order to ensure that the other contractors provided the necessary hardware and device interfaces that were required to make the system function as desired. Virtual Service project managed the security system installation and provided the various contractors with the necessary schematics and diagrams to be able to complete their work. Doing so ensured that the project stayed on track and completed successfully, saving the developer money and aggravation.