How Old Infrastructure Can Support New Technology

Philadelphia-based property technology company Rittenhouse Communications Group is leveraging its experience with adaptive reuse and retrofit projects in a city known for its rich stock of historic buildings.

The company, which designs and installs connectivity systems for existing apartment buildings, hotels, offices and other kinds of commercial properties, as well as new construction, has honed a niche specialty of squeezing the latest innovations into old infrastructure, said Sean Edwards, RCG’s president.

“The challenge with adaptive reuse is that you can’t really change the footprint of the building,” Edwards said. “But the technologies we use are nimble.

RCG’s solutions include low voltage cabling, IP surveillance, access control, WiFi, audio/video, unified communication systems and property management software, or a combination of all of the above. The company designs systems, installs them and supports them all with an in-house team of engineers and experts.

“The greenest wires and hardware are the ones you don’t have to rip out,” Edwards said. “It also makes installation and upgrades less disruptive for the building and its occupants.” 

For retrofits, RCG engineers have developed best practices for reusing existing cabling, as well as a multitude of other preexisting pieces of the built environment, Edwards said.

“We reuse existing door hardware, and existing main distribution frames and intermediate distribution frames, known as MDF and IDF locations, as pathways for card readers and cameras and other wireless lock technology,” Edwards said. 

At RCG’s project at The Union League of Philadelphia, the company was able to balance preservation with the latest technology by leveraging what was already there.

“The building’s exterior has what look like old cameras, but are now actually ultra-high definition 4K cameras,” Edwards said. “We reused all the legacy camera cables and even camera enclosures, but retrofitted new cameras into them and onto them. As a result, we were able to keep the historical look completely intact.”

On other projects, RCG has converted traditional telephone lines into IP and power-carrying cables in order to attach new technology on the other end. It has also upgraded a property to building-wide WiFi by repurposing old coax cable connections found in every unit.

For door entry on hospitality projects, RCG uses data-on-card technology to work around the need for the system to be entirely online, Edwards said.

“The locks communicate with each other via strategically placed card readers, which in turn update the server, or brain of the building, regarding who is using their key fobs or other mobile credentials,” he said.

RCG’s process for every technology retrofit follows a standard approach.

“We first have a discovery call with the client in order to delve into what they want and what their vision is, and to tease out what technology infrastructure the building can realistically support,” Edwards said.

The company follows up with an on-site meeting, during which RCG’s engineering team walks the building and the conversation with the client continues.

“From there we put the design together,” Edwards said.

After installation, RCG tests its systems and trains the client on how to use them. The firm’s account managers and support teams remain on hand to address questions or concerns.

Every piece of technology the company uses has first been tested in its innovation center in Philadelphia, dubbed RCG’s “test kitchen,” Edwards said. 

“We know everything works inside and out,” he said. 

Beyond Philadelphia

RCG’s adaptive reuse and retrofit work portfolio in Philadelphia includes 1701 Market West, The Witherspoon, 1401 Arch Street and The Terrace on 18th.

“Demand for adaptive reuse remains robust,” Edwards said. “When the cost of construction is high and interest rates remain high, it’s just easier to take an existing building and turn it into something else.”

Now the company is taking its playbook down the East Coast.

“Philadelphia has a lot of old buildings, and we’ve worked on more than a few of them,” Edwards said. “Now we’re looking at other cities with concentrations of aging assets that are looking for a second, or third, act.”

Atlantic City, which has struggled to reinvent itself beyond its focus on gaming, has the benefit of its location on the same ocean as many of New Jersey’s other, more upscale shore communities, Edwards said.

“It’s a shore town where technology has been lacking,” he said. “That makes it more of a blank slate, in terms of opportunity to bring connectivity and innovation to its existing physical infrastructure.”

RCG is slated to open an Atlantic City office in late 2025.

“Our goal is to support the growth of Atlantic City and become the go-to adaptive reuse technology partner for developers in the city,” he said. “We have the local staff to support the city’s assets.”

After completing a series of projects in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, RCG is planning to substantially expand its footprint in those markets as well. The company’s client list in Washington, D.C., includes Toll Brothers. 

“It takes a special developer to be able to tackle adaptive reuse projects, and we love working with these types of clients,” Edwards said. “We’ve done a great job in Philadelphia, with the résumé to prove it, and we’re ready to take our expertise to these other markets.”

This article was produced in collaboration between RCG and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.