For Immediate Release: November 18, 2021
Contact: dobcommunications@buildings.nyc.gov, (212) 393-2126

DOB ANNOUNCES WINNERS FOR “HACK THE BUILDING CODE” INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Winners to Present Ideas Today During Virtual DOB Industry Conference

New York, NY - The New York City Department of Buildings has announced the winning entries for the 2021 “Hack the Building Code” Innovation Challenge, featuring five cutting-edge winning ideas that can help shape the future of New York City’s built environment. Now in its second year, the “Hack the Building Code” Innovation Challenge was first launched in 2020 in partnership with the NYC Economic Development Corporation and the Urban Tech Hub @ Company Ventures. This challenge invites the public to submit ideas on the best ways to improve how we design, construct and maintain our city of over 1.1 million buildings. This year’s winners include innovations to prevent construction worker falls, capture carbon emissions, expedite the building-permit approval process and closely track activity on construction sites.   

“New York City is at its best when we embrace big ideas,” said Buildings Commissioner Melanie E. La Rocca. “This innovation challenge is a reminder that we should never stop striving to think of ways to improve our industry, and I congratulate each one of the winners, who are providing unique and compelling ideas on how we can build a better city for all of us.”

 "New York City continues to be home to a strong community of innovators committed to identifying creative solutions and sustainable practices," said Robinson Hernandez, Executive Director, Urban Tech Hub @ Company Ventures. "The Urban Tech Hub @ Company Ventures is proud to partner with the Department of Buildings to celebrate these pioneering startups whose innovations help tackle our city’s most pressing challenges."
 
The 2021 “Hack the Building Code” Innovation Challenge received submissions from a wide spectrum of design firms, technology companies, organizations, and individuals, with ideas ranging from improving worker safety to streamlining our city’s development process. Winners were selected by members of DOB’s in-house Innovation Committee alongside a special panel of judges comprised of experts from the private sector, choosing winners based on their projects feasibility, impact and innovation. The innovation competition winners will be showcased at the Department’s Digital 2021: Safety, Innovation, & Sustainability Conference.

2021’s “Hack the Building Code” Innovation Challenge Winners: 

• SafeRise - A standardized, reusable, and lockable barrier that could prevent worker and material falls in elevator and other shaft ways. Constructed of steel, the SafeRise barricades are designed with safety features to restrict access to only pre-approved construction workers.  

• SiteSafety - Specific changes to the NYC Building Code to require horizontal safety netting to be installed every thirty feet in shaft way openings on active construction sites. The proposed change is intended to catch falling construction workers and prevent work site fatalities.

• noya - New direct air capture technology to retrofit existing cooling towers to capture carbon emissions from building HVAC systems. With a compact design to fit on NYC rooftops, this innovative idea could accelerate the city’s transition to carbon neutrality.

• Future Insight and AoRa Development - A digital platform that could expedite the building permit approval process via the use of building information modeling (BIM) drawings that could be checked automatically against existing building codes and development regulations.

• Kwant.ai - An interactive network of smart badges, sensors, and mobile-phone alerts to track construction workers' locations. This technology could enable automated headcounts, store and display site safety/training certificates and other compliance documents, alert site personnel when falls or other safety hazards occur, and collect data for predictive analytics.

In addition to our five winners, the Department of Buildings and our panel of judges would like to honorably mention the comprehensive safety management application submissions from SkillSignal and TracFlo, which also provided innovative ideas on how to improve safety in our city’s construction industry.

The five winners of this year’s innovation challenge will receive technical support and assistance from the Department in introducing their technology to NYC's design and construction industries. The Department does not offer contracts to the winners of the “Hack the Building Code” Innovation Challenge, and they will not receive monetary compensation for their participation in the challenge.

“SafeRise, LLC was founded to become the national supplier of choice for rentable hoistway protection with the release of North America's first safety barricade system designed to meet the specific needs of elevator installers and general contractors. The SafeRise system substantially increases the safety of workers in and around elevator hoistways during construction by providing predictability and redundant safety features. Additionally, the robust and engineered system also addresses contract dispute, on-site waste, aesthetic, and maintenance issues prevalent on construction projects throughout the country,” said Darrin Porch, Founder & CEO at SafeRise, LLC.

"Site Safety is a nationally recognized construction safety management firm that provides on-site monitoring, training and consulting services. After 22 years of managing safety on thousands of construction projects, we are constantly seeking ways to improve worker safety and eliminate fatalities. Requiring horizontal safety nets inside of elevator shaft ways during construction will save lives," said Peter Amato, President of Site Safety.

"We're honored to be selected as one of the winners of the 'Hack the Building Code' Innovation Challenge. Our mission is to accelerate the world's transition to a carbon negative existence. With the amazing foundation set by Local Law 97, we can partner with the building owners of New York to accelerate our shared progress towards reaching our mission, and we can transform New York City into the carbon removal center of the world, with all of the economic and social benefits that come along with the birth of a new industry. We are thrilled to work with the Department of Buildings on this opportunity," said Josh Santos, Co-Founder and CEO at Noya.

"We are honored to be selected as a winner of the DOB "Hack the Building Code" challenge. We are looking forward to bringing our 3D automated permitting process to greatly improve the efficiency, cost, time for approval, and convenience. Our online software will allow developers/architects the ability to self-check their 3D building plans for code compliance before submitting to DOB," said Aundre Oldacre, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AoRa Development.

"Our award winning open online Clearly.BIM service has been developed over the past years in the most innovative projects around the globe. It is fantastic to now also introduce New York City to the power of our smart solutions and thus make construction processes faster, more transparent, and more predictable," said Rick Klooster, Founder and CCO of Future Insight.

“Kwant.ai is the internet of things (IoT) and predictive analytics platform to increase the safety and productivity of construction sites. We are working with mega projects like airports, roads, factories, and data centers ensuring workers' safety and avoiding delays. The solution is a smart badge/wearable for construction, mining, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure where the tradesperson, materials, and equipment are monitored in real-time. We give recommendations on durations, workforce, and safety risks using an Artificial Intelligence-based predictive analytics algorithm. We automatically detect when a worker falls down or approaches a restricted area or shows an anomaly in movement, preventing injuries and decreasing response time by 92%,” said Niran Shrestha, Co-Founder of Kwant.ai.