It was inspiring to witness Brett Hitt’s Realcomm 2025 presentation, described by Jim Young as “one of the best presentations in 25 years of Realcomm.” This wasn’t just another panel or tech showcase; it was a masterclass in visionary leadership and radical industry transparency. HITT isn’t just talking about innovation. They’re doing it, at scale, and inviting everyone to learn from it.
A CEO Breaking the Mold
What stood out immediately was the candor and strategic openness of a CEO at the helm of a billion-dollar company. Brett Hitt didn’t present a polished, post-mortem case study. He walked the audience through a real-time transformation, risks, unknowns, and all. As Jim Young pointed out, this kind of transparency is rare. It’s the kind of leadership that catalyzes an entire industry.
Building Innovation with $80M in R&D
The figures back up the ambition: over $80 million committed to R&D. HITT is building not just a smarter headquarters but an innovation ecosystem, factories for prefab construction, commercial-grade 3D-printed furniture, custom products, and even new methods of project delivery. This is R&D at the scale of real estate.
A Living Lab for the Industry
In partnership with Virginia Tech, HITT has established a physical research lab that invites industry peers to observe, learn, and collaborate. This isn’t a closed innovation center; it’s an open forum. Brett’s invitation to “come visit” wasn’t a throwaway line. It was a strategic move to turn innovation into a shared experience.
During his talk, Brett also mentioned what he referred to as the “Coalition for Smart Construction”. It stood in fascinating alignment with the Coalition for Smarter Buildings (C4SB), which we just announced alongside The Linux Foundation at Realcomm. Are the stars aligning? That phrase, that intent, felt like more than a coincidence. It convinced me that I need to follow up directly with Brett. While I haven’t yet made that connection, the alignment is important enough that I wanted to document and share these reflections now, based solely on what he presented at Realcomm.
This Is What a Smart Building Really Looks Like
There’s been a lot of talk over the years about “smart buildings”, but often, it stops at dashboards or energy claims. What Brett Hitt and his team are doing is something far deeper: they’re embedding intelligence into the foundation of how the building is conceived, constructed, operated, and evolved.
Everything from the infrastructure to the workflows has been reengineered:
- Power, reimagined: The building has no 120V outlets. It’s entirely built on low-voltage DC and USB infrastructure, a leap that forced coordination with local building codes and a belief that the ecosystem will rise to meet them.
- Smart operational strategy: Upper floors are shut down after 5 pm, pushing evening activity to a designated 24-hour floor, optimizing HVAC, lighting, and energy use in real time.
- Digital twin integration: From the start, they’re layering in real-time feedback loops to monitor, manage, and adapt the building’s behavior dynamically.
- Modular systems: Prefab construction meets adaptive architecture, swapping, upgrading, and reconfiguring spaces become part of the lifecycle, not just day-one design.
- Furniture as a system: Even workstations are being rethought, 3D-printed, customizable, and recyclable. They’re not just objects, they’re part of the adaptive, intelligent environment and poised to possibly disrupt office furniture vendors.
But what makes this even more powerful is how it’s being shared. Most firms only reveal their innovation after it works. HITT is doing the opposite: they are showing the wiring while it’s still hot. They’re sharing decisions, systems, and yes, even the things that might still fail.
That’s what a truly smart building project should look like today: not about having all the answers, but about building a platform to find better answers faster, and letting others learn from the journey.
In the old world, you hid what you were innovating until it was market-ready. But in today’s environment, the shelf life of a great idea is not measured in years, days, or even hours, but in minutes. If you don’t share your innovation in real time, someone else already is. As Andreas Phelps noted 14 years ago in the BIMStorm, “If you’re not sharing it, you’re already behind.” This isn’t just philosophy—it’s a challenge to every group working behind the curtain. Transparency isn’t a liability; it’s now a strategic advantage.
Taking Real Risks, In Public
The examples speak for themselves:
- No 120V outlets.
- Shutting down building floors after hours.
- 3D-printed furniture with full recyclability.
- Prefab construction on a massive scale.
And these aren’t guaranteed wins. Brett openly acknowledged that some of these bets may not work. But that’s the point. This isn’t innovation theater. This is real experimentation, backed by leadership and a willingness to take risks that others avoid and pivot as needed, while the world watches.
What That Means in an AI-Driven World
A recurring theme across Realcomm was: “If you’re not failing, you’re not innovating.” That sentiment applies even more in a world where AI is already outthinking us. Holding your cards close doesn’t protect you; it isolates you. The future belongs to those who build fast, share openly, and adapt together.
Challenging the Industry
Much of design and construction remains closed, secretive, and cut-throat, a race to the bottom optimized for profit over progress. Brett Hitt’s strategy is the antithesis: share the playbook, fail in the open, and use that transparency to lead.
This is also a challenge to others in the industry: hiding behind your work, waiting until everything is perfect before sharing, is not leadership. It’s stagnation. In today’s AI-accelerated world, there is no value in isolated innovation.
My Perspective: The Real Value of Radical Transparency
From where I sit, this is the clearest win-win I’ve seen:
- HITT learns faster.
- They attract top talent.
- They build influence.
- They convince me that this is a message I need to get out there on AutomatedBuildings!
- And yes, they’ll gain business.
This isn’t philanthropy. It’s a strategy. And it’s working.
ROI: Return on Innovation, and Risk of Inaction
At Realcomm 2025, ROI was a big theme. But not just Return on Investment, Return on Innovation. And beyond that, what I call Return on Inaction: the cost of standing still.
What HITT is doing isn’t just bold. It’s necessary. They’re proving that just doing it, sharing it, and being first isn’t about ego; it’s about survival, leadership, and long-term advantage. Worrying about the competition is old-world thinking.
Conclusion: Share Boldly, Build Smarter
HITT is creating a playbook for 21st-century construction and building automation. They’re not just embracing transformation, they’re democratizing it. And in doing so, they’re making it impossible for the rest of the industry to ignore.
As Jim Young said, “Record this. Send it to your C-suite.”Here’s the question I want to leave you with:
Who else is ready to share? Is the industry truly prepared for this level of transparency and collective learning? What happens if we don’t?
