Specifically Speaking with Ed Chandler

Tell me about Security By Design's new innovations with its Architectural Security Standard?

Successful security requires multiple types of factors to all be aligned. These include operational policies and processes, architecture that lends itself to controls that do not violate life safety, and systems that complement the needs of security operations.

All too often, the need to secure a space is in conflict with building egress codes. It is valuable for the design team to know and understand the site security goals, and practical solutions to those goals in the formative stages. Further along in the process, it is extremely difficult to solve egress versus security challenges, and security designers are commonly asked to use systems to overcome architectural challenges. Most of these applications fail at some level.

Architectural security standards can capture security design decisions and provide a means of presenting them to project managers, real estate managers, architects, and end users before design decisions preclude the opportunity to appropriately secure the assets. At Security By Design, we have been working for years to package these decisions, but they were always awkward paper-based formats, even with good tables of contents and indexes.

Now, we are presenting these in Web-based formats, with database-driven processes and searches. The body of knowledge is easily approachable from multiple perspectives and users can look up just the specific point of their interest at the time.

Here are two examples that demonstrate the need: 1. An office building loading dock typically has a need to secure the office from the loading dock, given that the roll-up grille is open to drivers and others from the street. The door from the loading dock into the office hall should be locked. But, if the architectural design team does not leave sufficient room to have an unlocked egress door next to the grille, then the International Building Code (IBC) will not allow the door from the loading dock into the office to be locked because it would be the egress path for the loading dock itself. 2. A full floor upper story tenant space in a multi-tenant building can be designed as either an open floor plan or a loop or Z-corridor space. With a loop or Z-corridor, there is a public path between the two (or more) stairwells, typically running through the elevator vestibule. With these “public” corridors, doors into the office areas can be locked. When an open space floor plan is used, the IBC requires that, if controls are placed on the elevator vestibule, that there are “means of egress” using the code section “Access Controlled Egress Doors” that make any security that you place on these doors ineffectual. The addition of a Z-corridor will cost a few seats, but is the only way to truly secure the space.

The use of these standards saves everyone on the project team valuable time, provides better security, and eliminates the application of ineffectual “placebo” security system measures. It provides practical solutions very early in the project, saving design time, redlines, and ultimately capital security system dollars.

What new technologies are you interested in? Why?

I am interested in identity management and how it can affect the concept of space ownership and save significant operational costs. I am also interested in getting the manufacturers of barrier controls, like turnstiles, to greatly simplify the installation of their products.