Bringing Innovation to NYC’s Built Environment — Launching the Buildings Tech Lab
A collaboration between the NYC Department of Buildings and the Partnership Fund for New York City, the Buildings Tech Lab provides an accelerated pathway for early to growth-stage companies to collaborate with city government to improve the development, sustainability and safety of New York’s built environment.
New York City's skyline is one of the world's most recognizable cityscapes. With over one million buildings making up the city's built environment, ensuring the safe and lawful use of over one million buildings and construction sites throughout the five boroughs of New York City is a mammoth task. Enter the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), the city's primary construction and real estate regulator.
To help shape the future of how New York City oversees the development, safety, compliance, and quality of buildings around the city, the DOB and the Partnership Fund for New York City have launched the Buildings Tech Lab. This new lab will identify innovative tools and solutions from the global tech sector to address pressing operational needs — supporting the DOB as it works to keep pace with market demand, new construction codes, and local environmental laws.
In July, we announced a call for applications for the inaugural challenge competition with two focus areas:
A detailed list of potential use cases can be found here.
How it Works
Using the Partnership Fund’s Innovation Lab model, pioneered in 2010 with its FinTech Innovation Lab , companies will compete annually to test their technology solutions in New York City with the DOB.
Each year, we will work with DOB leadership and staff to identify priority areas for improving agency operations and services through a global Challenge competition seeking early- and growth-stage tech companies with relevant solutions.
The winners will participate in an eight-week "proof of concept" phase during which the DOB will work with each selected company to test and provide guidance on their proposal, product capabilities, and value proposition. Companies with exceptional use cases may be invited to deploy their solutions on a larger scale via a yearlong pilot.
Three Labs. Three Sectors. A better New York City.
The Buildings Tech Lab is the Partnership Fund's third public-sector innovation lab and the latest initiative under its Tech in the Public Interest strategy, which aims to invest in applying new technologies to address urban challenges, including helping government agencies deliver services more effectively.
Recommended by LinkedIn
To facilitate the adoption of new tech in the public sector, the Partnership Fund establishes innovation labs in critical sectors where transformative technology solutions can impact city infrastructure and public services most: transit, water management, and construction. The Fund launched the Transit Tech Lab in partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2018 and the Environmental Tech Lab in collaboration with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection in 2023.
To date, these labs have brought 77 companies together with some of New York's biggest public agencies to complete 77 proofs of concept, 52 pilots and 11 commercial procurements.
In the months ahead, we look forward to inviting more companies to join us as we work together to build a better, more innovative New York City.
To learn more, sign up to attend an information session for interested applicants on Thursday, August 15.
If you know an emerging company working on a relevant technology solution for this year’s Buildings Tech Lab, share this opportunity or encourage them to apply directly at buildingstechlab.nyc.
Read more about the Buildings Tech Lab
Learn more about our other Innovation Labs