The Critical Role of Structural Health Monitoring in Commercial Buildings: Bridging the Gaps in Building Intelligence Beyond Smart Systems

On November 19, a heavy rainstorm caused a partial ceiling collapse in a dental and orthodontic office inside a Phoenix, Arizona mall. Although everyone was safely evacuated, the flooding severed the main water line, forcing many surrounding businesses to close. This incident highlights how both aging infrastructure and natural disturbances, ranging from localized storms to seismic activity, can cause costly and, in some cases, irreversible damage to building infrastructure. Incidents like this in commercial buildings reinforce the critical need for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) to future-proof buildings. While SHM is traditionally used in large-scale infrastructure such as bridges, highways, and dams, SHM technologies can play a critical role in offices, retail spaces, hospitals, and historic structures. By providing continuous monitoring, SHM can detect early signs of wear, preventing structural damage, enhancing safety, and reducing costly losses. As infrastructure ages and climate-related unpredictability increases, the integration of advanced SHM throughout more building verticals is essential for resilience.

In most commercial buildings, smart system monitoring traditionally focuses on Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), lighting, occupancy, and security. While these solutions are driving increased efficiency and decreasing the barriers to adoption, they often overlook a critical connection to the building’s infrastructure. Changes to building structures, whether caused by aging infrastructure, severe weather, or strain, can lead to damage that may go unnoticed until failure occurs. A lack of infrastructure monitoring can lead not only to business closure and financial loss, but it can also increase insurance costs and lead to claims disputes. Establishing a strong foundation of structural data through SHM technologies provides buildings with historical backing to decrease expensive investigations, fight dispute claims, and help insurance providers build an accurate picture of risk assessment.

SHM can use various wireless sensors, such as strain, tilt, vibration, shock, vibration, and displacement sensors, typically connected via LoRaWAN, and leverage software to assess the real-time performance of the structure itself. Not only do these technologies extend a building’s lifecycle, but they also help mitigate potential disasters by alerting facility managers to early signs of faults or building stresses before they escalate. Adoption in commercial buildings remains limited due to high implementation costs and the absence of immediate Return on Investment (ROI) for solutions designed to mitigate long-term structural risks. A few vendors offer SHM solutions for commercial buildings, spanning from hardware integration and cloud analytics, to predictive modeling, such as CopperTree, SmartCore, and StructureIQ. However, many of these offerings are primarily designed for large-scale facilities, and adoption across smaller commercial buildings still faces high-cost barriers and integration challenges. Yet the need for SHM in these buildings is just as critical as they face structural risks with fewer resources to detect and mitigate them.

Vendors can get ahead of the curve by offering SHM solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing building systems such as HVAC, lighting, and security in commercial buildings. Emphasizing the interoperability of sensor integration and connectivity to provide a real-time, comprehensive picture of a building’s health enables the strongest proactive and predictive insights, streamlining work not only for facility managers but also for property operators and managers.

Although new construction has fewer barriers to embedding SHM sensors throughout the structural framework, a strategic opportunity lies in retrofitting aging buildings where monitoring can uncover issues that traditional inspections often miss. While the complexity and cost of integrating sensors into older infrastructure are major barriers to adoption, the benefits from early detection of structural issues, reducing long-term maintenance costs, and enhanced safety are substantial. Companies like Move Solutions follow non-disruptive integration methods for real-time monitoring of tilt and displacement sensors in heritage buildings. Vendors need to evaluate system compatibility, integration requirements, and data management needs. With thoughtful planning and easier integration methods, widespread adoption of SHM in commercial buildings will prepare buildings for safer, more resilient futures.

SHM technologies do not always deliver immediate financial returns, but they offer significant risk mitigation benefits that prevent damage escalation and minimize downtime. Establishing streamlined pathways for SHM technology adoption for different types of commercial buildings and emphasizing its long-term value will enable vendors to reduce adoption barriers. As these technologies evolve, SHM will shift to a standard expectation in resilient building design that further supports smart systems monitoring.