Who’s That Knocking at the Door? Do Me a Favor, Touchscreen Them In!

BALA CYNWYD, PA—It’s not your grandfather’s apartment intercom, that’s for sure.

As part of an effort to create a seamless building entry experience for residents, Philadelphia multifamily developer and operator Post Brothers has integrated ButterflyMX’s smart intercom platform into Presidential City in the Bala Cynwyd suburb of Philadelphia, PA.

Through its integration of ButterflyMX, Post Brothers is providing its residents with revolutionary touchscreen technology that creates an enhanced building entry experience for residents of Presidential City, Post Brothers’ iconic, four-building apartment community that recently transformed with a $100 million renovation.

Cyrus Claffey, founder of ButterflyMX, says he got the idea for the platform when he moved into a Brooklyn apartment that was recently renovated—all except the building intercom.

“The intercom was a holdover from when the building first opened or something like that,” he recalled in a podcast interview. “It basically had three different buttons, ‘door,’ ‘talk,’ and ‘listen.’ And anytime somebody buzzed from the front door, I would have to play those three buttons almost like I was playing a piano, to get just the right pitch, and then I knew the door would open right. I said to myself, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’”

Claffey researched the available intercom options and discovered they were surprisingly limited and low-tech in design. He set about creating a cloud-based software solution and realized that the intercom station at the door had to be a video touch screen rather than the traditional, clunky-looking metal speaker box. Along with video calls, visitors can send a text or a voice message to tenants through the touch screen.

“When you make the front entrance interface a touch screen, it opens up almost an endless world of possibilities in terms of what you can do with the feature set that you can provide to tenants of a building,” he says.

The ButterflyMX technology includes the ability to open and manage doors from a smartphone, simplified package delivery and seamless visitor entry. Built on touchscreen hardware and cloud-based software, the platform is secure, easy to install and use, and provides a complete building entry solution in today’s keyless world.

“We are very mindful of the demand for tech-focused amenities in urban areas and our adoption of ButterflyMX at Presidential City is a prime example of our dedication to delivering technologically advanced, amenity-driven communities,” says Post Brothers CEO Mike Pestronk. “We are pleased to be able to offer our residents this extra layer of convenience, flexibility and freedom.”

In addition to seamless building entry, ButterflyMX integrates with a wide variety of smart technologies that permeate throughout the buildings including door locks, and elevator controls. It permits tenants to provide a “virtual key” through a QR code so that service providers such as dog walkers or house cleaners can gain temporary, time-limited access to apartments.The platform’s open software design allows for easy integration with any new technologies which may become available in the future.

“That’s just such a tremendous level of convenience wrapped with security that it’s become extremely popular,” Claffey says.

ButterflyMX is being installed in a wide range of upscale apartment properties being developed by companies like Trammell Crow Residential, Bozzuto, AvalonBay Communities, Douglaston Development, Roseland Residential Trust, Equity Residential, Silverstein Properties, Skanska, Rechler Equity Partners, Jamestown, Laramar, Lennar, PeakCampus, CA Student Living, American Campus Communities, Haven Campus Communities and Mill Creek Residential.

The platform’s video call, audit trail reporting and virtual key functionalities provide an added level of security unavailable with traditional systems. Building residents benefit from convenient entry for trusted visitors and deliveries, including the ability to grant managed access, via personalized PINs and virtual keys.

“Adoption of ButterflyMX is a testament to Post Brothers’ desire to offer the very best amenities to its residents and we are thrilled to partner with them,” says Claffey. “Convenience, security, and cost-savings are just some of the powerful benefits that smart buildings can deliver to both occupants and landlords. ButterflyMX is the first step towards a building becoming a fully ‘smart’ property.”

Since launching in 2015, ButterflyMX has facilitated more than five million door releases, and averages approximately 8,000 door release transactions per day. Prominent investors of ButterflyMX include Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow and Andy Applebaum, managing partner of River Park Ventures and co-founder of Seamless.