Skip to content
‹ Back to IndustriesArchitecture & Design

The Benefits of Motorized and Automated Roller Shades

The benefits of roller shades are clear – they make a space’s occupants more comfortable by controlling lighting levels, ensuring thermal comfort and minimizing glare. However, even more benefits can be had when those roller shades are motorized, automated or both. Draper Architectural Market Specialist Jessi Wright and Director of Business Development for Automation and…

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Architecture & Design teams put it to work with Executive Thought Leadership.

Promoted content from Draper on MarketScale.

·
Share

Free workspace

Turn your Architecture & Design expertise into content.

Record interviews, organize footage, and write with AI on a free trial of the MarketScale platform for qualifying companies. No demo required, no credit card.

Try it Free

The benefits of roller shades are clear – they make a space’s occupants more comfortable by controlling lighting levels, ensuring thermal comfort and minimizing glare.

However, even more benefits can be had when those roller shades are motorized, automated or both.

Draper Architectural Market Specialist Jessi Wright and Director of Business Development for Automation and Motorization Tyson McDonald joined host Tyler Kern on this episode of Engineering Value to outline how those benefits can be put into place in any given environment.

“The roller shade aspect of it is really to try to make a work environment as comfortable as possible,” McDonald said. “The ideal situation is that you don’t even really notice the roller shades are there. They just do their job and make it more comfortable. … That’s what our goal and aim is with the automated roller shades.”

Automating shades also has benefits in building design, Wright said. It removes the human element, which can make finalizing a design that works both functionally and aesthetically difficult.

“A lot of times, if you’re viewing the building from the street side, you can see manual shades that have been half-raised at different levels,” she said. “It really messes with those clean lines that you’ve designed into your building. [Automation] makes sure that your design intent is achieved without putting that burden on occupants.”

Automation and motorization of shades also helps ensure that they’re synergized with existing systems and building management solutions and technologies, like lighting systems.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Building Management industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale

Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Draper

Part of this channel

Draper

Real perspectives on quality and value in US manufacturing

Visit the channel

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Architecture & Design starts with a company putting its architects, designers, and spec writers on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Specifiers choose partners whose work they have already seen explained, and your designers can be that explanation.

Book DemoSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.
B2B Weekly

The week in Architecture & Design, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Architecture & Design: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Architecture & Design buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free Trial

You just read one Architecture & Design expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your architects, designers, and spec writers into the articles, video, and social content Architecture & Design buyers are searching for. Start a free trial and see it with your own people. For qualifying companies, no credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What your free trial includes

Hands-on access to the MarketScale platform
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
No demo required. No credit card.
For qualifying companies. Company confirmation required.

More Architecture & Design Insights

AECOM's $144.5M in school work leads BD+C's 2026 K-12 engineering ranking

AECOM's $144.5M in school work leads BD+C's 2026 K-12 engineering ranking

AECOM reported $144.5 million in 2025 K-12 school revenue, topping Building Design+Construction's 2026 Giants 400 engineering ranking ahead of CMTA and Jacobs. The lists rank gross revenue, so they map footprint, not performance. For districts planning bond programs, they are the closest public view of who builds schools at scale.

  • 01AECOM led the K-12 engineering list with $144.5 million in 2025 revenue, followed by CMTA at $104.5 million, Jacobs at $97.1 million and fourth-place WSP at $46.6 million, per BD+C.
  • 02The Giants 400 K-12 lists rank gross revenue from U.S. and Canada operations, so a firm's position measures how much school work it carries, not fees, project count or results.
  • 03The same three firms held No. 1 in K-12 architecture, engineering and construction in both 2025 and 2026, according to American School & University, while positions below them shifted.

Sep 18, 2026

Grimshaw plan trades Allegiant Stadium parking lots for a Boring Company station

Grimshaw plan trades Allegiant Stadium parking lots for a Boring Company station

Grimshaw has released plans for a reimagined north entry plaza at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, per Dezeen. The design converts parking lots into transport infrastructure and walkways and builds a Boring Company station into an elevated plaza. For stadium operators, the arrival point moves from a parking field to a transit stop.

  • 01Grimshaw's Allegiant Stadium plan puts the transit station inside the entry plaza itself, which changes where crowd flow begins for gate staffing and wayfinding.
  • 02The plan matters most for venues with surface parking directly adjacent to gates and a transit operator willing to build to the door; without both, the model does not transfer.
  • 03Dezeen reported released plans, not a construction start; a published schedule or cost is the next signal that would move this from concept to project.

Sep 17, 2026

Proptech money is moving to AI that cuts construction and property costs

Proptech money is moving to AI that cuts construction and property costs

Crunchbase News reported Sept. 1, 2026 that proptech investors are shifting toward AI that makes construction, property operations and deals cheaper. Trunk Tools is the clearest example. Its TrunkBid bid-leveling agent and Cortex drawing layer put the change squarely in general contractors' preconstruction and submittal work.

  • 01Investor selectivity in proptech is now aimed at a specific test: does the tool take hours out of construction, building operations or a transaction. According to Crunchbase News, investors are putting more money into companies using AI and other technology to make construction, property operations and real estate transactions faster and less expensive.
  • 02Trunk Tools launched TrunkBid, an AI agent for subcontractor bid analysis and leveling, in March, according to Construction Business Owner, and its Cortex platform, unveiled in June, can compare revised drawing sets, according to ENR. Contractors that still level subcontractor bids by hand in spreadsheets are the buyers this wave is built for.
  • 03Watch whether early deployers such as Gilbane and Cleveland Construction publish measured hours saved. Until they do, the 'hundreds of hours' figure is a vendor estimate, not a benchmark.

Sep 17, 2026

Explore More Architecture & Design Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Architecture & Design.

Browse Architecture & Design Hub

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Architecture & Design and beyond.

Book a Demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512