This year America turns 250. It is a moment to look back at what gets built when people are free to solve problems, and the comfort and safety we take for granted inside modern buildings is a quiet part of that story. The cool air in a summer classroom, the clean air in an operating room, the steady temperature in a data hall, none of it happened by accident. It was invented, one stubborn idea at a time.
So before the fireworks, we want to honor a few of the innovators who built the industry we stand on.
The innovators who built the industry we stand on
Angier March Perkins, a pioneer of central heating. An American engineer born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins built a high-pressure hot water heating system in the 1830s, one of the first central heating systems ever installed in buildings. His work carried American engineering across the Atlantic and into Europe, a path we still follow today.
Willis Carrier, the father of air conditioning. In 1902 Carrier invented modern air conditioning. What started as a way to control humidity in a printing plant ended up changing how the world lives, works, and stays healthy.
Margaret Ingels, a pioneer in comfort engineering. Ingels was the first woman to earn an engineering degree from the University of Kentucky, in 1916, and among the first women in the country to build a career in mechanical engineering. Her work helped define how we actually measure human comfort, not just temperature, but how a space really feels to the people in it.
Warren S. Johnson, the inventor of the thermostat. In 1883 Johnson patented the electric room thermostat. That single device, a building sensing a condition and responding to it on its own, is the seed of the entire building automation industry we work in today. The company he founded became Johnson Controls.
David Crosthwait, engineering excellence against the odds. Crosthwait earned 39 U.S. patents, engineered the heating system for New York’s Radio City Music Hall, and in 1971 became the first African American elected a Fellow of ASHRAE. His work on heating and ventilation still shapes how large buildings are designed.
Harry and Louis Hoffman, founders of Hoffman & Hoffman. Brothers and visionaries, they founded Hoffman & Hoffman in 1947 and built a legacy of trust, innovation, and long-term partnerships. That legacy is where we come from.
From a thermostat to a building that thinks
It is worth sitting with Warren Johnson’s invention for a second, because everything we do traces back to it. A thermostat is a building paying attention. Once a building can sense a condition and act on it, you can scale that idea up to an entire campus, hospital, or data center, with thousands of points working together. That is building automation, and it is a straight line from 1883 to the control systems we design and service now.
The same is true across the list. Carrier gave buildings the ability to control air. Ingels gave the industry a real definition of comfort. Crosthwait proved that brilliant engineering could move the whole field forward. Each of them solved a problem that the next generation got to build on.
Proud to build on it
Hoffman Building Technologies grew out of that lineage. We started in 1985 as the controls arm of Hoffman & Hoffman, the company Harry and Louis founded in 1947, and we have spent the last four decades doing one thing well: making buildings run smarter.
Today we are a 100% employee-owned company, and our teams keep buildings running across the United States and into Europe. The tools have changed. The work is now software, networks, and analytics layered on top of the mechanical systems those early innovators created. The spirit is the same one America has run on for 250 years: see a problem, build something better.
To the people who built this industry, thank you. We are proud to build on it.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented modern air conditioning?
Willis Carrier invented modern air conditioning in 1902, originally to control humidity in a printing plant.
Who invented the thermostat?
Warren S. Johnson patented the electric room thermostat in 1883. It is widely seen as the start of the building automation industry, and the company he founded became Johnson Controls.
Who was David Crosthwait?
David Crosthwait was an American engineer who earned 39 U.S. patents, engineered the heating system for Radio City Music Hall, and in 1971 became the first African American elected a Fellow of ASHRAE.
Who was Angier March Perkins?
Angier March Perkins was an American engineer, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who in the 1830s developed a high-pressure hot water heating system that became one of the first central heating systems used in buildings.
What does this history have to do with building automation today?
Building automation is the modern version of Warren Johnson’s idea: a building that senses conditions and responds on its own. Today that scales to thousands of control points across a campus, hospital, or data center.
About Us
Hoffman Building Technologies began as the controls division of Hoffman & Hoffman, founded in 1947. Today we are a 100% employee-owned building automation specialist, and our teams keep buildings running across the United States and into Europe.
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