REAL SPACES.
REAL RESULTS.

The San Antonio residence was where ITAM’s work with specially adapted homes began. Master Sergeant Eden Pearl and his family were the first recipients of a home through the Gary Sinise Foundation’s R.I.S.E. program, a project intended to make it possible for Eden to live at home with his family after years of medical treatment.

For ITAM, the work began well before an installation crew arrived. The challenge was to assemble an integrated technology solution and secure the equipment required to deliver it. Support from ELAN and an extensive network of manufacturers made the installation possible; ITAM designed and installed the control and entertainment technology as part of the Foundation’s larger homebuilding effort. The systems were intended to make common household functions easier to operate and to bring entertainment and control into a cohesive experience.

The project established a practical approach that carried through the next five residences: coordinate closely with the people building the home, understand how it would be used, and let the engineering serve the household rather than the other way around.

Read the Foundation’s remembrance of Eden Pearl →

In Georgia, the Foundation built a specially adapted 6,500-square-foot home for Army veteran Michael Schlitz and his family. The project required much more than conventional home automation. Different spaces, including a connected suite for his mother Robbie, needed accessible, practical control over the functions of a large residence.

ITAM designed and programmed an ELAN g! system with eight in-wall touchscreens and iPad access, integrating five HVAC zones, Lutron lighting, a 12-camera surveillance and security system, and nine audio zones, among other connected systems. The original press coverage described more than $130,000 in donated technology. Intercom communication between different parts of the house was an especially useful everyday feature.

One distinctive solution came directly from Michael’s visual needs. ITAM displayed the ELAN control interface on the television above the fireplace so that controls were significantly larger than on a handheld panel. When the television was off, a framed painting could conceal it: a motorized roller-shade mechanism was triggered by a contact closure from the ELAN controller. It was a small piece of custom engineering with a clear purpose—making the interface easier to use without compromising the room’s appearance.

Read Michael’s Foundation story →

The specially adapted Southern Pines, North Carolina residence for Army Master Sergeant John Masson brought everyday home functions, surveillance and a substantial entertainment system under a common control platform. Contemporary coverage described how convenient technology could remove frustrating steps from simple activities, including selecting a movie without crossing a room to operate equipment.

The documented installation included two ELAN in-wall touchscreens and iPad control, three climate zones, 29 motorized shades, Lutron RadioRA 2 lighting, electronically controlled doors, security and surveillance, and distributed audio and video. ITAM also contributed to a dedicated cinema environment with projection and a Kaleidescape movie server. The home’s combination of architectural adaptations and integrated electronics made the controls useful across the whole residence, not only in the media room.

John’s own comments in the original trade coverage emphasized the everyday value of remotely selecting entertainment. The engineering story is about coordinating many individual systems so that changing a room’s lighting, adjusting comfort or enjoying a movie takes fewer separate actions.

Read the Foundation’s account of John Masson →

For Army Sergeant Rusty Dunagan and his family, the Gary Sinise Foundation’s residence in Edmond, Oklahoma combined carefully considered home design with a comprehensive smart-home installation. The Foundation’s published account describes the adapted home as part of its effort to make daily living more comfortable and to support independence.

ITAM’s contribution was the connected technology experience: ELAN control interfaces, entertainment and the integrated systems that make a fully equipped smart home feel straightforward to use. Authentic project photographs show Rusty at a wall-mounted ELAN touchscreen and using another controller at a countertop, as well as the home’s entertainment interface. Those photographs capture what the work was intended to achieve: household technology available where it is useful, without requiring a collection of unrelated controls.

The emphasis here is deliberately on a complete and well-executed smart home—not on an invented one-off accessibility device. Reliable coordination between controls, audio/video and the home’s other technology was the essential accomplishment.

Read Rusty’s Foundation story →

The home built for Marine Corporal Mark Litynski and his family in the Duluth, Minnesota area presented an unusual integration challenge: it was constructed on a large rural property where conventional wired broadband and cable television service were unavailable. The technology needed to work reliably in that environment while remaining simple to operate throughout a specially adapted residence.

ITAM installed an ELAN g! control system bringing together lighting, electronic door locks, temperature, security cameras, home theater and whole-house audio. As reported in the original ITAM press archive, two QMotion Qconnect systems operated 21 motorized roller shades, while six Linear IP cameras provided surveillance. The integration also included a whole-home backup generator and entertainment supported by satellite services because of the property’s remote location.

These details matter because they show how much planning happens behind the touchscreens. Coordinating lighting, shades, security, communications and entertainment across a rural property requires the same disciplined integration as a major commercial installation, but with a very personal everyday purpose.

Read Mark’s Foundation story → · Original ITAM press coverage →

Army Captain Benjamin Harrow’s specially adapted Maryland residence was another opportunity to make integrated home technology a practical part of ordinary life. A West Point graduate and Green Beret, Captain Harrow served in Iraq and Afghanistan before the Gary Sinise Foundation helped provide a home designed for his family’s needs.

ITAM contributed smart-home controls and entertainment integration to the Bethesda-area project, including ELAN-based control and Kaleidescape as part of the technology implemented in all six of ITAM’s Foundation residences. The objective was consistent with the broader program: put functions that would otherwise require separate physical controls into a more convenient, unified interface.

Unlike the other five case studies, this project is not illustrated with ITAM installation photographs. Rather than assign unrelated imagery to his home, the case study concentrates on the documented project and links to the Foundation’s account of Captain Harrow’s service and residence.

Read Captain Harrow’s Foundation story →