Smart, wired buildings on the rise everywhere.(NPB Management)(Brief Article)

You're only as smart as your building. That's the word from owners, developers and leasing agents today, in terms of smart, or wired, buildings.

Basically, it comes down to this: A building without wires is as good as a building without walls.

"It's like having bathrooms on every floor. It's something you have to have," said William Vose, president of NPB Management, which manages the National Press Building in Washington, D.C. "It's a marketing essential at this point. It's just as important as having air conditioning in the summer, and tenants ask about it."

Vose would know. His 500,000-square-foot 14th Street building in Washington, with its high-profile media tenants, was the first building in the United States to have a building-centric Internet backbone.

"It …