City Archives: Business or Storage Occupancy Classification?

[curban20]

Im working on a renovation project that will include a Community Recreation Center (gymnasium, auditorium, classrooms, city offices) and spaces for the City Archives. The existing building is a decommissioned elementary school so we will be going through a change of use. Essentially the entire basement floor will be storage rooms for the city's archives (mostly comprised of paper drawings and maps, cds, etc). There is some debate on whether or not the archives portion of the project should be considered S-1 Storage occupancy classification or B Business occupancy. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

Approximate square footages:
Total building = 58,000sf
Auditorium = 3,000sf
Gymnasium = 3,000sf
Other Recreation uses (community rooms/classrooms, parks and rec offices) = 25,000sf
Archive Storage = 6,500sf
Archive spaces other than storage (offices/processing/reading rooms/etc) = 2,500
Other spaces (mechanical, storage other than archives, circulation) = 18,000

 

[Paul Sweet]

The 6500 SF archive storage would be S-1 if the public isn't allowed into it. The 2500 SF for offices, etc. would be B, unless the reading room has 50 or more occupants, which would make the reading room A-3.

 

[classicT]

Agree with Paul

 

[steveray]

Ditto

 

[RLGA]

A Group B occupancy is described in Section 304.1 as applicable to "office, professional or service-type transactions." Although it allows "storage of records and accounts," this is ancillary to the main function provided. Thus, the archives should be classified as a Group S-1 occupancy since storage is the primary function.

Also, "change of use" is specifically defined in the IEBC, which is a change within the same group classification. Since you are changing from a Group E to a Group S-1 occupancy, this is defined as a "change of occupancy."