Gymnasium capacity

[DwightB]

Is there an option to actually call a gym an "exercise room" and use 50 sf/person (IBC 2009), or is it always assumed by the BO community that the owner is likely at some time or other will ust it for assembly (concentrated use) and I need to use 7 sf/person for capacity? This particular space is sized to fit a junior high (42x74) basketball court with minimal free space between court edges and walls.

 

[AegisFPE]

IMHO it's appropriate to plan for anticipated uses, though 1/7 throughout seems excessive.

At 1/50 you're already assembly with over 60 occupants, so there must be 2 doors.

An ice cream social with tables and chairs could be 1/15 throughout, and should be within the limits of those same 2 doors.

Alternatively, a more extreme loading would be for a meeting/lecture with a platform at 1/15 assumed for some portion of the area, and seating at 1/7 for the remainder. There may be some ideal distribution here with regard to door widths.

 

[mark handler]

Is there an option to actually call a gym an "exercise room" and use 50 sf/person (IBC 2009), or is it always assumed by the BO community that the owner is likely at some time or other will ust it for assembly (concentrated use) and I need to use 7 sf/person for capacity? This particular space is sized to fit a junior high (42x74) basketball court with minimal free space between court edges and walls.

It may seem excessive until they have the junior high commencement service in there

 

[fatboy]

Or a play, or a band concert, or a town meeting, or a PTA meeting, school board meeting, 1/7 is appropriate IMHO.

 

[DwightB]

So, why all the concern about different listings of different activities and then assigning arbitrary square foot requirements? Virtually any room at one time or another might be called into a concentrated use. Why not just use 7sf/person throughout the entire building, and then quantify doors, stairs, corridors, and toilets based upon the total capacity when all are occupied simultaneously.

 

[fatboy]

I'm not going to have a PTA meeting in my office............ever.

Realistic expectations of the use of the space.

Even the "minimal free space" around the court will be packed for a basketball/volleyball game. My kids went to a small rural school, many times when they had games, you could barely walk through the gym, standing room only.

 

[peach]

Back in the dark ages (when I was in high school), there was a "girl's gym" (which NEVER had any concentrated use and truly just an exercise room) and a "boy's gym" which did have other activities.

Last time I was back for a renunion, I noticed they replace the spiral stairs (down to the locker room), with an exit to the exterior of the building.. so the girls have to go to out the other door, down a corridor, down a flight of stairs to another corridor to get to the locker room.. probably safer, but less convenient.

We can't always look at "what if"... (but can't always ignore it, either)... as the right questions to get to the right answer.

 

[Builder Bob]

One facility that we had done a plan review was based on a maximum occupant load of 15 with exit capacity meeting 5 net for occasional (rare) special events. The 15 net did not kick in the sprinkler requirement and safety was enhanced by using 5 net for egress purposes for the occasional(once or twice ayear) 7net use.

 

[north star]

* * * *

DwightB,

Yes, an option of calling a gymansium an "exercise room / space" could be

applied, but realistically, that space will be used for a lot of different

activities.

In this AHJ, we just had a church complete a mulit-purpose building

with a basketball / soccer are in the middle part of the building, on the

ground floor.....Even before the first game or exercise activity, the

church had a "christening" of the building and had hundreds of fold-able

chairs in that space.

I would go with the "15/net" and let them defend otherwise.

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