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The push to increase the allowable height of residential buildings with a single exit stairwell illuminates the tangled intersection between safety, housing affordability, building codes, and politics.
By Jesse Roman 06-Aug-2024
NEW: Read the recently released NFPA report detailing the findings from the Single Exit Stair Symposium, held at NFPA this September.
Stephen Smith is a cerebral 36-year-old who lives in a modest apartment on the third floor of a five-story walkup in Brooklyn. Minutes into our conversation, Smith points out matter-of-factly that the slender brick building has only a single stairwell leading down to the street-level exit.
Typically, the height and number of exit stairwells in a building would be of little note to anyone outside of a building code office. But Smith counts these stats—five stories, one exit stair—as a kind of badge of honor and proof of concept. That’s because it’s primarily from his small apartment that Smith has led a national crusade through his nonprofit, the Center for Building in North America, to convince state governments to allow many thousands more residential buildings with a single exit stair like his to be built across North America.
With the exceptions of New York City, Honolulu, and Seattle, nearly all jurisdictions in the United States enforce codes that feature stricter caps on the height of residential apartment buildings with a single exit stairwell. NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, puts the limit at four stories; the International Building Code (IBC) puts it at three. Canada limits such buildings to two stories. In contrast, nearly all of Europe, South America, and Asia allow a single exit stairwell in buildings of at least six stories, with some, including South Korea, Germany, and Switzerland, permitting 20 stories or higher.
The height limitations in the U.S. and Canada have had negative consequences on the nations’ housing stock, .............
Read the full article here: https://www.nfpa.org/en/news-blogs-...l/2024/08/06/The-Single-Exit-Stairwell-Debate
By Jesse Roman 06-Aug-2024
NEW: Read the recently released NFPA report detailing the findings from the Single Exit Stair Symposium, held at NFPA this September.
Stephen Smith is a cerebral 36-year-old who lives in a modest apartment on the third floor of a five-story walkup in Brooklyn. Minutes into our conversation, Smith points out matter-of-factly that the slender brick building has only a single stairwell leading down to the street-level exit.
Typically, the height and number of exit stairwells in a building would be of little note to anyone outside of a building code office. But Smith counts these stats—five stories, one exit stair—as a kind of badge of honor and proof of concept. That’s because it’s primarily from his small apartment that Smith has led a national crusade through his nonprofit, the Center for Building in North America, to convince state governments to allow many thousands more residential buildings with a single exit stair like his to be built across North America.
With the exceptions of New York City, Honolulu, and Seattle, nearly all jurisdictions in the United States enforce codes that feature stricter caps on the height of residential apartment buildings with a single exit stairwell. NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, puts the limit at four stories; the International Building Code (IBC) puts it at three. Canada limits such buildings to two stories. In contrast, nearly all of Europe, South America, and Asia allow a single exit stairwell in buildings of at least six stories, with some, including South Korea, Germany, and Switzerland, permitting 20 stories or higher.
The height limitations in the U.S. and Canada have had negative consequences on the nations’ housing stock, .............
Read the full article here: https://www.nfpa.org/en/news-blogs-...l/2024/08/06/The-Single-Exit-Stairwell-Debate
