Unlimited Area Buildings and courtyards

[Tim Mailloux]

Can an Unlimited Area Building have a courtyard? My feeling is that the exterior walls that create the courtyard count as part of the building perimeter. Seeing how the courtyard perimeter would not be open to a public way, or provide an open area around the entire perimeter of the building for fire fighter access, and would not meet the requirements of an unlimited area building.

 

[steveray]

It doesn't say "amount of exterior wall", it says building frontage......IMO you do not count courtyards as perimeter walls...

506.1 General. The floor area of a building shall be determined
based on the type of construction, occupancy classification,
whether there is an automatic sprinkler system
installed throughout the building and the amount of building
frontage on public way or open space.

 

[Tim Mailloux]

It doesn't say "amount of exterior wall", it says building frontage......IMO you do not count courtyards as perimeter walls...

506.1 General. The floor area of a building shall be determined
based on the type of construction, occupancy classification,
whether there is an automatic sprinkler system
installed throughout the building and the amount of building
frontage on public way or open space.

But the frontage increase is based on the buildings perimeter, wouldn't the perimeter of the courtyard be included in the frontage calculation? I would then think the same logic applies to unlimited area buildings.

 

[RLGA]

But the frontage increase is based on the buildings perimeter, wouldn't the perimeter of the courtyard be included in the frontage calculation? I would then think the same logic applies to unlimited area buildings.

I would not count an interior courtyard as part of the building perimeter. In IBC Section 201.4, terms not defined by the code "shall have their ordinarily accepted meanings such as the context implies." Per my dictionary, "perimeter" is "the outer limits or boundary of an area." Thus, the outermost exterior walls of a building.

Also, you have to consider the purpose of frontage for an area increase and the minimum yard dimension for an unlimited area building--it is not to protect the building from itself but to protect it from adjacent structures.