Delve into the intricate process behind egress and occupancy load drawings in building renovation projects. This article offers a detailed walkthrough of a tenant improvement drawing, explaining the considerations and requirements associated with building permits.
Key Insights
- The article explains the process of creating tenant improvement drawings for office spaces in a building undergoing renovation. A building permit is necessary for each individual office space, with each permit outlining the scope of work for that particular space, including wall and office partitions.
- The means of egress and occupancy load drawings are critical components of these improvement drawings. These drawings dictate the maximum number of occupants for the space (in this case, 23), the number and location of exits, and the evacuation path in case of an emergency. The width of the stairway, for example, is determined by the number of people expected to use it during an evacuation.
- Several factors contribute to the safety regulations in a building, such as the diagonal length of the office, the anticipated number of occupants, and the width of egress paths, all of which are carefully considered in the renovation process to ensure the safety and welfare of the building's occupants.
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This is the second means of egress and occupancy load drawing I'd like to share with you. When you look at the drawing, you'll recognize it. It's the same project we discussed a few minutes ago.
Again, when we were working with our client, we received our initial contract to renovate the building and create what we called a building shell. And then over time, as they were able to rent out the offices, we were asked to do what they call the tenant improvement drawings. So again, we initially had a building permit for the overall building, and then we obtained separate building permits for the renovation of each of the office spaces.
When you look at things in a larger picture, you'll notice how we have separate offices that are already being developed on different areas of the building. So again, this is a tenant improvement drawing for one specific unit or office suite within the building. And this tenant improvement drawing is for this office, which is right here.
So I'm going to go on and zoom into that area so we can learn more about what's going on. Here's what you'll notice. Again, this is the office suite in which we're getting the building permit.
You can see that I have the words here that say Scope of Work, and then you can see a revision bubble that goes around it. So for this Scope of Work, I'm indicating this office shell, again marked with diagonal lines. Take this office shell, add in these wall partitions, and there's also going to be a scope of work to add this bubbled area into the drawing.
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So in this tenant improvement drawing, we are taking the base building file, because again, this is not the first tenant improvement drawing we've done in the building, but it's the first one for this particular client. We're saying for this building permit, the scope of work is confined to adding the wall partitions that are here and the wall partitions and office partitions that are here. And again, what we are reviewing are the Means of Egress and Occupancy Load drawings for this specific tenant improvement.
So it's a requirement for the building permit that we have to show the diagonal length of the office space. We have the occupancy load, and because of the occupancy load itself, we're saying that 23 people can be the maximum number of people in this space. This particular occupancy load requires only one door, so we're showing how the people get out of the office, and then again, part of the building permit is how those people can subsequently get out of the building in the event of an emergency.
I'm just going to pan over to here. Now again, these are other tenant improvements that have already happened, but you can see that I have an office up here. So I have a diagonal line for this particular office.
I'm showing the occupancy load of this specific office here and that all 10 people will go out of this door. We have another office here. Again, the diagonal line within the office space, occupancy load within the building, and how they get out of the office.
This office here, 23 people in the door. Here I have a smaller office, 10 people, 10 people getting out of the door. Again, we look at the people exiting the offices and how they impact the hallway, the number of people who are anticipated to be departing through that particular door.
So again, we have a required means of egress width for the hall. We've provided 6 feet. Minimum requirement is 44 inches.
When again we get to the stairway, the width of the stairway is once again generated by the number of people who are getting out of the building. So the width of the stairway may increase as you go down the stairway, because as more people evacuate into the stairway core from the levels above, the number of people getting out will obviously increase. And then what I also have happening up here is the reiteration of the analysis that was initially provided on the building, again showing building overall occupancy demands.
So I hope that you've learned something fun about Means of Egress and Occupancy. This is again very important to have, because as Architects and Building Officials, it's very important that we protect the life, safety, and welfare of people, because we want the people to be safe in the buildings.