Will Affect Firefighters
City Building Code Gets an Overhaul

By REUVEN BLAU

Mayor Bloomberg May 3 announced the completion of the Buildings Department's six-year effort to revise the city's byzantine construction code, which includes several new regulations designed to increase fire safety and enhance the use of environmentally friendly plans, though it fell short of what the fire officers' union sought.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang BRINGING THE CODE UP TO CODE: Mayor Bloomberg May 3 announced the completion of the Buildings Department's six-year effort to update the city's dated construction code. Buildings Department Commissioner Patricia Lancaster called the proposed regulations a pro-active approach to increase fire safety and enhance environmentally-friendly plans.

"With our city expected to grow by one million people between now and 2030, recent new construction is likely to continue to be brisk in the years ahead," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at City Hall.

Controlling the Boom

The new construction codes, which need City Council approval, will guide that building boom, make it more efficient, and environmentally sustainable, he added. The city's plumbing and electrical codes were revised in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

The major safety modifications include: broadened categories of residential buildings that are required to have automatic sprinklers installed, wider stairways, and glow-in-the-dark signs by exits. The updated code also mandates the installation of impact-resistant stairways and elevator shafts in new residential and commercial high-rises, and granting developer's rebates to encourage environmentally friendly water and energy buildings.

The overall proposed changes were backed by the fire unions and real-estate groups. But the use of so-called black iron in ceilings in office buildings was a hotly contested issue, with the Uniformed Firefighters' Officers Association seeking to require that it be used in all new construction.

New York City is one of a small number of localities in the nation where the substance is still used. Most places utilize wire systems, which are less expensive and easier to put in.

Less Likely to Collapse

But UFOA President Peter L. Gorman lobbied the Bloomberg administration to require all new drop ceilings to be built with black iron, which is fire-retardant and less likely to collapse in a fire.

Developers contend that black iron adds $2 a square foot to construction costs and that the wire systems have proven to be safe in other areas. The UFOA and the unions representing ceiling builders, however, maintain that the wire material only saves nine cents a square foot and would create safety hazards.

The proposed regulations compromised. "In the new code, we have decided to eliminate the requirement for black iron in residential buildings," Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said, noting that the interstices space above ceilings in those buildings is much shorter than in high-rises.

"But some people can still use it and they probably will. It is in the code, and it remains a requirement for high-rise office buildings," she said.

More than 400 professionals in construction, organized labor, academia, and the real-estate industry worked to help modernize the codes, which will be modeled after the International Building Code. They went through the painstaking task of reviewing the current code line-by-line, city officials said.

Scoppetta Cites Changes

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta highlighted the new rule designed to reduce unnecessary plumbing used to generate water pressure for higher floors. "There is a single high-pressure piping that goes up 600 feet and above," he said. "That saves a lot of money on construction."

Under the current piping systems, Firefighters sometimes have to take time to turn down the water pressure on higher floors due to the excess piping. "It turns out for us to be very important," Mr. Scoppetta said. "We always need that high pressure at the higher level, but we don't need every piping going up."

Mr. Bloomberg noted that revising the 1968 rules was one of the pledges he made during his 2001 campaign. "This was a massive task nobody ever thought would get done," he remarked. "The trouble with codes is that we constantly add, and you never take anything away, and invariably you start to have so many levels that you don't accomplish what you're trying to do."

Developers and architects scoffed at the idea that his administration would be able to comprehensively update the thousands of pages of intricate rules, he added. "When the Mayor first asked me to overhaul the Building Code, I wasn't sure that it was possible," Ms. Lancaster recalled.

Trade Center a Factor

She noted that the World Trade Center collapse also helped spur the need for change. "We've really had a dream team on this effort."

Ms. Lancaster added that the "somewhat Talmudic" code has historically been viewed as a reactive set of rules, which was changed after problems arose. "Now, today, for the first time we are releasing a pro-active code that not only makes it easier, safer, and faster, but a code that will allow New York's construction industry to use new technology and innovative design," she said.

Several months ago the Buildings Department outlined 20 of the most controversial issues involved in the code and met with the affected parties to hash out their differences over the amendments, a city official noted.

"The result is a remarkable piece of work," Mr. Bloomberg said. "One that is tailored to building in New York's uniquely dense and highly populated environment, and one that I think will stand as a landmark achievement of this administration."

Quinn Taking Look

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said she plans to examine the proposed changes. "We will review the document presented by the administration today, and will work toward a new set of codes that strikes the right balance between spurring economic growth and creating safer and greener buildings citywide," she said in a statement.

The city plans to update the codes every three years, just as the international regulations are amended, Mr. Bloomberg said. "That means that in the years ahead, builders will be able to use the newest materials and technology and adapt other environmentally friendly innovations that will help keep New York the Green Apple," he remarked.

At the press conference, he recalled lugging the old complicated rules with him to a meeting with real-estate officials while he was campaigning for Mayor in 2001. "If you have two books, there is something wrong," he said. "Today, nearly six years later, we finally made that proposal a reality and we can check off one thing on our scorecard."