Building Potential

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Free BOMA Webinar: Seattle Building Code – Calculating the Occupant Load of Office Spaces

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May 12, 2021 | 12pm – 1pm
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This free webinar will benefit: building managers, leasing professionals, project managers, space planners, and architects.

As tenants and property professionals prepare for increasing numbers of tenants returning to the office, many are considering alterations to tenant spaces. BOMA is offering this free webinar to members and non-members to clarify the design and configuration requirements of the current building code.

Among the topics covered will be calculating the occupant load of spaces. The building code requires all spaces to be loaded fully for the purpose of egress capacity and plumbing fixture requirements. These code requirements do not reflect the non-simultaneous manner that office spaces may be used where the occupants of conference rooms are drawn from surrounding open office area. The number of occupants per suite may require limitation in order to not overload the egress system or the plumbing fixture capacity of the story. Maximum occupant limitations for individual spaces and meeting the egress requirements per suite will be discussed.

Speakers:
Ardel Jala, PE, Building Official, City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections
Richard Pellinger, Building Plans Examiner Supervisor, City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections
Amie Joyce, IIDA, LEED, ID & C, Weaver Architects

Topics:

  1. SDCI policies for designating a space as Assembly, Office Areas, or the non-simultaneous business use areas (new in 2018 SBC) and the resulting code impacts.
  2. SDCI policies around non-simultaneous occupancy for the purpose of determining egress, plumbing fixtures or risk category designation.
  3. Design and treatment of smaller tenant suites.
  4. Egress design and review of multi-suite office floors and full floor tenant improvements. Including review of occupant loads from a single-tenant and the potential impact to other tenant spaces based on the existing egress capacity from the story.
  5. Code compliant options to increase existing egress capacity – Sprinklers, Fire alarm, horizontal exits
  6. What does post-pandemic return to work look like?