Crucial lesson have been learned from the collapse of the two towers at the World Trade Center on September 9, 2001. In 2004, high rise designers were instructed to comply with NYC local law 26 as adopted by the Housing & Buildings Committee of the New York City Council. This law defined new safety requirements for skyscrapers. These measures incorporate changes designed to make it easier for occupants to evacuate buildings in an emergency in addition to ingenious strategies to prevent, or at least slow down, the wholesale collapse of skyscrapers.
Many of these new regulations involve improving signage leading to fire exits, independent power supplies for signs indicating where the fire exits are located and phospholuminescent markers of safety exits. These provisions were to have been implemented within two or three years following the announcement of NYC 26. Other measures, involving improved sprinkler systems, are to be in place no later than July 1, 2019.
The rate of survival of occupants below the impact zone was very high. One of the lessons learned from the collapse of the two towers was the problem of evacuating people from the higher floors. A major factor in evacuating the higher floors was the disruption to the sprinkler system. The pipes had been severed by the impact of the planes.
Efforts to exit the building were further hampered by the occupants' inability to find their way to the fire exits. This is why NYC 26 mandates improvements to signage, adding photoluminescent markings and powered exit signs. The architectural firm in charge of rebuilding the World Trade Center, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), is in the process of developing a system that will permit occupants to make limited use of elevators in the event of an evacuation from the higher floors.
These innovative, elevator-assisted fire evacuation systems are controversial, to say the least. Trying to convince a work force that has been inculcated since elementary school to avoid using elevators in an emergency situation that this is safe will be an uphill struggle. The world will be watching high-rise structures such as the Burj Kalifa in Dubai, where such as system has recently been implemented. Similar thinking is also being considered for a skyscraper in South Korea.
High-rise designers in America are also learning lessons from their international counterparts. One strategy borrowed from the British, who have been using it for years, is incorporating separate staircases for firefighters. Wider staircases are also being designed to make evacuation easier and faster.
Other cities throughout the country and throughout the world are incorporating lessons learned from 9/11 and seeking ways of making tall buildings safer for the people who occupy them. Interested parties in Los Angeles, which is no stranger to accommodating extreme building measures, is also hard at work to improve security and safety.
The world will never be perfectly safe. Even if the ultimate high-rise can be designed that will not collapse, at least before everyone has left the building, there will be new sinister threats to take the place of high-rise fires.
Many of these new regulations involve improving signage leading to fire exits, independent power supplies for signs indicating where the fire exits are located and phospholuminescent markers of safety exits. These provisions were to have been implemented within two or three years following the announcement of NYC 26. Other measures, involving improved sprinkler systems, are to be in place no later than July 1, 2019.
The rate of survival of occupants below the impact zone was very high. One of the lessons learned from the collapse of the two towers was the problem of evacuating people from the higher floors. A major factor in evacuating the higher floors was the disruption to the sprinkler system. The pipes had been severed by the impact of the planes.
Efforts to exit the building were further hampered by the occupants' inability to find their way to the fire exits. This is why NYC 26 mandates improvements to signage, adding photoluminescent markings and powered exit signs. The architectural firm in charge of rebuilding the World Trade Center, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), is in the process of developing a system that will permit occupants to make limited use of elevators in the event of an evacuation from the higher floors.
These innovative, elevator-assisted fire evacuation systems are controversial, to say the least. Trying to convince a work force that has been inculcated since elementary school to avoid using elevators in an emergency situation that this is safe will be an uphill struggle. The world will be watching high-rise structures such as the Burj Kalifa in Dubai, where such as system has recently been implemented. Similar thinking is also being considered for a skyscraper in South Korea.
High-rise designers in America are also learning lessons from their international counterparts. One strategy borrowed from the British, who have been using it for years, is incorporating separate staircases for firefighters. Wider staircases are also being designed to make evacuation easier and faster.
Other cities throughout the country and throughout the world are incorporating lessons learned from 9/11 and seeking ways of making tall buildings safer for the people who occupy them. Interested parties in Los Angeles, which is no stranger to accommodating extreme building measures, is also hard at work to improve security and safety.
The world will never be perfectly safe. Even if the ultimate high-rise can be designed that will not collapse, at least before everyone has left the building, there will be new sinister threats to take the place of high-rise fires.
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