GSA vs. NIST on Building Codes

An effort to amend the country's most widely used building code has ended up pitting two federal agencies against each other, the New York Times reports today.

In 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, after an investigation following the attacks on the World Trade Center, issued a report on the safety of large buildings. Based on the report's recommendations, the International Code Council backed several changes, such as requiring tall office buildings to improve fireproofing and add an extra emergency stairwell.

Now a real estate industry group, the Building Owners and Managers Association, wants to repeal the provisions, saying they will cost millions of dollars per high-rise to implement. And the organization has gained an ally in the government's landlord, the General Services Administration.

“It does not take a NIST report or a rocket scientist to figure out that requiring additional exit stairs will improve overall occupant evacuation times,” David Frable, a GSA fire safety engineer, wrote in a petition to the code council. “The bigger question that needs to be answered is at what economic cost to society?” GSA and the real estate group argue that big office buildings already are very safe.

GSA generally requires that buildings it rents or buys on behalf of federal agencies honor local building codes.