Building the Code

Mayor Bloomberg has finally unveiled the latest revisions to the City's building code. The code was last overhauled in 1968 and it would incorporate many of the lessons from the WTC collapse, including strengthened stairwells and fire protection and suppression systems.

The changes, which require City Council approval, are intended to incorporate lessons from the World Trade Center collapse in revising a code whose origins date to the city’s early days and bringing it closer to national standards.

The mayor’s proposal, which would apply almost entirely to new construction, would require automatic sprinkler systems, wider stairs and glow-in-the-dark exit markings for a broader range of buildings. In addition, the proposal calls for strengthening walls around stairways and elevator shafts in residential high-rises, giving rebates to encourage water and energy conservation and allowing permit applications to be filed electronically.

Nearly four years and 20 committees in the making, the changes are part of the most comprehensive overhaul in the history of the code, which shapes the city’s interior workings in areas dire and mundane, controlling everything from stairway reinforcement to rooftop color to the alignment of toilet paper dispensers in private bathrooms. The code’s last major revision was in 1968.

“Nobody ever wants to deal with the details, but these are the things that make this city affordable and livable and safe,” Mr. Bloomberg said in making the announcement at City Hall. He added, “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.”

In rewriting the tome of regulations, the administration is trying to move away from many of the complex requirements that have made New York one of the most difficult and expensive cities in which to build. The changes would also bring the city closer to a uniform national code that is seen as less cluttered and costly.

Changes that bring the code closer to the uniform national code could increase the competition for those working on building projects in the city since more companies would be familiar with the building requirements. The cost savings could be considerable.

Important changes include requiring buildings of any type taller than 55 feet and with at least 30 occupants to have to have an automatic sprinkler system and buildings over 300 feet would need to have a secondary water supply. Those changes would apply only to new construction. Existing structures would not need to conform to the new changes.