I strongly support this credit. As someone who prefers stairs to elevators, I often wish the stairs were easier to find and use.
Suggestions for improvement of the language, by feature number:
Feature 1. This one is totally obscure to me. From reading this discussion, it appears that it pertains only to high-rise buildings, or only to certain cities, or ??. For most of us, it makes no sense. I haven't a clue if my 2-story building with an open stair with no doors can comply with this or not.
Feature 2. Second bullet: change "magnetic door holds" to "code complying hold-open devices". I'm not sure that magnetic door holds comply with code any more.
Feature 3. Define "interconnecting staircase". Don't all stairs interconnect floors? You must mean something else.
Feature 4. Get rid of the word "any", as the comments on this discussion site show that it is confusing. Could replace "any edge" with "at least one edge", assuming that's what you mean.
Feature 5. Explain or remove the phrase "at each building floor" after "principal point of entry" . Most floors don't have a principal point of entry. I can't imagine, for example, what could be meant by the principal point of entry to the 12th floor.
6. Do I have to prove that my light fixtures are "architectural"? Suppose I am after an industrial look? Can we remove the word "architectural"?
Suggested additional qualifying feature:
• Quality of stair finishes, to be at least as good as building corridors.
Stephanie Graham
Sustainability ManagerBurns & McDonnell
26 thumbs up
December 18, 2015 - 10:28 am
This is how I have interpreted some of this language, though some if it appears to have been clarified over time:
#3 above: Interconnecting stair--I read this as a stair, other than the exit stair(s) that interconnects two or more floors. Think of a 10 floor core and shell building with floors 8, 9 and 10 leased to one tenant and a staircase that interconnects them. It would also be the exit stairs if the doors to enter floors 8, 9 and 10 from the exit stair are secure and require tenant security code or badge to reenter. That way only the employees of the tenant on those floors could reenter the tenant space from the exit stair.
#5 above: Taking this same tenant leasing 3 floors in the 10 story building, let's say the firm has security issues and directs all visitors entering the tenant space to their main public entry and lobby on the 10th floor. The main connecting stair might be located in or adjacent this lobby and it might connect floor 9 only or both 8 and 9. Further, the employee-only entry on floors 8 and 9 could be adjacent the same or another interconnecting stair that meets the criteria.
#6 above and the added feature: I think they are after at least the level of finish and lighting as in the corridor or lobby. I like the idea of also stipulating the finish level to be equal to or better than corridor or lobby space. I think this speaks to providing a pleasant or enhanced experience in using the stairs, as opposed to what you might see in typical exit stairs of vinyl/rubber flooring and painted walls and maybe surface mounted fluorescent lighting fixtures. Maybe say compatible or upgraded finishes and compatible feature lighting as compared to corridors or surrounding space.
Lissa Spitz
Project ManagerA3C Collaborative Architecture
1 thumbs up
December 18, 2015 - 10:33 am
My understanding of architectural lighting is light fixtures (vs natural lighting).
Rosemary Muller
ArchitectMuller & Caulfield Architects
December 18, 2015 - 12:25 pm
Stephanie, thank you for your responses. Yes, your comment to my #6 was exactly what I was thinking. I have used stairs with no finishes in the stairwell- unfinished, noisy metal stair treads, no paint on the walls (just fire taping), bare concrete floors. Echoing spaces.
Perhaps this credit could have two different versions of features 1 and 3 for high-rise and low-rise buildings. Many of the questions I see in this discussion seem to come from designers of low-rise buildings.