Here’s an architectural feature to spot as you watch football (soccer) today, Boxing Day in the UK, and American football over the weekend.
Vomitory refers to the large exit/entrance openings within the seating to concourses in older stadiums (e.g., Rose Bowl (stadium) [wikipedia]) and field-level openings in most newer stadiums that teams run back through to the locker rooms. See Vomitorium [wikipedia] for more.
The term is still at several spots in the building code, specifically related to access and exiting in Chapter 10.
(From the every increasing series of definition posts from the 2,300 page, 1975 Webster’s New Century, Second Edition, unabridged dictionary.
RED : electrical ORANGE : data (phone, CATV) YELLOW : gas (and oil, steam) BLUE : water, potable GREEN : sewer (not seen in the photo above) PURPLE : water, non-potable (irrigation, reclaimed) PINK : survey WHITE : excavation
You’ll notice the markings in my yard include two orange lines, one for telephone and the other for cable television. It’s not uncommon for multiple services to be present that are owned or managed by different companies. In the Triangle exist many other common services: fiber optic data, liquid petroleum, natural gas distribution, security, satellite downlinks, irrigation, and re-claimed water.
These conventions came about because buried services are a huge hazard and having conventions to locate and key them are critical to the nation’s infrastructure. A 1999 US Department of Transportation study was the impetus for tying local, regional, and national governments and utility companies to a clearinghouse of locating services available to the public for free. This is done through the auspices of the Common Ground Alliance.
If you’re planning any kind of construction, repair, or installation within the ground, get all the utilities located for free through the website or three-digit telephone number: 811.
SteveHallArchitecture uses these same colors in our electronic drawings for consistency with the AWPA standards and continuity with what we see in the field. In a fast growing area like the Triangle, you’ll see these markings everywhere. Next time you take a walk, test yourself on the standard!
Written in 1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s Harrison Bergeron is a classic. The three-page short story can be found online here and elsewhere.
The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
This story comes to my mind often in architectural practice. Many who know me have read it at my urging. Despite our best intentions, projects are utterly encumbered by codes, laws, and regulations in the attempt to create safety, opportunity, and equality.
Not that any of these are, in themselves, bad things. In fact, utopian vision has driven architecture for at least four millennia. I am actually a proponent for great design and good craftsmanship that is inclusive, accessible, and universal. Slightly larger spaces aren’t just for injured employees, aging residents, or disabled visitors. They also help encumbered firemen in smoke-filled air trying to rescue occupants. In that context, what’s a few more inches?
Still, our endeavor to create great is slowly being truncated by our compromise to create barely adequate. Great design takes great time, and the more factors there are to consider, the longer it is going to take and the more it is going to cost.
I suppose inflation is the natural course of civilization simply due to this ever-expanding growth of requirements. But is there a way to simplify? At what point can we no longer afford the growth of regulation? With U.S. federal government debt at $19,963,980,500,000 (trillion), haven’t we exceeded our capacity to pay for these demands?
sketch, 2016-05-17, downtown house space stacking diagrams
Even if you don’t get the project, you can still enjoy the process!
This was a quick look at an urban rooftop living room and kitchen addition. The building was a three-story masonry construction from 1915 in downtown Raleigh.
The existing stairs were in different locations on each floor. So this design re-stacked them for more efficiency toward the rear. And it introduced a skylight above it to filter natural daylight down the dark, north facing rear of the building.
The initial sketch worked out the spacial organization and then a 3D model looked more closely at the forms.
Fabian Oefner’s exploding paint balloons (as seen on Wired)
Even tiny projects are rarely simple. The type I run into most often are so small that no architect has been involved. Unfortunately, the encounter is after it has unraveled. Then, my ability to proactively solve problems is limited, and the fix ends up being more expensive and time consuming.
In Code Check, I introduced some general areas of concern for a typical small project. I can illustrate three specific situations related to toilet fixtures that often crop up on projects in spaces constructed only five or more years ago.
As mentioned in the previous articles, codes are changing all the time. North Carolina discarded its customized accessibility code in 2009 to adopt the national code, ANSI 117.1. There are dozens of differences between the two.
Toilet clearance change
One of these is the required clearance beside an accessible toilet. The previous code required only 48″ clear around the toilet fixture. The lavatory was allowed to overlap the 60″ toilet clearance by 12″. But in the current code, the full 60″ must be preserved. This means that any single space bathroom completed just five years ago will very likely require adjustments to achieve compliance.
Unfortunately, this implies that either the toilet or the lavatory must be relocated along with several adjacent walls, toilet accessories, and maybe the door. In one of my recent projects, the lavatory was adjacent an exterior wall where it couldn’t move farther away from the toilet. So the toilet had to be relocated instead.
This is expensive. It requires tearing out the concrete slab, existing wall, door, water supply, vent pipe, grab bars, and toilet accessories. The under-slab sanitary drain must be re-worked, and the concrete slab patched back. Then wall studs, drywall, toilet accessories, ceiling, paint, and a door are installed to get back to a finished condition. Sometimes even the lighting and HVAC venting must be re-worked as well. Expect something like this to cost $10,000 or more. All because of a 12″ code change!
Toilet grab bar dimensions
Another recent code change is the additional requirement for a vertical grab bar on the side of a toilet. This is an inexpensive change since only the bar and its installation are required. On rare occasions, a toilet accessory like a toilet paper dispenser may interfere with the required location and also need to be adjusted.
Toilet fixture count requirements
The building code has a number of major occupancy classifications with further minor use type stipulations. Together, they specify the maximum quantity of occupants in any given space. The plumbing code then has a table which requires the minimum number of required plumbing fixtures based on this calculated occupancy. In the table excerpt above, the water closet quantities required are shown for the number of occupants in Business (B) and Mercantile (M) occupancies.
As you can see, the quantities differ significantly. A typical calculation would require only one fixture for a ground floor retail space of 15,000 SF. That same space, used for exercise, would require seven water closets.
Any change in occupancy requires recalculation of the required number of toilets. Even a seemlingly minor change can increase the number of required toilets, lavatories, or drinking fountains.
I would like to be able to help more building owners and tenants navigate code issues. It is simple to run just a short analysis and determine the feasibility of any required changes before signing a lease or starting a renovation!
