The General Services Administration (GSA), the federal government’s property manager, has joined the nation’s largest property owners in opposing the stricter safety requirements for skyscrapers that were added to the International Code Council’s standards, the most widely used building code in the U.S., after the collapse of the World Trade Center. 

The opponents argue that the new safety standards, such as provisions requiring tall office buildings to have extensive fireproofing and alternative emergency stairwells, are too costly.  The standards were revised in response to an extensive investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology into the collapse of the twin towers on September 11, 2001. 

In petitioning the International Code Council to rescind the changes, David Frable, a GSA fire safety engineer, said that obviously requiring additional exit stairs will improve evacuation times but asked the council to give more consideration to the economic cost.  Real estate industry officials estimate that the fireproofing and stairwell requirements alone could add $13 million to the cost of building an office tower of 42 floors and reduce the annual rent by as much as $600,000 each year because of decreased floor space.

What It Means to Agents:  In a few days, we will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The federal government is now arguing that the safety requirements adopted after the attack on the Twin Towers, while they would make buildings more safe, cost too much.

How quickly some people forget. This is the same thought process that results in building codes being strengthened after a bad hurricane, only to be loosened years later after there have been no storms and people want to make more money by loosening construction standards. It incredible that a GSA fire safety official, while saying that additional exit stairs would save lives, goes on to say that saving those lives should take a back seat to developers making more money. Shame on the GSA!

God forbid there is another event of some sort, these standards were trashed and people died as a direct result. The federal government would have handed the trial bar members that will represent dead people’s families the legal basis by which they can exact millions of dollars more in settlements.

September 10, 2008