NEW YORK CITY – On December 15th, CTBUH New York City Young Professionals Committee (YPC) organized a panel discussion called “Decoding NYC High Rise Building Codes.” The event started with a half an hour of networking, followed by an introduction by the co-chairs of the New York CTBUH YPC: Architectural Designer at KPF Ilkay Can-Standard,  and Structural Design Engineer at Salvia Hardik Doshi. The chairs discussed CTBUH and the committees and working groups under the organization, as well as upcoming events.

The panel discussion took place at Thornton Tomasetti's (TT) office in Midtown Manhattan and was comprised of three experts on high rise building codes: Technical Advisor to the First Deputy Commissioner at NYC’s Department of Buildings Keith L. Wen, RA; Counsel Member at Bryan Cave and Former Assistant Commissioner for Technical Affairs and Code Development at the NYC Department of Buildings James Colgate, AIA, Esq.; and Director of the Fire and Life Safety and Code Consulting Team for Buro Happold in New York City, Carl Keogh. Carl was also part of the NYC Department of Buildings Committee involved in the production of the 2014 NYC Building Code as well as sitting on both the CTBUH Fire Working Group and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers ‘High Rise Task Force.’ Architect with Adamson Associates, and member of the International Code Council, Keith C. Barnes, AIA, moderated the panel discussion. More than 75 persons, including architects, engineers, developers, and consultants attended the event and participated in the lively panel discussion with questions and commentary.

As buildings become more vertical, developing and integrating new and improved life safety systems for the protection of tall building inhabitants is becoming increasingly relevant.  The 2014 NYC Building Code includes a number of provisions that enhance the life safety systems for high-rise buildings built in New York City.  One of the goals of the CTBUH panel discussion was to highlight some of these major enhancements.