Fire Protection & Design Supplement: Is Smoke Control Really Required?
High-rise office buildings--buildings over 75 feet in height--have required life safety designs for many years. The previous life safety provisions required stairwell pressurization and smoke evacuation (either mechanical or through knockout windows). The Uniform Building Code added Section 905, Smoke Control, to the code in the 1991 edition. It has been implemented in many buildings during the years it has been in force.
Does complying with Section 905 of the UBC provide additional protection over and above the protection provided by the previous smoke control requirements? This is the main issue of this article. It should be noted that this article only relates to fully sprinklered high-rise office buildings greater than 75 feet in height.