balkans, you can get out of a 1 hour rating for partition walls if the building is sprinklered and in a certain occupancy class, but that exemption doesn't exist for assembly spaces.  perhaps that slipped your mind?  

if you think this isn't a big deal, or that people can just calmly move furniture in a fire, then check out this video of the station night club fire, which claimed ~100 lives.  its a good illustration of why you need fire rated roof and wall assemblies, as well as sufficient clear egress paths.

NSFL:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzfq9Egxeo

Rick- I think it's commendable that you volunteered your time to helping the arts community. I think what this forum is razzing you about is simply the fact that you designed a space that has some code issues without being in any position to accept the responsibility of your actions. 

Is it going to result in massive death and injury, theater patrons burning alive and trampling and clawing each other in a fight to the exits? Volunteer extras or stage hands dying confused and scared trying to find the back exit from the dimly lit dressing rooms in a snaking, smoke choked unrated corridor? The odds say not very likely, but also not a zero possibility.

Is it, on balance, a better thing for the community of Astoria to retain their community theater, even if it is possibly housed in a non-compliant, early Balkins original, possible death trap? Seems to me that the City of Astoria thinks so, otherwise they would not have approved the permit.

Eight pages of comments bashing Balkins where perhaps a better use of our collective time would be to start a kickstarter campaign to purchase extra bright exit signs for the theater (high and low)- I nominate Rick to start the campaign as he has demonstrated a lack of training in grant writing and this would be excellent practice, and the death trap part...

Rick I have no idea who Nathan Good is - that's not the firm name on the plans - and I got them through perfectly ethical channels available to everybody.

A person with a disability who is working in the box office can't be assumed to have the ability to move a chair that's in the way.  The fact is that the room is not wide enough to simultaneously serve its intended function (box office) and meet ADA, because it can't be configured to have an ADA-compliant work surface at the same time that it serves as an egress route.

fyi, the grants obtained for the original project exceeded $500k - it would be interesting to see some documentation of where all of that went, as it's clear not a lot of it went into this volunteer-labor renovation masterpiece.   The planned addition, plus remedial work to fix some of the problems cause by Balkins, was estimated at $290k about 5 years ago, likely more now.

damn Dangermouse- your link really puts things into perspective

i think rick likes the attention he's getting in this thread

There is some serious factors for why the Station Nightclub burned. "pyrotechnics". There is no pyrotechnics used at the ASOC theater building. There is also a lot larger population. In addition, egress for the audience is much simpler. 

Are you fucking kidding?

You watched that video, in which you can hear people screaming as they are burned alive inside, and your thought was the one quoted? You seem totally convinced that the comments here regarding this theatre criticism are completely divorced from any of the factors in that video - when if you'd do a bit of reading on the report behind it, aligns shockingly close to items people have brought up here.

The pyrotechnics are in many ways irrelevant - the main issue was the myriad of design mistakes, by the designer, that allowed it to unfold in the way it did. The designer likely never even considered the offending scenario, because it wasn't allowed. But they can't really be there every night to be checking for it, can they?

Not to pile on, but somebody needs to contact the Astoria Fire Marshall and have this place inspected before the next performance.

Balkins, you are fucking relentless.  Shut up and admit that you are wrong.  The only way to save yourself at this point is to raise money to right your wrongs.  Contact an exotic animal dealer and get a large male kangaroo.  You can put on a boxing match with him and charge 20$ at the door.  

I'm calling tomorrow, and you guys should too.

Doing it anonymously, but this is total bullshit, Balkins. This is why you have avoided posting your work thus far. You're running an illegal shop; this is why licenses exist.

If you can't ascertain the fucking fire-resistance of an assembly you have designed, you have zero fucking business designing that assembly. That fucking simple.

If you don't have the resources to pay however you think you need to pay to get a particular set of information, your billing structure is out of whack. Fix it.

If you can't fix your billing structure, imagine the invisible hand of the market nutpunching you, take your losses and find another job. ASAP.

Rick the theater company got a mortgage for most of the purchase price of the property, so that leaves >300k unexplained. Also most of the grants they used had requirements that the recipient produce matching funds for 25% to 100% of the grant amount, so they should have had quite a bit more than the half million in grants.  It would be interesting to see their books.

Nonetheless, even if their project budget had been $600, your choices would have been to figure out how to do it within that budget such that it met fire codes and accessibility standards, or to turn down the project.  You don't have an option, on this or any other project, to decide that the budget is so small that it exempts you from codes and standards.

You need help with your understanding of codes.  For example on the ADA items: yes there is a threshold based on percentage of overall project cost that determines whether EXISTING accessibility problems must be corrected.  But that threshold doesn't apply to anything new that you build in that building.  Examples:  there is no exemption that allows you to forego accessibility to your stage, snack bar, box office, lighting booth, etc.  You're not allowed to make the call that there would not be somebody working on the lighting who has a disability, or that the nature of a box office worker's disability would allow her to remove a chair from her egress path, etc.  

The proposed addition is 1 story, approximated 1400 square feet - but the $290k estimate isn't just for the addition - it includes fixing some of the issues that you created.  You'd better hope that happens before a fire does.

Given your past history of reporting people for various dangerous infractions such as using the wrong titles and letting their license dues lapse, I'm sure you're familiar enough with licensing laws to understand that those of us who are licensed in Oregon are legally obligated to report this.   Failing to do so could cost us our own licenses - and it could cost others serious injury or death.

I've spent plenty of time here trying to educate you but your head is built of impenetrable soundproof construction, so I have to give up.

On a serious note.  You should never accept a project that you do not have the experience to deliver at a capacity at least equivalent to the average practitioner....whether you are legally allowed to or not.  My sister is an experienced attorney and owns a firm with several employees.  She recently turned down a murder case where the person was willing to pay a huge fee.  The case is kinda high profile and would probably be a game changer for her career.  She handled a minor matter for the accused a few years back and he liked her so asked for her help. She didn't feel that she was the best option for this guy since she has little experience handling violent felonies.  This is what a professional is supposed to do.  I have personally turned down projects that I felt unqualified for as well.  Even during times when I needed the money.  I know my limits, and I would never attempt to do a project outside of my expertise.  You are an arrogant and stubborn prick Richard.  I felt bad for a while that people were giving you shit on this site because I thought you were just a little dim witted, but you are really just a narcissist.  Its a sign of weak character to not be able to admit when you are wrong.  You need a reality check. 

I agree with Josh - it looks like your occupant counts aren't right.  It looks like you based it on the loose tables and chairs scenario (15 sf per person), assuming that they'd always configure this as a dinner theater scenario.  You should never do it that way for a theater with a stage, because it's patently obvious that at some point somebody will rearrange the seating as rows of chairs (7 sf per person), or even that they'll use the space for some standing room only event (3 sf per person) and then they may have up to 5 times as many people, regardless of what the occupant limit signage says.  There are photos on their facebook showing it configured as rows of 200+ chairs.  You need to look at what reasonably can be expected to happen in a space and plan for that. It may not be reasonable to think somebody will cover the walls of this theater with egg crate foam and then allow a band to bring pyrotechnics.  However it is reasonable to think that somebody might put more people in here than you drew tables and chairs for, and it's also reasonable to think that someday someone might do something stupid (use a lighter to fuse a piece of fraying trim on a synthetic costume, aim a stage light too close to combustible scnery, use a space heater near a Christmas decoration).  That's why you have to calculate the egress capacity based on a worst case scenario, and you have to meet all the fire and accessibility codes regardless of how remote you imagine the possibility of an accident to be.

If 50 people die of smoke inhalation in there because it was overpacked, the theater management will be found culpable - but so will you, because you didn't apply sound professional judgement when designing egress.  Go back to your over-the-top hysteria about people washing off roofs on pool floats, and re-read your own rants on the propensity of humans to do stupid things.  Now stop harassing the infinite pool designers for designing pools that look edgeless but really have code-compliant safety features, and apply everything you wrote to this theater that not only looks dangerous but is dangerous.

1. congrats on creating such an interesting thread! 2. I think the issues raised above are exactly why the theater couldn't find a real architect to do the work. I still don't understand how the building officials allowed this to happen, don't they look for a stamp on commercial projects, especially with a use change? 3. I don't feel qualified to design a theater, and I'm licensed with about 10 yrs exp (no theaters). I've found that super low budget projects are far more difficult than any other because the owners want to design everything to the absolute minimum. 4. the old adage "you get what you pay for" clearly applies in this case. this could be an excellent case study for cheap skate clients

stupid phone won't do paragraphs.....

i wonder, what is the standard of care for building designers? 

Quote from an interview with the theater manager:

"The office space at the theater acts as a ticket booth, storage and place for the lighting technician. Staff in the cramped office constantly bump into each other during shows.  We can’t breathe in there,"

The Station nightclub was designed for 400 people and had 4 exits.  It was over capacity the night of the fire, by about 14%.  One of the exits may have been blocked at first by staff who didn't yet realize the severity of the situation.  Most of the crowd tried to get out the entrance, which makes sense because it was in the direction away from the fire, was the largest (the only one with double doors), and was the way they'd come in so they were familiar with it.   We know the results there.

Balkins' theater seems more likely to be filled a much higher % past his stated design capacity.  Pictures of events there illustrate that it has been.  Some of the areas are documented to be too tight for even a few people to work without bumping into each other.  If that box office were filled with black smoke and loose chairs, would the lighting technician get out in a few seconds?  If the majority of the audience tries to go back through the entrance, do they flow smoothly through the single door or pile up inside while the fully engulfed roof rains burning debris on them? Do people in the changing rooms find the exits through the smoke, or get tangled in the racks of clothing and wigs and piles of props living in the snaky hallway? If the fire starts near the door from backstage, does the cast have the presence of mind in an emergency to counterintuitively run back through the theater to another exit?  Does the 50-person cast fit through the door in the concrete wall all at once?  

All hypothetical questions.  Hopefully we never find out the answers.

Picture of the box office/lighting booth that Balkins asserts is wide enough to serve as the single egress route for these staff and lighting technicians, and is ADA-compliant: 

http://www.dailyastorian.com/storyimage/DA/20150506/ARTICLE/150509807/AR/0/AR-150509807.jpg&MaxW=600

kids, this is a perfect thread on how not to operate as an Architect! Balkins carry on, we can all learn from your errors and mistakes.

As the design professional you don't make trade-offs that result in non-code-compliant dangerous situations.  If the client vetoes something that you know is required by code, or if their refusal to divulge the budget somehow prevents you from designing a safe, accessible, code-compliant situation, then you walk away from the project and you do not provide them with drawings.  It's that simple.  There is nothing else you can say about it that will make it right.  

As for the occupant load: you seem to be confirming what I conjectured above, that you designed this ONLY as a table-and-chairs scenario and used 15 sf per person.  That's completely idiotic in a building with a stage.  Unless the tables were bolted to the floor you can pretty much guaranteed that somebody at some point is going to move them out of the way to get twice as many people in there in rows of chairs.  You can see in some of the photos on the theater's facebook that they have indeed done that for multiple performances.  Any competent professional would have understood from square one that this was going to happen and designed for it.  If there is some eventual stampede situation in this theater and even one person is hurt you'll be facing criminal charges.  What you ought to do now is go to the current fire marshall and city officials and explain all of these code problems so they can go inspect it and shut it down until the theater management can come up with the funds to fix it.

And you're supposed to anticipate "clutter" and make space for it.  Your assumption that this theater was going to operate with two folding chairs and a bare floating Ikea counter shows that you don't have enough experience with real-world workplaces to design them.

and Ricky still wonders why we consider him a giant failure.

Your exits don't meet the 1/2-the-diagonal rule.  There are numerous points in the plan where the travel route exceeds 1/2 the diagonal of the building to at least one of the nearest two exits.  The people in the backstage area need two ways out but if you're counting going back through the stage and seating side of the buildng as one of the two ways then you're making them pass through more spaces than allowed.  

It's a death trap.  Take that seriously.  Ask God what you should do.

can you explain this phrase "you realize"? seems a bit presumptious.

see, i don't think balkans did these calculations before this thread. he is talking about occupant loads on page 9, after we brought it up. three days ago, all he could have said was "sprinklered building, occupancy classified at X, egress width at Y which exceeds code requirements" and i'd be satisfied as an armchair fire marshal. 

instead you get paragraph after paragraph about UL ratings on concrete and metal doors, and something about how people can calmly move chairs around in a fire.   

from his houzz page, which really speaks for itself:

"Some services and projects may involve or require the services of an architect and/or an engineer who is licensed/registered with the state having jurisdiction. Some projects are required by the laws or regulations of state, federal or local governments to have the an architect or engineer to supervise and have responsible control of the preparation of plans, specifications and other documents relating to the project. Due to project complexity, the building official may at his/her discretion - require certain drawings and specifications to be prepared by an architect or an engineer even if the project would ordinarily be exempt from requiring an architect or engineer. "

The chair thing just astounds me - the idea that people in a narrow, cramped space filled with black smoke, with seconds to get out, will be able to fold chairs and put them somewhere out of the way.  Or that all people with all sorts of disabilities will have the ability in the first place, fire or not, to fold and move a chair out of the way.  Or the very idea that egress routes are allowed to have chairs in them, as long as they're foldable!  And then there's the issue of thinking that folding chairs are appropriate workplace furniture in the first place.

Where there is a 50-person cast and 2 are on stage for a scene (as if often the case in large-ensemble productions) the rest are backstage.  There are photos on the theater's sites of most of the cast hanging out back there waiting to go on for big production numbers - along with the costume assistants, makeup people, etc.  They're packed in back there like sardines.

Yes of course doors could be added.  But they should have been in the design in the first place! 

You just keep answering everything with what "could have" been done.  Doesn't it concern you at all that the current facility, as it was done, is DANGEROUS?  If you don't care that people can be killed because of your ineptitude, then you're a selfish, egotistical maniac.

All,

Could you help me clarify and add to this letter I am composing to the Oregon State Architect Examiner's board as well as the local Astoria Building Department (Lisa & David).  Some of this is paraphrased from your posts.  I want to make sure the talking points are correct as far as we understand them.  thanks and K4L.

Richard WC Balkins, an unlicensed architect violated Oregon State architecture exemption law by converting a laundromat into a theater.  which is a change of use, occupancy classification, and code requirements.  

the wall and ceiling construction does not meet fire ratings for assembly spaces.  they are non-UL assemblies.  

the backstage does not have the required number of egress exits.  egress travel path requires passing through two intermediate spaces in the back of house as well front of house from the lighting booth through the box office.  backstage rooms are not 1 hour rated assemblies.  

The stage (including backstage areas) exceeds 1000 sf without compliant smoke control system to maintain a smoke layer not less than 6 feet above the seating level.  Space lacks at least two fusible links and manually operated heat-activated roof vents located above the highest point of the stage, having a combined area of at least 5% of the stage area (including backstage spaces.  No standpipes on both sides of stage.  No space under the stage is sprinklered and/or separated by 5/8" gyp bd.  There are no vestibule spaces at egress points in liue of having to pass through intermediate spaces.

Second to the fire code violations, the box office space, among other spaces does not meet ADA parameters.  Countertops for example are at min. 41" high and there are not minimum clear spaces for disabled employees to egress.