The National Council of Building Designer Certification (NCBDC) Board of Examiners will be conducting a four-hour meeting this week to develop the Examinations Specifications of the Certified Professional Building Designer (CPBD) certification program. Acting as the Council’s “Scheme Committee,” the board will be using the results of the 2015 Job Analysis Survey to finalize the content weighting of the examination outline. The meeting will be facilitated by PSI Services, a certification industry leader providing test development, psychometric services, leadership consulting services and item (i.e. question) authoring and banking solutions.
With PSI’s oversight, the board of examiners will review the existing CPBD examination and consider any areas in which an adjustment to the content weighing may be needed to develop a relevant and valid sampling of the competencies required for the CPBD job/career role.
This task is step one of a three step plan for Spring 2016. NCBDC is looking for volunteers from the industry to help reclassify the existing exam content and another group of volunteers to undergo training to become item writers. Once the Exam Specifications are complete, some time in May, step two will include two six-hour online meetings with subject matter experts (SMEs) to evaluate existing examination content according to the newly created Exam Specs. Step three consists of three 90-minute item-writer sessions via webinar with SMEs. PSI will provide training regarding clear guidelines on procedures for writing effective test items, principles for writing good test items and item writing exercises. In addition, the training will introduce the us of PSI’s user-friendly portal for item authoring and banking. This secure method for SMEs to contribute items is a state-of-the-art online banking tool.
ATTENTION !!!! - licensed / registered Architects specializing in residential and light commercial buildings as well as certified professional building designers.
I like to personally invite you to consider participating in Stage two and Three of the NCBDC certification exam 'redevelopment'. As it is the goal of AIBD/NCBDC for this exam to be ANSI accredited. It is also part of the process to involve subject matter experts into the process of making the exam in part necessarily rigorous, valid and covering the kind of work that building designers and architects work on.
More information on this would be available and posted as I become aware of it.
The exam should be necessarily rigorous in assessing the knowledge and skills a building designer would need to know for competent practice. As we know, building designers / home designers work on light commercial buildings and residential. We don't typically work on high rises as the licensing laws exemptions are. I'm probably not be involved in the item-writer phase as I intend to take the exam. I maybe involved in step two (maybe... maybe not), if I do, I'd probably have to wait until step three is completed and implemented into the NCBDC exam before going further. There is key parts I need to not be part of if I am to take the exam at some point.
However, I am suggesting architects and existing CPBDs because they would not be required to take the exam or had already taken the exam. All answers to the questions in the exam will obviously need to be valid with verifiable answers.
You will obviously be talking with the AIBD Director and the NCBDC director. I personally want the questions to be the kind of questions that simple-minded easy. Let it be comparably rigorous as the ARE but focused on the subject matters primarily related to residential and light commercial projects. The questions have depth to it. I'm not looking for what is the acronym for a department. While I may have fewer questions than there maybe in the ARE, I don't want to waste questions on simple-minded questions. Questions obviously needs to be objective and defensible and not just opinions.
A little thing to keep in mind is building designers/residential designers can quite often work in many states and the exemptions ranges a bit so I would expect questions relevant in all ranges from residential & varying sizes of multi-family residential to various sizes of commercial, educational/institutional/assembly buildings typically under two or three stories. Since each state's exemption varies, we don't want to get state specific so much.
The construction systems typically of buildings under 5 stories in height is typically what would be used so exam should be focused to that end.
I recommend architects who specializes in residential and light commercial because our practices overlaps significantly compared to large corporate firms designing skyscrapers, stadiums, and large scale commercial/institutional/etc. projects.
Apr 29, 16 4:04 am
Lets also look at Chapter 34 Sections 3403-3407.
Apr 29, 16 4:05 am
What does Chapter 3406.1 say?
Apr 29, 16 4:07 am
Lets also take a look at Section 3410.1. What does it say?
Apr 29, 16 6:28 am
Forget it.... guys. I'm tired and exhausted debating this shit. If this was new construction, I can understand applying all the requirements for new buildings but existing buildings can never meet the entire prescriptive path of new construction. Historic buildings and other existing buildings pre-UL listings or an antiquated listing. The CMUs are probably UL listed on an ancient list somewhere. I don't have the UL number for that. I don't have a copy of the 1950s era UL listing for CMUs if they even had a listing back then.
I've worked with buildings that literally pre-dates UL.
Lets move on. The project was back early in my career. Okay. If I were to come across a similar project, I wouldn't do it unless its new construction design, for one. Two, I'm being paid a real design fee. Three, it would have vestibules and all that. I have no interest in doing any such projects involving a A-1 occupancy. It was baptism by fire.
As for grant writers, there are probably professional grant writers whose does this for a living and probably knows more places to write grants including the one you learned in class even the ones you learned that are now defunct and no longer available.
Licensed or not, I wouldn't be trying to find grants. It's not my job. That's not the Architect's job to find money. That is not what architect training is about. Not every education you take is architecture. Just because you learn computer programming and can possibly find a way to use it in connection with architecture doesn't male computer programming practice of architecture. No more than it is for me to apply computer programming in some peripheral way to building design.
The problem architects have is an identity crisis. They want to be everyone else and make everyone else's occupation "practice of architecture" so they are in charge. That is because they are unhappy about architecture for what it is.
If you don't like architecture for what practice of architecture is for Frank Lloyd Wright and every architect from the pre-"Hippy" generation, then you don't know what architecture is if you think it is being everyone else. Trying to redefine your occupation as everyone else's is EXACTLY why you have no relevance and why everyone hates your profession except you guys because you are not a profession.... just a licensed "pseudo-occupation" because you lost sight of what is architecture and know where it is to draw the line.
You can't be doctor, lawyer, computer software developer, etc. all in one. Even when I do, I still can delineate and distinguish them as concurrent and distinct occupations. Whenever I can, I'd draw from upon every lifetimes.
Anyway, we debate this far enough.
Non Sequitur
Apr 29, 16 6:33 am
You forgot about the kangaroos Ricky.
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 6:45 am
no we did not. you do not even understand the basics of being an architect and understanding how and why and when codes and reference standards are applied in the design of life safety issues........kangeroos for life
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 6:59 am
Richard - the way you write about these things indicates so clearly to me that you barely understand how these things work in "practice". But you are not licensed so why would you? Here are signs of some of your inexperience and ignorance......What is an ME? Why do they design a Sprinkler system? Is that like saying an AOR picks furniture? this kind of sloppy assumption writing is the first sign of you not having a clue how the legal aspect of life safety design even works................Do you know the "prescriptive" and "descriptive" code difference? ............here is another ignorant sentence "The backstage floor is poured reinforced concrete, 1980s era. That's UL listed rated. Standard concrete." - I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this sentence. UL stands for "Underwriter Laboratories". UL LISTED assemblies are tested assemblies. Nothing in that sentence indicates what you have there matches a UL listed assembly. You are actually making a statement about "prescriptive" code which you then go on and cite to a degree with again strange assumptions on applications and use. What I am trying to tell you Richard you can not just read shit and think you have understood the problem or narrative. Besides you being extremely annoying at times, the other reason no one takes you seriously is you have no idea what you are talking about.
Rick I'm quite familiar with Chapter 34 and it doesn't get you out of the requirements I asked you about - which you still haven't answered.
A concrete wall can be a fire separation - but there would need to be perpendicular extensions of that extending at least 5 feet on both ends of it on both sides. Similarly I do understand that the two roof systems are separate - but they're both combustible so you don't have a fire separation unless you've built one on both sides from the interior and exterior, or have a high parapet. I can see from the photos that neither is the case.
The more you write the worse it gets. I truly believe this is a mass tragedy waiting to happen, so I'm sending all of your descriptions to your city and to the state fire marshall and they can sort it out.
nicholass817
Apr 29, 16 10:40 am
MIke Drop!!...almost
no_form
Apr 29, 16 10:52 am
"Lets move on. The project was back early in my career. Okay. If I were to come across a similar project, I wouldn't do it unless its new construction design, for one. Two, I'm being paid a real design fee. Three, it would have vestibules and all that. I have no interest in doing any such projects involving a A-1 occupancy. It was baptism by fire."
So you would design another death trap? I hope eeay really does report you because this isn't a joke. You can do your aunt's sun deck but you can't do a theater that's going to burn 100+ people to death.
You have no career and you are ignorant beyond words.
Side note: kangaroos 4 life.
tduds
Apr 29, 16 11:11 am
Well...
Dangermouse
Apr 29, 16 11:25 am
>Licensed or not, I wouldn't be trying to find grants. It's not my job. That's not the Architect's job to find money. That is not what architect training is about. Not every education you take is architecture. Trying to redefine your occupation as everyone else's is EXACTLY why you have no relevance.
Yes. The ~3 million in billing which grant writing brought to our firm in 2015 is a great expression of our irrelevance. I also know that overworked and understaffed community organizations HATE it when we provide consulting and grant writing services to help increase their budgets.
Richard Balkins Building Design: "Why have more money for your core mission, when you can have less?"
Bloopox
Apr 29, 16 11:27 am
If you work on an existing building, regardless of its age, if there is a change of use then you have to bring it up to current code. I checked your city and state codes and there is no Astoria-specific or Oregon-specific amendment that says you can turn a washing machine store into an assembly space and ignore HSW requirements on the basis that your CMU wall pre-dates the existence of UL listings. You hang out on architecture and code sites pretending to be an expert on the basis of a few credits of community college historic preservation classes and a CAD certificate, and yet you do something this stupid - that's precisely the problem with the majority of unlicensed "building designers", and the reason that AIBD membership makes anyone less credible.
x-jla
Apr 29, 16 11:37 am
I'm pretty certain that Balkins is a paid propaganda agent sent by NCARB and the AIA to discredit the AIBD. There's really no other explanation at this point.
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 11:38 am
this thread is hilarious! k4life
tduds
Apr 29, 16 11:41 am
Pretty sure if I took the time necessary to read this whole thread I'd be in danger of losing my job.
I can't even imagine the career-stifling implications of taking the time to actually write all this drivel.
Non Sequitur
Apr 29, 16 11:47 am
Easy, Balkins has no career, so he's free to spew his nonsense as he pleases.
K4Life homies.
proto
Apr 29, 16 12:06 pm
Forget it.... guys. I'm tired and exhausted debating this shit.
quoted for posterity
#K4L
x-jla
Apr 29, 16 12:21 pm
Archiroos unite!
shellarchitect
Apr 29, 16 1:14 pm
spent my entire lunch reading this, and would like to add this paraphrased quote to the discussion...
"Mr. Balkins, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
Wilma Buttfit
Apr 29, 16 1:20 pm
If this thread doesn't take down the whole CPBD credential (if that even exists) I would be shocked. Yay for social media.
nicholass817
Apr 29, 16 1:24 pm
HA!!!...addressing the wrong character though. Rick Rolls is the Steve Buscemi character in that movie...in his mom's basement with an ashtray overloaded with butts and a list with a bunch of forum aliases on it.
Non Sequitur
Apr 29, 16 1:32 pm
^Ricky while reading anything even remotely relevant to architecture, practice law, Ikea instructions, basic kangaroo guides, etc.
Josh Mings
Apr 29, 16 1:44 pm
Shuellmi, you stole my line...either in this thread or elsewhere.
Apr 29, 16 2:25 pm
no we did not. you do not even understand the basics of being an architect and understanding how and why and when codes and reference standards are applied in the design of life safety issues........kangeroos for life
24/7 shithead.
UL LISTED assemblies are tested assemblies.
UL probably has a rating for poured concrete for 4" and even 6" reinforced concrete floor. Fuck worrying about UL for the floor. The floor is like a sidewalk with fine aggregates. Standard CMU are pretty made the same way today as they were in the 1950. Go test it.
Concrete is a NON-COMBUSTIBLE material. It's basically "fire-proof". I'd say its fire-resistant because while it won't burn, the aggregates might explode under enough heat. Nothing is 100% fireproof. The CMU wall on this building is continuous from a point 2 feet BELOW the elevation of the back stage floor all the way up. (There is a reinforced concrete foundation stem wall) There is a continuous physical separation of the roof line. The stage doesn't go into the back stage. The backstage floor is concrete. The main theater floor in concrete. Aside from the pre-existing addition that was used for the "backstage", the main building that the theater was all all concrete/CMU except for the roof structure, windows and doors, and parts of the north elevation (where a big steel beam spanning about 38-ft.)
Every CMU wall out there has more than 1-hour fire rating. 6" to 8" thick CMU walls has a higher fire-resistance than 1.25" of Type-X Gypsum wall board. The fire resistant barrier applies to the wall not the assembly of the building. Fire does not consume the non-combustible material. The concrete floor is a fire break. Unless you lay combustible material or chemicals on top of the concrete, the fire is contained to the vicinity of combustible material. If for example a fire occured on the stage, the stage burns. The automatic sprinklers are activated. The trussess above have the potential of combustion. There is no storage or electrical service under the stage. The risk of the stage burning from a source under the stage is very unlikely. Do you think the concrete floor under the stage is going to spontaneously combust?
Fire's comsumption doesn't just spread along non-combustible material. You need a layer of combustible matter for fire to spread. There has to be a 'fuel' for the fire. Fire needs what three things? You know what the fire triangle is?
Heat, fuel and oxidizing agent. Concrete is not a good fuel for fire. For the most part, concrete does not sustain fire as a fuel.
Dangermouse
Apr 29, 16 2:47 pm
when balkans writes 500 words on how concrete assemblies cannot burn:
Non Sequitur
Apr 29, 16 2:49 pm
Such ignorance Ricardia. It's almost like you've never actually designed anything.
oh wait, you haven't! This explains everything then.
As an aside, concrete is not "fire-proof", it's fire resistant up to a point where it's rating is determined by the thickness of concrete between the fire and re-bar. A half-competent 2nd year undergrad should know this. CMU ratings vary quite a bit based on their weight and "density".
Again, thank you for demonstrating that you know jack-shit about construction.
Apr 29, 16 4:12 pm
Non Sequitur,
Didn't I just say that. Nothing is 100% fire proof. However concrete does not burn. When I looked at the ratings, I use the lowest fire rating numbers as the guiding numbers. Without disassembly a CMU block and testing it. I use the lowest fire rating numbers for the wall for the size category. You still get over 1 hour rating, N.S.
EVERY concrete masonry unit of 6" or thicker masonry units has at least an hour rating. You might melt it. You might cause aggregates to explode at a high enough temperature.
The building still has new sprinklers installed so as to mitigate that. At some point, there isn't enough fuel in the immediate area to get through all that.
Yes, they do vary. However, the poured concrete from the late 1980s is about the same as they are today. The floor of the theater room is concrete about 6" thick if I remember correctly.
It terminates at the concrete foundation stem wall. That's 8" thick poured concrete.
Look at chapter 7. It would at least be 2-hr.
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 4:19 pm
ricki said - "UL probably has a rating for poured concrete for 4" and even 6" reinforced concrete floor"......so you have never opened a UL book in your life before? ....carry on. dangermouse, love it
Non Sequitur
Apr 29, 16 4:20 pm
Enjoy digging holes? You must, given the rate you're burying yourself. Your cavalier attitude towards fire assembly and spatial separation is alarming. You're a perfect example as to why we have real licensed professional (ie. architects) and pretenders (what ever is on your business card).
Soon you'll dig all the way to Australia and be properly schooled by kangaroos.
Apr 29, 16 4:40 pm
Olaf,
There's no such thing. They don't publish any of those things.
Don't build anything with combustible material then?
Why don't we just get a bunch of NASA space shuttle tiles. They don't need them anymore.
You sound like a New York City Dweller where wood is an outlawed material. Lets just have stone slabs for table tops, concrete chairs, Concrete curtains, GFCI electrical service to all outlets, Lets just have 16 sprinklers per 4 sq.ft. while we are at it. NASA space shuttle tiles for interior wall finish. Oh yeah, lets have one of these for a big ventilator fan?
Lets make sure the concrete walls are 10 FEET thick while we are at it and the floor slab be 5-ft. thick and the roof be 2-ft. wide by 6-ft. deep reinforced concrete arch beams every 4-ft. o.c. Reinforced concrete joists that are 12" x 2.5 ft. deep @ 24" o.c. and the slab on top is 12" thick. The arch beams terminate into pilasters of 5-ft deep (making the wall up to 15-ft. thick
Lights are just LED lights.
x-jla
Apr 29, 16 5:04 pm
^Is that your computer fan...it must need a lot of cooling with all the bullshit you type...
Bloopox
Apr 29, 16 5:04 pm
"There's no such thing. They don't publish any of those things."
WHAT?? ?
Richard I know your experience in firms is not extensive, but.... you've claimed to have been in at least a couple architects' offices, and to have hung around an architecture school for several years, and to have gone to more than one institutions of higher education that probably contain libraries - did you not never the shelves of big orange books??
There are so many UL books in most offices you can reach out blindfolded and grab a handful. There are seven of them in within my reach right now. On AIBD's facebook page you write about designing restaurants and theaters (plural). You've been haunting code forums for a decade pretending to be an expert. How could you possibly remain unaware of UL directories? Are you legally blind? How did none of those "thousands of pdfs" you've read about architecture not mention this once? http://sweets.construction.com/swts_content_files/153435/ULcomArchitects-UL-for-Architects-L-Sweets-718828.jpg
It is, in fact, a complete compilation of every test-compliant assembly.
You've just got to be a bot, programmed to write the most wrong, opposite thing in response to any statement or question.
Apr 29, 16 5:04 pm
It's not a book Nicholas. It's a disc. It's not a complete compilation of every building material and assembly that was UL listed in its history.
If it was printed, that's 4 books. To get complete UL documentation, you need a big book shelf.
Dangermouse
Apr 29, 16 5:08 pm
balkans you are going to kill people. you don't need to dissemble for hours on UL fire ratings for individual concrete units. just fucking follow the IBC. you say the building has sprinklers, which is great! but you still have insufficient egress for an assembly space.
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 5:08 pm
you are a fucking moron Rick. i will send a photo of my UL books. maybe you should google shit first before sounding like a complete retard. oh wait thats all you do and you do not do it well. one set of books for floors, walls, penetrations etc...
Bloopox
Apr 29, 16 5:08 pm
Yeah, because needing a big bookshelf for all the books is exactly the same as the books don't exist, they don't publish them.
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 5:09 pm
thanks nicholas.
x-jla
Apr 29, 16 5:19 pm
Balkins logic: I do not have a bookshelf big enough to hold all those books, therefore those books do not exist.
Non Sequitur
Apr 29, 16 5:29 pm
This is great.
Gents and madammes, I'll be out of town consuming whiskey in amounts equaled only by the size of Balkins ignorance. Keep the fires burning here so they don't spread to Balkins poorly executed assembly space.
Kangaroos for life.
x-jla
Apr 29, 16 5:36 pm
I just read Balkins last post in Morgan Freedmans voice to see if it would sound better...it didn't work.
awaiting_deletion
Apr 29, 16 5:37 pm
what? how? sounds hilarious?
Josh Mings
Apr 29, 16 5:37 pm
I really, really, really feel bad for the theater company. This makes me want to see reciprocity in Oregon and help them out with real professional architectural services.
CPBD exam specifications under review by NCBDC.
The National Council of Building Designer Certification (NCBDC) Board of Examiners will be conducting a four-hour meeting this week to develop the Examinations Specifications of the Certified Professional Building Designer (CPBD) certification program. Acting as the Council’s “Scheme Committee,” the board will be using the results of the 2015 Job Analysis Survey to finalize the content weighting of the examination outline. The meeting will be facilitated by PSI Services, a certification industry leader providing test development, psychometric services, leadership consulting services and item (i.e. question) authoring and banking solutions.
With PSI’s oversight, the board of examiners will review the existing CPBD examination and consider any areas in which an adjustment to the content weighing may be needed to develop a relevant and valid sampling of the competencies required for the CPBD job/career role.
This task is step one of a three step plan for Spring 2016. NCBDC is looking for volunteers from the industry to help reclassify the existing exam content and another group of volunteers to undergo training to become item writers. Once the Exam Specifications are complete, some time in May, step two will include two six-hour online meetings with subject matter experts (SMEs) to evaluate existing examination content according to the newly created Exam Specs. Step three consists of three 90-minute item-writer sessions via webinar with SMEs. PSI will provide training regarding clear guidelines on procedures for writing effective test items, principles for writing good test items and item writing exercises. In addition, the training will introduce the us of PSI’s user-friendly portal for item authoring and banking. This secure method for SMEs to contribute items is a state-of-the-art online banking tool.
(originally posted: http://www.aibd.org/mondayminute/?p=3435)
ATTENTION !!!! - licensed / registered Architects specializing in residential and light commercial buildings as well as certified professional building designers.
I like to personally invite you to consider participating in Stage two and Three of the NCBDC certification exam 'redevelopment'. As it is the goal of AIBD/NCBDC for this exam to be ANSI accredited. It is also part of the process to involve subject matter experts into the process of making the exam in part necessarily rigorous, valid and covering the kind of work that building designers and architects work on.
More information on this would be available and posted as I become aware of it.
The exam should be necessarily rigorous in assessing the knowledge and skills a building designer would need to know for competent practice. As we know, building designers / home designers work on light commercial buildings and residential. We don't typically work on high rises as the licensing laws exemptions are. I'm probably not be involved in the item-writer phase as I intend to take the exam. I maybe involved in step two (maybe... maybe not), if I do, I'd probably have to wait until step three is completed and implemented into the NCBDC exam before going further. There is key parts I need to not be part of if I am to take the exam at some point.
However, I am suggesting architects and existing CPBDs because they would not be required to take the exam or had already taken the exam. All answers to the questions in the exam will obviously need to be valid with verifiable answers.
You will obviously be talking with the AIBD Director and the NCBDC director. I personally want the questions to be the kind of questions that simple-minded easy. Let it be comparably rigorous as the ARE but focused on the subject matters primarily related to residential and light commercial projects. The questions have depth to it. I'm not looking for what is the acronym for a department. While I may have fewer questions than there maybe in the ARE, I don't want to waste questions on simple-minded questions. Questions obviously needs to be objective and defensible and not just opinions.
A little thing to keep in mind is building designers/residential designers can quite often work in many states and the exemptions ranges a bit so I would expect questions relevant in all ranges from residential & varying sizes of multi-family residential to various sizes of commercial, educational/institutional/assembly buildings typically under two or three stories. Since each state's exemption varies, we don't want to get state specific so much.
The construction systems typically of buildings under 5 stories in height is typically what would be used so exam should be focused to that end.
I recommend architects who specializes in residential and light commercial because our practices overlaps significantly compared to large corporate firms designing skyscrapers, stadiums, and large scale commercial/institutional/etc. projects.
Lets also look at Chapter 34 Sections 3403-3407.
What does Chapter 3406.1 say?
Lets also take a look at Section 3410.1. What does it say?
Forget it.... guys. I'm tired and exhausted debating this shit. If this was new construction, I can understand applying all the requirements for new buildings but existing buildings can never meet the entire prescriptive path of new construction. Historic buildings and other existing buildings pre-UL listings or an antiquated listing. The CMUs are probably UL listed on an ancient list somewhere. I don't have the UL number for that. I don't have a copy of the 1950s era UL listing for CMUs if they even had a listing back then.
I've worked with buildings that literally pre-dates UL.
Lets move on. The project was back early in my career. Okay. If I were to come across a similar project, I wouldn't do it unless its new construction design, for one. Two, I'm being paid a real design fee. Three, it would have vestibules and all that. I have no interest in doing any such projects involving a A-1 occupancy. It was baptism by fire.
As for grant writers, there are probably professional grant writers whose does this for a living and probably knows more places to write grants including the one you learned in class even the ones you learned that are now defunct and no longer available.
Licensed or not, I wouldn't be trying to find grants. It's not my job. That's not the Architect's job to find money. That is not what architect training is about. Not every education you take is architecture. Just because you learn computer programming and can possibly find a way to use it in connection with architecture doesn't male computer programming practice of architecture. No more than it is for me to apply computer programming in some peripheral way to building design.
The problem architects have is an identity crisis. They want to be everyone else and make everyone else's occupation "practice of architecture" so they are in charge. That is because they are unhappy about architecture for what it is.
If you don't like architecture for what practice of architecture is for Frank Lloyd Wright and every architect from the pre-"Hippy" generation, then you don't know what architecture is if you think it is being everyone else. Trying to redefine your occupation as everyone else's is EXACTLY why you have no relevance and why everyone hates your profession except you guys because you are not a profession.... just a licensed "pseudo-occupation" because you lost sight of what is architecture and know where it is to draw the line.
You can't be doctor, lawyer, computer software developer, etc. all in one. Even when I do, I still can delineate and distinguish them as concurrent and distinct occupations. Whenever I can, I'd draw from upon every lifetimes.
Anyway, we debate this far enough.
You forgot about the kangaroos Ricky.
no we did not. you do not even understand the basics of being an architect and understanding how and why and when codes and reference standards are applied in the design of life safety issues........kangeroos for life
Richard - the way you write about these things indicates so clearly to me that you barely understand how these things work in "practice". But you are not licensed so why would you? Here are signs of some of your inexperience and ignorance......What is an ME? Why do they design a Sprinkler system? Is that like saying an AOR picks furniture? this kind of sloppy assumption writing is the first sign of you not having a clue how the legal aspect of life safety design even works................Do you know the "prescriptive" and "descriptive" code difference? ............here is another ignorant sentence "The backstage floor is poured reinforced concrete, 1980s era. That's UL listed rated. Standard concrete." - I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this sentence. UL stands for "Underwriter Laboratories". UL LISTED assemblies are tested assemblies. Nothing in that sentence indicates what you have there matches a UL listed assembly. You are actually making a statement about "prescriptive" code which you then go on and cite to a degree with again strange assumptions on applications and use. What I am trying to tell you Richard you can not just read shit and think you have understood the problem or narrative. Besides you being extremely annoying at times, the other reason no one takes you seriously is you have no idea what you are talking about.
I felt the mic drop from here Olaf.
Kangaroos over hoes.
kangeroos 4life!
.
Olaf: boom!
This thread:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xawixxFdaVE
Rick I'm quite familiar with Chapter 34 and it doesn't get you out of the requirements I asked you about - which you still haven't answered.
A concrete wall can be a fire separation - but there would need to be perpendicular extensions of that extending at least 5 feet on both ends of it on both sides. Similarly I do understand that the two roof systems are separate - but they're both combustible so you don't have a fire separation unless you've built one on both sides from the interior and exterior, or have a high parapet. I can see from the photos that neither is the case.
The more you write the worse it gets. I truly believe this is a mass tragedy waiting to happen, so I'm sending all of your descriptions to your city and to the state fire marshall and they can sort it out.
MIke Drop!!...almost
"Lets move on. The project was back early in my career. Okay. If I were to come across a similar project, I wouldn't do it unless its new construction design, for one. Two, I'm being paid a real design fee. Three, it would have vestibules and all that. I have no interest in doing any such projects involving a A-1 occupancy. It was baptism by fire."
So you would design another death trap? I hope eeay really does report you because this isn't a joke. You can do your aunt's sun deck but you can't do a theater that's going to burn 100+ people to death.
You have no career and you are ignorant beyond words.
Side note: kangaroos 4 life.
Well...
>Licensed or not, I wouldn't be trying to find grants. It's not my job. That's not the Architect's job to find money. That is not what architect training is about. Not every education you take is architecture. Trying to redefine your occupation as everyone else's is EXACTLY why you have no relevance.
Yes. The ~3 million in billing which grant writing brought to our firm in 2015 is a great expression of our irrelevance. I also know that overworked and understaffed community organizations HATE it when we provide consulting and grant writing services to help increase their budgets.
Richard Balkins Building Design: "Why have more money for your core mission, when you can have less?"
If you work on an existing building, regardless of its age, if there is a change of use then you have to bring it up to current code. I checked your city and state codes and there is no Astoria-specific or Oregon-specific amendment that says you can turn a washing machine store into an assembly space and ignore HSW requirements on the basis that your CMU wall pre-dates the existence of UL listings. You hang out on architecture and code sites pretending to be an expert on the basis of a few credits of community college historic preservation classes and a CAD certificate, and yet you do something this stupid - that's precisely the problem with the majority of unlicensed "building designers", and the reason that AIBD membership makes anyone less credible.
I'm pretty certain that Balkins is a paid propaganda agent sent by NCARB and the AIA to discredit the AIBD. There's really no other explanation at this point.
this thread is hilarious! k4life
Pretty sure if I took the time necessary to read this whole thread I'd be in danger of losing my job.
I can't even imagine the career-stifling implications of taking the time to actually write all this drivel.
Easy, Balkins has no career, so he's free to spew his nonsense as he pleases.
K4Life homies.
Forget it.... guys. I'm tired and exhausted debating this shit.
quoted for posterity
#K4L
Archiroos unite!
spent my entire lunch reading this, and would like to add this paraphrased quote to the discussion...
"Mr. Balkins, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
If this thread doesn't take down the whole CPBD credential (if that even exists) I would be shocked. Yay for social media.
HA!!!...addressing the wrong character though. Rick Rolls is the Steve Buscemi character in that movie...in his mom's basement with an ashtray overloaded with butts and a list with a bunch of forum aliases on it.
^Ricky while reading anything even remotely relevant to architecture, practice law, Ikea instructions, basic kangaroo guides, etc.
Shuellmi, you stole my line...either in this thread or elsewhere.
no we did not. you do not even understand the basics of being an architect and understanding how and why and when codes and reference standards are applied in the design of life safety issues........kangeroos for life
24/7 shithead.
UL LISTED assemblies are tested assemblies.
UL probably has a rating for poured concrete for 4" and even 6" reinforced concrete floor. Fuck worrying about UL for the floor. The floor is like a sidewalk with fine aggregates. Standard CMU are pretty made the same way today as they were in the 1950. Go test it.
Concrete is a NON-COMBUSTIBLE material. It's basically "fire-proof". I'd say its fire-resistant because while it won't burn, the aggregates might explode under enough heat. Nothing is 100% fireproof. The CMU wall on this building is continuous from a point 2 feet BELOW the elevation of the back stage floor all the way up. (There is a reinforced concrete foundation stem wall) There is a continuous physical separation of the roof line. The stage doesn't go into the back stage. The backstage floor is concrete. The main theater floor in concrete. Aside from the pre-existing addition that was used for the "backstage", the main building that the theater was all all concrete/CMU except for the roof structure, windows and doors, and parts of the north elevation (where a big steel beam spanning about 38-ft.)
Every CMU wall out there has more than 1-hour fire rating. 6" to 8" thick CMU walls has a higher fire-resistance than 1.25" of Type-X Gypsum wall board. The fire resistant barrier applies to the wall not the assembly of the building. Fire does not consume the non-combustible material. The concrete floor is a fire break. Unless you lay combustible material or chemicals on top of the concrete, the fire is contained to the vicinity of combustible material. If for example a fire occured on the stage, the stage burns. The automatic sprinklers are activated. The trussess above have the potential of combustion. There is no storage or electrical service under the stage. The risk of the stage burning from a source under the stage is very unlikely. Do you think the concrete floor under the stage is going to spontaneously combust?
Fire's comsumption doesn't just spread along non-combustible material. You need a layer of combustible matter for fire to spread. There has to be a 'fuel' for the fire. Fire needs what three things? You know what the fire triangle is?
Heat, fuel and oxidizing agent. Concrete is not a good fuel for fire. For the most part, concrete does not sustain fire as a fuel.
when balkans writes 500 words on how concrete assemblies cannot burn:
Such ignorance Ricardia. It's almost like you've never actually designed anything.
oh wait, you haven't! This explains everything then.
As an aside, concrete is not "fire-proof", it's fire resistant up to a point where it's rating is determined by the thickness of concrete between the fire and re-bar. A half-competent 2nd year undergrad should know this. CMU ratings vary quite a bit based on their weight and "density".
Again, thank you for demonstrating that you know jack-shit about construction.
Non Sequitur,
Didn't I just say that. Nothing is 100% fire proof. However concrete does not burn. When I looked at the ratings, I use the lowest fire rating numbers as the guiding numbers. Without disassembly a CMU block and testing it. I use the lowest fire rating numbers for the wall for the size category. You still get over 1 hour rating, N.S.
EVERY concrete masonry unit of 6" or thicker masonry units has at least an hour rating. You might melt it. You might cause aggregates to explode at a high enough temperature.
The building still has new sprinklers installed so as to mitigate that. At some point, there isn't enough fuel in the immediate area to get through all that.
Yes, they do vary. However, the poured concrete from the late 1980s is about the same as they are today. The floor of the theater room is concrete about 6" thick if I remember correctly.
It terminates at the concrete foundation stem wall. That's 8" thick poured concrete.
Look at chapter 7. It would at least be 2-hr.
ricki said - "UL probably has a rating for poured concrete for 4" and even 6" reinforced concrete floor"......so you have never opened a UL book in your life before? ....carry on. dangermouse, love it
Enjoy digging holes? You must, given the rate you're burying yourself. Your cavalier attitude towards fire assembly and spatial separation is alarming. You're a perfect example as to why we have real licensed professional (ie. architects) and pretenders (what ever is on your business card).
Soon you'll dig all the way to Australia and be properly schooled by kangaroos.
Olaf,
There's no such thing. They don't publish any of those things.
https://applications.tweddle.com/ulecommerce/Products.aspx
You were saying?
Non Sequitur,
Don't build anything with combustible material then?
Why don't we just get a bunch of NASA space shuttle tiles. They don't need them anymore.
You sound like a New York City Dweller where wood is an outlawed material. Lets just have stone slabs for table tops, concrete chairs, Concrete curtains, GFCI electrical service to all outlets, Lets just have 16 sprinklers per 4 sq.ft. while we are at it. NASA space shuttle tiles for interior wall finish. Oh yeah, lets have one of these for a big ventilator fan?
Lets make sure the concrete walls are 10 FEET thick while we are at it and the floor slab be 5-ft. thick and the roof be 2-ft. wide by 6-ft. deep reinforced concrete arch beams every 4-ft. o.c. Reinforced concrete joists that are 12" x 2.5 ft. deep @ 24" o.c. and the slab on top is 12" thick. The arch beams terminate into pilasters of 5-ft deep (making the wall up to 15-ft. thick
Lights are just LED lights.
^Is that your computer fan...it must need a lot of cooling with all the bullshit you type...
"There's no such thing. They don't publish any of those things."
WHAT?? ?
Richard I know your experience in firms is not extensive, but.... you've claimed to have been in at least a couple architects' offices, and to have hung around an architecture school for several years, and to have gone to more than one institutions of higher education that probably contain libraries - did you not never the shelves of big orange books??
There are so many UL books in most offices you can reach out blindfolded and grab a handful. There are seven of them in within my reach right now. On AIBD's facebook page you write about designing restaurants and theaters (plural). You've been haunting code forums for a decade pretending to be an expert. How could you possibly remain unaware of UL directories? Are you legally blind? How did none of those "thousands of pdfs" you've read about architecture not mention this once? http://sweets.construction.com/swts_content_files/153435/ULcomArchitects-UL-for-Architects-L-Sweets-718828.jpg
It is, in fact, a complete compilation of every test-compliant assembly.
You've just got to be a bot, programmed to write the most wrong, opposite thing in response to any statement or question.
It's not a book Nicholas. It's a disc. It's not a complete compilation of every building material and assembly that was UL listed in its history.
If it was printed, that's 4 books. To get complete UL documentation, you need a big book shelf.
balkans you are going to kill people. you don't need to dissemble for hours on UL fire ratings for individual concrete units. just fucking follow the IBC. you say the building has sprinklers, which is great! but you still have insufficient egress for an assembly space.
you are a fucking moron Rick. i will send a photo of my UL books. maybe you should google shit first before sounding like a complete retard. oh wait thats all you do and you do not do it well. one set of books for floors, walls, penetrations etc...
Yeah, because needing a big bookshelf for all the books is exactly the same as the books don't exist, they don't publish them.
thanks nicholas.
Balkins logic: I do not have a bookshelf big enough to hold all those books, therefore those books do not exist.
This is great.
Gents and madammes, I'll be out of town consuming whiskey in amounts equaled only by the size of Balkins ignorance. Keep the fires burning here so they don't spread to Balkins poorly executed assembly space.
Kangaroos for life.
I just read Balkins last post in Morgan Freedmans voice to see if it would sound better...it didn't work.
what? how? sounds hilarious?
I really, really, really feel bad for the theater company. This makes me want to see reciprocity in Oregon and help them out with real professional architectural services.
I'm hopping mad, y'all.