Is There A Need to ENCLOSE ELEVATOR LOBBIES IN TALL BUILDINGS.pdfVIP

Is There A Need to ENCLOSE ELEVATOR LOBBIES IN TALL BUILDINGS? by Richard W. Bukowski, P.E., FSFPE everal proposals have been submitted in recent years first floor of the structure, 61 of the 85 casualties occurred to model building code organizations to require on upper (above the 20th) floors due to smoke spread up enclosure of elevator lobbies in order to restrict the elevator hoistways and seismic joints between the building S movement of smoke to other parts of buildings via hoist- core and wings.3 ways. A significant development in this area occurred It is not surprising that such tragedies are frequently cited recently when the National Institute of Standards and Tech- as substantiation for proposals to enclose elevator lobbies. nology (NIST)—which was already involved with a However, the potential for smoke flow in hoistways is a consortium of industry representatives, codes and standards function not only of leakage of the elevator doors but also developers, and other interested parties in a study of the of the strength of the stack flow, fire temperature (buoyancy protection of elevators for occupant evacuation and fire flows) and the height of the shaft. Each of these factors was service access1 taken into account in NIST’s analysis of the potential flows —was asked by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to research the conditions under under varying conditions in order to identify those situa- which enclosed elevator lobbies were called for. This article tions where significant shaft flows might be expected. will prov