We’ve been working on several great projects already this year! And through them all we’ve not only been both the architects and interior designers, we’ve also been the construction project managers. Our Design-Build Project Management Services are an added benefit to going with a full service Design-Build Architecture firm like ours.

Not only do we realize your commercial or residential renovation project, we will also stay with you every step of the way through project completion.

No matter what phase of your project you are in, we can assist with getting you from concepts to completion. We work with trusted General Contractors and licensed professionals that do the job right. And we represent you and your needs along the way, assuring that the project comes out as you expected and within the agreed budget and timelines.

From working with the city for permit expediting to adding those beautiful finishing touches to your space, we are experienced in handling it all to make the project come out great.

Our in house fabrication shop allows us to design and make custom elements for our projects, which creates spaces like no other, that are truly uniquely yours. We’d love to talk to you about your upcoming project!

With focus on an entryway renovation, our design for this home remodel is complete, and we have begun construction. Taking out the original doorway and expanding the interior space, we are capturing some underused outside area to become the new foyer, which adds a coat closet, seating bench for taking off shoes, and a new sun filled entry room.

In the process, of doing the renovation to add this entryway, we’re adding some upgrades to the interior entry hallway, hall bathroom and laundry room. (We’ll share more on that later as the space is built….!)

Oak slat walls fill our design in the front entry room and in the hallway. Complete with “secret” hidden door covering the bathroom doorway. These slat walls not only add visual beauty and warmth to the space, but help with sound travel by dampening noise in an otherwise hard surface area. New concrete collaborative flooring goes in the foyer and extends outside for a dramatically defined entryway.

The slats will be visible through the font door windows and will envelope the front entry room. The new entryway statement piece will be warm and inviting. As this piece comes together we’ll be posting more.

Meanwhile at our production shop in Oakland, we are underway fabricating the slat walls, bench, cabinet, ceiling and secret door for installation.

As part of our residential and commercial renovation business, we produce custom architectural and interior pieces for just about all our projects;. This is what makes every space we do unique and bespoke to our design studio.

We’re excited to be posting more on this space as it progresses!

Many of our clients in the SF bay area are business owners who are leasing a space and looking to renovate. The challenge to keep the project on budget and to make a space that truly fits their practical needs and aesthetic desires is where we specialize. We work with many clients who lease or own their building, and do not want to put in the upfront cost of permanent walls in their renovation quite yet. These design constraints allow us to flex our interior design mussels, creating spaces with large custom furniture, rolling partitions, screens and other non permanent elements that do the job of creating the desired space transitions.

To separate spaces in a fun eye popping way, we designed this acoustic felt screen as an easily configurable room divider. This low and long header between the spaces allowed us to easily fit the acoustic panels on a track creating a very easy to move, sound dampening curtain. We cut fun shapes into the acoustic felt, giving it interest and allowing some light to come through, while still dampening the sound of traveling noise.

Addressing the need for acoustic dampening of traveling voices in this open floorplan of a school, we specified carpeting, fun acoustic felt walls and these custom designed reading nooks below for the kids lounge area.

These custom reading nooks we designed for the school create a quite and personal space for the students when looking for private reading or rest time. The “reading nooks” were placed in a corner of the building, defining that area in a cost efficient manner - allowing the school not to upfront the cost of putting up walls in a building they are leasing.

You can see the full project scope as well as all the interesting pieces we did for this space on our full project post here.

Having our own in house fabrication shop (Secret Weapon Workshop) also allows us to keep the prices down for custom elements like this and make quick changes or updates as needed while staying in the agreed budget.

As part of a larger project - a building renovation for a small charter school - we designed this fun climbing wall play area for the front entry of the school. Moving into a building with an open floor plan, the school needed to break up and define the areas. The climbing wall acts as this defining feature as you come through the entry. It is designed as a kids play and relaxing area, filled with sunlight, bright colors, beanbags and the climbing wall. But it also acts as a relaxing ‘wow’ feature for the parents and visitors first entering the space.

The climbing wall is a fun & very functional piece, securely attached to the floor and wall. On one side it is a climbing wall created to serve multiple ages from age 5 to 12. On the back side of the climbing wall, the unit is a large storage bookshelf. Overall it defines the area, separating the front play area from the rest of the class work areas, and creating a defined area for the indoor play.

A playful tunnel connects the spaces along the wall, while also creating a more challenging climbing feature for the older students.

We created the climbing wall design to be strong, affordable and easy to install. The unit came into the space in sections and bolted together and to the floor for secure connections. A few people moving these units into the space was all that was needed to set this up, bolt it all in place and attach the hand holds.

An eye catching, interactive and pleasing construction, this cool climbing wall for the school is fun as it is functional.

This year we were given the honor of being the designers and makers of this prestigious yearly award: the Autodesk Design & Make Awards 2023, presented at the annual conference, Autodesk University.

This award, formerly known as the Autodesk Excellence Awards is given to “celebrate the people, projects and technologies behind exceptional contributions to architecture, engineering & construction; product design & manufacturing; media & entertainment; and education.” We were excited for the challenge of the design and fabrication, and are proud of how it came out. These were awarded to the participants in mid November, 2023 at Autodesk University

With the award description in mind, we knew it needed to incorporate multiple materials, married together beautifully using digital manufacturing techniques. Luckily this is what we do!

We also knew from conversations with the client, that this award needed to be functional. The desire was to have something that not only acts to recognizes the outstanding people and projects in the industry, but also gives those people a physical award that has function and delight.

With this charge we went through many design options of all shapes and scales and functions. We eventually landed on the “plinth” style that eneded up as the final design direction. We explored that plinth style through multiple iterations.

The prototyping phase involved creating with physical samples, refining the final size, functionality options and aesthetic.

Next came the material selections. We hand picked the wood for the plinth, choosing a local salvaged walnut. For the chassis we chose aluminum, for its infinite recyclability and easy machinability. For the logo top we chose a 3D printed SLA technique that we had sandblasted and then added integrated led light strips. Incorporating three kinds of manufacturing techniques for interest and to nod a bit to the industries represented for this award. Secret Weapon Workshop in Oakland did the majority of the CNC work, fabrication & assembly.

The final design with its integrated Qi charger, LED light on the soft, sandblasted 3D print, hardwood plinth with drawer and aluminum chassis with with carved names and logo - hits all the marks for this design through functionality, delight and design.

We’re a little over 9 years since we finished construction of the renowned bar in San Francisco, The Interval at The Longnow; a project we are very proud of. The interior layout has functioned so well over these last years that, even as we approach this 10 year mark, the layout serves the use so well that it has been named the best bar in countless articles since its opening.

Above The Interval bar is a lesser known and talked about space: an office for the staff of The Longnow. Behind a secret bookcase door at the top of the stairs, this is a place where the great minds behind the organization do their daily work. A space we designed and built along with the downstairs bar almost 10 years ago, though unlike the bar, was in dire need of rethinking as we all know how much workspace dynamics have changed over these last few years.

We were asked by The Longnow to help revitalize this space. Rethinking the layout with an updated mind of the way the staff works today. We helped them realize a workspace that is more of a meeting and gathering space, with a layout that is designed around how the staff is using the space now.

New Floorplan for a new way of working

Gone are the days of rows of desks. Now we have group meeting tables, comfortable seating areas and casual meeting areas. A more thoughtful floorplan for how we are working and meeting today.

We’ve taken out the rows of desks from pre pandemic area and created a layout that invites people to come, stay, gather. Within this small office envelope we’ve created 6 distinct seating areas for different functions.

Group seating / meeting areas for collaborative working, group working and meetings. Solo seating areas, desk spaces and a casual meeting area. This small and efficiently laid out space even has a small kitchenette, sound proof telephone room and office storage cabinets.

As part of our business practice, we have a fabrication shop that makes custom elements for our projects. Adding the live edge walnut table and countertop from salvaged hardwood slabs created anchor point for this small office space, and was also a relevant thinking point for the space, as it can reference projects the organization is working on. We processed, treated and fabricated the final pieces of the hardwood slabs in our shop in Oakland CA to make these one of a kind pieces.

This is one of the distinctions of our firm, that we do these elements in house, so we can thoughtfully integrated them into our overall design of the space.

The table and matching live edge countertop create both the desired focal point and practical surface that was needed for this small office to be the effective meeting and working environment it needs to be. You can see the whole project write up page here. And our original Interval at The Long Now project page here.

Most offices these days have an open office floor plan, which is why we are often asked by our clients to redesign their space and address the open office acoustical challenges.

There are many products on the market designed to help with acoustics. But the main challenge we found was finding ones that were both interesting, unique and relatively affordable. These products use soft materials, like felt, placed in many angles to help absorb the sound waves. These sound absorbing products, while affective, are often not very aesthetically interesting and the options are limited. So of course we decided we needed to design and make some ourselves - some fun custom designed acoustic light fixtures and acoustical pendants to help mitigate the traveling noise from lobbies and open floor plan areas.

These fixtures were designed with a particular company office in mind, using their brand colors and style. A large collection of fixtures creates a dense visual affect for the office renovation; defining the space while softening the noise travel issues with the open lobby and work areas.

Nodding to the brand colors and style of the company these were designed for, the two tone felt pendants cover the ceiling of the lobby, creating both a dramatic visual appearance and a functional acoustic dampening.

While working on the entire office renovation for this SF office space, we designed a few different acoustic pendant styles to sprinkle throughout. These will help to reduce echo and noise travel in the particularly noisy areas like the café lunch room, open office area and lobby.

The larger style of our acoustic lighting are made with a thick, rigid, recycled polyester felt board, that we are able to cut into complex profile shapes. These two and three feet wide fixtures cover a lot of ceiling area and are thus able to positively impact the sound quality of a room.

To infill the smaller spaces and add some lighting diversity and interest, we designed and fabricated a smaller felt fixture as well, using a thinner more flexible material in a layers with a slumping affect.

The final affect is a sea of fixtures, creating a rich texture and aesthetic affect - with the added acoustic benefit.

In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.

The prior posts in the series are available here:

Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?

Hacking the Building Code: Part Two - Building Officials and how to approach them.

Hacking the Building Code: Part Three - Use is the Key Factor

Hacking the Building Code: Part Four - Zoning & Occupancy

Hacking the Building Code: Part Five - Occupant Loads and Construction Type

Hacking the Building Code: Part Six - Applications, Plans, and Variances

Disclaimer

This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.

Permits, Inspections, and Inspectors

In this final part of our guide, we’ll be getting into permits, inspections, and working with inspectors while the construction is happening.

Permits

As we talked about in an earlier part, the ‘building permit’ is actually more complex than a single thing. It’s better to think of it as a collection of various agreements, approvals, and documents. Once the “building permit” is issued what actually happens is either the building owner, or a contractor working for that owner, pays for the permit and receives an official set of plans from the building authorities, along with a job card and usually some other paperwork concerning the project, worker’s rights, labor issues, etc. All of this needs to be kept together, for this ‘building package’ is really what the ‘building permit’ is, and it’s what the inspectors will need to reference and make notes on as the project proceeds.

As the project progresses, and construction is completed, specific items on the Job Card get signed off as they are inspected. There is usually a time window as well that construction has to start within one year of the permit being issued, and if you go for longer than a year without an inspection the permit expires, although in some cases you can file for extensions if needed.

Once everything is done, you’ll have final inspections from the various officials, and any last items completed. Once the project is fully complete you’ll get an official notice of such, for a new building that might be a Certificate of Occupancy that lets you move into the building, for a remodeled cafe it could be approval from the Health Department, etc.

These permits and drawings also become public record, and in many cases can be freely reviewed at your local building department or even online. This can be helpful in proving what work was done prior, and when it was done to see how out of compliance with current code it may be.

Inspections & Inspectors

As we’ve said in earlier sections, the construction industry is a ‘low trust environment’. To ensure that things were built both to what the approved plans show and to code, various inspectors are used to check the work. Usually there are things that have to be inspected prior to the next step happening, for that next step will cover up the earlier work. Such as rebar needing to be inspected for proper size, spacing, tie-offs, etc. before you pour the concrete that will encase it.

While you may be familiar with ‘Building Inspectors’ who work for the City and/or County, there’s other sorts of inspectors as well. Some more complex structural elements may require what’s called a ‘special inspector’, a neutral third party engineer that’s hired to review the work independently and confirm it was done correctly. There can be specific inspectors that just review part of the project, such as inspectors that work for the local utility company, special lab tests for concrete or weld strength, health inspectors for restaurants, or the Fire Marshall. There are even private inspectors on larger, more complex projects that are hired by the owner to review the work and approve it prior to the contractors getting fully paid for that portion of the work (sometimes called ‘funds control’).

All of these inspectors will typically ‘sign off’ on the ‘job card’ when they approve something or will produce a report that will be included in the project’s records. Like we talked about in the last part, the building permit usually takes the form of something called the Job Card, a sort of special checklist that’s kept on the construction site along with the set of plans. As work is completed, inspections are scheduled, and the inspectors will sign their part of that checklist if the work is approved. Sometimes they will make notes on the Job Card as well, stating that they are conditionally approving something (as in ‘they have to fix this one minor thing, and once they do, then this part will be 100% done).

Scheduling inspections can be a tricky thing, most inspectors can only be contacted early in the morning on specific days they are available, and their schedules fill up very quickly. It’s best to call the very moment they are available, but typically if you do you can get them scheduled to come out within a few days, maybe a week. An experienced contractor will be a huge help here, for they will know how long it typically takes to get an inspector onsite, and might even have a relationship with the inspectors from prior projects, so you can call ahead of the work being 100% complete so as to not have to wait too long between when the work is completed and inspected. This becomes really important when you’ve got parts of the work that are dependent on other parts, such as the earlier example with rebar and concrete.

Like with most building officials, if you are friendly, competent, and not trying to get away with anything or acting in bad faith, they will work with you to help get the project done. If you’re a jerk, they will be, and if you’re not doing things somewhat right they might make you tear out and redo work, or open up work so they can see inside. And if you’re trying to get away with something, or acting in bad faith, then you’re just making their lives miserable, and so they will do the same to you most likely.

So when you have the inspector come out, have things be clear, well organized, cleaned up, and ready for them. Don’t waste their time, and be open and honest, and you’ll find them soon helpful and easier to work with. Honestly, the biggest problem you may run into (if you don’t cause them yourself by not doing the above) is when the inspector disagrees with how the approved plans show something getting done, or disagree with how your contractors or subcontractors want to do something and want it done another way. When this happens, you can go to the city and try to fight if you really want to, but we’ve found most of the time to have been able to find a common ground with the inspector to get the project done.

Also again the inspector is looking at two things; the first is if the work is to code, and the second is if the work matches what the approved plans show as happening. So if you’ve made big design changes, get those into your plans, and get them re-submitted ASAP so that the inspector is looking at both the work and the drawings and having them match.

Conclusion

As we wrap up this guide to the building code, we’re just humbled and honored at the response we’ve been getting online so far. It’s been incredible! And we hope that this series has been helpful and informative. If you have any questions or corrections please reach out, I’m more than happy to talk further about all of this.

I’d like to thank all of our wonderful clients and employees that make BWC possible, and our various shop cats for the photos I used in this series.

And if you need help with your project, we’d love to hear from you. We love helping people turn their buildings into productive and wonderful spaces to be in!

Through all design processes, whether it be interior design, architectural design, furniture design or any other; in most projects there are ideas that, no matter how much everyone likes them or not, need to be cut, never to be realized.

Our 'Forgotten Fridays' series is a place for us to showcase and celebrate the most interesting “forgotten” designs; parts of which may someday again breath life!

Our firm works in a very organic design process, building and iterating quickly. Many of the early designs that are thrown away on one project realize themselves in other forms & in other projects. Here is one from an office redesign in Downtown Oakland from several years back. We were given a challenging interior commercial space that was never intended to be an office space. It was at one time used as a server farm, and thus had no windows and was huge! It was a bit cave like and not a very human hospitable space.

We were brought in to tackle this interior design project: to create a space that felt warm and filled with life, even though it was starting out as a cave of a commercial space.

By placing large trees around the space in communal meeting areas, we were able to give the flow of the office some focal points and green foliage in the peripheral of all the views, no matter where employees were sitting.

Green plush turf used for carpeting gave an outside feel and texture change across the large scape of seating. And cool articulated triangular paneling to create screens, lighting shades and seating, gave a warm tone and points of interest to a once barren concrete cave.

One of our favorite ideas was a privacy seating idea using an off the shelf ball chair. Needing to create private areas for calls and meetings without erecting walls in the space, we designed these fun acoustic privacy shields that swivel around an existing ball chair. Who doesn’t want to sit in a ball chair for their private meeting - now with acoustic privacy shield!

These fun ideas were left on the cutting room floor at the time, but have resurrected themselves in many ways & iterations over the years. Who knows when they’ll pop up again. Happy Friday.

We were able to see the Deployable Event Tables we made for Off the Grid this last Friday! Getting tons of use by happy event goers - they were very popular and always full capacity!

Earlier this year we were contacted by the Off the Grid team to design and build 10 of these deployable event tables. If you are lucky enough to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have probably been to an Off the Grid event. Designed for heavy public use every weekend, these deployable, rolling picnic table seating units are beautiful as well as functional. We designed them as individual units to easily seat 4 adults with nice high backs, leg room and a transparent windscreen.

The client needed a design that allowed loading and unloading these for each event, so easy stacking, nesting and maneuverability were key in the design. Two people can assemble a unit, which breaks down into four big chunks with large and easy to handle bolt connections; making it quick work for the team.

Check out our full project page on these custom event table & the project here!

Over these last several weeks we've been busy, heads down, working on several new projects. We’re in different phases of the design and inspiration stage on all of them. Several are starting to arrive at the really exciting project phase where the designs and layouts are coming together and we’ll be finalizing the ideas shortly.

These new architectural and design projects we’re focused right now range from one large building interior, two residential renovations, one commercial exterior renovation and one bespoke "Objet d'intérêt"...

Bouncing between the projects’ conceptual design iterations and our final interior design layout and custom fabricated elements, it is fun to see the diversity in images from the different projects mood boards.

Clearly these are from several different kinds of spaces, but all of them are moving in wonderfully inspiring directions.
This fun collage does a pretty good job showing the diversity of our projects....

A recent PBS Newshour with Jeffry Brown interviewed Jenny Odell at The Interval! Great shots of our Parklets outside and the interview takes place inside the Interval!

You can see more interior images of the interval here on our projects page

Fun to see the space on camera, and the topic is ... of course... on theme....

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/jenny-odells-new-book-saving-time-gives-fresh-perspective-on-the-meaning-of-time

In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.

The prior posts in the series are available here:

Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?

Hacking the Building Code: Part Two - Building Officials and how to approach them.

Hacking the Building Code: Part Three - Use is the Key Factor

Hacking the Building Code: Part Four - Zoning & Occupancy

Hacking the Building Code: Part Five - Occupant Loads and Construction Type

Disclaimer

This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.

Applications, Plans, and Variances 

Oh my! In this section we’ll dig into all the different sorts of applications, documents, and paperwork you’ll typically need to submit to legally build a project.

Applications

Most things you’re going to build are going to need some sort of approval from a building official before you start. Usually this approval is formally asked for and granted with some sort of application of a specific form for the type of work you’re doing, which when approved grants you a permit for that work. These forms are filled out with the relevant project information, and usually involve submitting more information along with it, such as photos, plans, calculations, reports, and more.

A very simple project, such as minor electrical work, reroofing a house, putting in a new heating system to replace an old one, replacing cabinets in a kitchen, etc. might not need anything more than a written description of the work on the application form itself, and can even be approved over the counter. 

A more complex project, such as remodeling a warehouse into a condo complex, will require not only more information than just a written description, they will typically need multiple applications, documents, and approvals from many different City agencies that will need to spend time reviewing all the information extensively. These various applications are going to need specific and complete information about your project, organized in the way that City likes, in order for them to get approval. Ask questions, follow the directions exactly that are on the forms, and make sure to complete them fully.

Typically all of the approved applications are collectively called the ‘building permit’. Your project was reviewed by the different City building officials, usually starting with Planning, then Building, and then sometimes onto Fire and even local municipal utilities, and each department reviewed and formally approved things, with the final step being the City issuing you a building permit. For certain types of projects, there could even be a public review before the city officials review it at all, where the project will go before a planning board or a city counsel, and they and/or the general public be allowed to make comments on the project before it moves forward.

Usually the ‘building permit’ actually takes the form of a special sort of checklist you’ll keep onsite at the project, with the official set of all the plans, forms, and other documents along with it that the City officially approved. Various building inspectors will then write comments and sign off things on that special checklist (sometimes called a ‘job card’) as they are built, inspected, and approved.

There can also be different applications and approvals for different phases and even parts of a project. For example, you could just apply to the Planning department with a scheme of what ‘could be’ done, that once approved, becomes something called an ‘entitlement’ that adds value to the property. For now you’ve got legal ‘proof’ that the City would let you build that sort of a building on that site. So a legal pre-approval for a big house on an empty lot or tearing down a defunct commercial property to build an apartment building. This reduces risk to a developer, for now they don’t have to do that legwork, and already have planning approval in hand for when they go for the actual building permit to build the actual building, even if it’s not exactly the same as the building that was submitted for the entitlement.

There can be ‘sub-applications’ too, where you’ll need to file applications for various approvals within a specific department, such as when dealing with a historic building that might require additional review and approval from a specific person or team within the larger planning department. Or having to apply for operational permits from the health department before you can properly start using your new restaurant’s kitchen.

Once you do get the building permit, you might have to get additional approvals to put a construction dumpster out front of the building, file paperwork showing how you’re meeting City-required recycling goals, keep records on how you’re meeting OSHA requirements during construction, permits to temporarily close the parking out front to make room for the concrete truck on the day of the concrete pour, and more. 

And as the project is close to completion, you may want to apply for a ‘Temporary Certificate of Occupancy’ or ‘TCO’ that would let you start to move in and use the building, even though it’s still technically ‘under construction’ as the contractors are wrapping things up. And once the project is complete, you’ll need to ‘close out’ the permit by ensuring everything on that checklist has been signed off that needs it and that the official Certificate of Occupancy has been updated and more.

The thing is the approved applications, and the various drawings and documents within, usually become legal documents that go on file within the City. They impact the property values and insurance terms for the building, become the legal basis for what you can use a building for, would become really important in any lawsuit about the building, and more. So being well-organized, keeping good notes and records, and making copies of everything will go a long way here. 

It’s a lot of leg work and a lot of paperwork, and one of the areas that hiring someone experienced in the specific process for the kind of project you’re doing can be a huge help. There is a reason that people can make whole careers out of just helping get complex projects through a larger city’s various departments! But thankfully if you can’t afford to hire skilled help in this area I’ve found that if you’re friendly, nice, respectful, and ask lots of questions the different building officials will help point you in the right directions of what applications and approvals you’ll need to make for your project. Even us professionals in this space have to do this to properly navigate these waters!

Plans (& Specifications, calcs, reports, photos…)

From a simple sketch to a stack of drawings a foot high, Plans are one of the main vehicles for defining, organizing, communicating, and documenting your project.

There are a few different standards people follow when creating plans, and thankfully most Cities will have some sort of guide or checklist of how they like plans prepared and what needs to be in them as a minimum. But generally a ‘set of plans’ will:

• Start with title pages that usually have a list of the sheets in the set, the project location, basic project description, what standards the project will follow, and copies of various forms required for the permit.

• Then have site plans pointing out where the work is to happen exactly, what the surrounding area / buildings are, what the overall plot of land is, and what changes are being done to it.

• Then have various floor and ceiling plans showing what’s existing, what’s getting removed, and what’s getting built.

• Then elevations showing the outside of the building & walls, again showing what’s existing, what’s getting removed, and what’s getting built.

• Then sections (cutaway views), detailed drawings of specific bits of the building, enlarged plans of specific spots within the building, schedules and more towards the end that show all the nitty-gritty details of how the building is going to be built, and how it’s going to meet the various Codes it has to.

The plans usually just show how the building is going to be built, what’s going to be done, etc. Sometimes projects will also require ‘specifications’ which is a written document that outlines in more detail what specific materials, brands, and vendors can be used for the different elements within the building, and usually will also outline the approved ways those materials will be used or installed. Things like directing for the bathroom tile to be one of three brands, for the mortar used to install it be a specific type, for the tile to be stored onsite in a safe way, and for the boxes of tile to be opened and mixed together to ensure a consistent color is all the sort of things that go into a good ‘spec’ as it’s sometimes called.

Sometimes projects will also require things like structural calculations, environmental impact reports, site photos, and more things that aren’t ‘plans’ in the traditional ‘blueprint drawing’ sense, but will need to be included and kept together with the plans, and are considered part of the ‘set of plans’.

These sets of plans become legal documents, in that when you submit them to the City and get them approved, that is now the legal record for what you’re planning to build. If what you actually build doesn’t match, the building inspectors won’t approve it, even if what you did was fully to code. Hence why as the project changes, the plans need to be changed, and resubmitted for approval. Typically this will be called an ‘Addendum’ or a ‘Revision’, and sometimes if the change is big enough, it will even get a new building permit altogether. While sadly some architects don’t keep these plans up to date, it’s actually part of their professional responsibility and standards to do so, and to always have a reasonably up to date, fully coordinated set of plans for the project as it progresses. This is easy for Architects using BIM in a smart way (like we do) and much harder for those who aren’t, so it’s a good question to ask whomever you are hiring if they are working fully and correctly in BIM vs. 2D CAD or even still on paper.

Most plans are required to be prepared by a properly licensed architect and/or engineer. Commercial projects, anything involving redoing structure, etc. have to be prepared by a professional, who will ‘sign and stamp’ those drawings. When they do so, they are legally taking on the liability for what’s in those plans, and whatever issues may arise when it’s built. It may seem unfair or some sort of ‘professional capture’ forcing you to hire someone like me, but it’s honestly a kind of a deal around public safety. Architects and Engineers legally only get to do this sort of work (and call themselves by these titles) in return for being on the hook for whatever they propose in those plans.

For example, if your uncle tells you that you can totally pull out that pillar that’s in the way of your kitchen remodel, and you do so, and it causes part of your house to expensively fail, it’s pretty much on you. You can try to sue your uncle who gave you bad advice, but legally it’s entirely your responsibility and fault for doing structural work without an architect or engineer looking at it first.

If an architect or engineer makes a bad mistake like that, they are on the hook, and it’s legally their fault, not yours, and it’s a pretty straightforward case to make them fix the problems they caused (and your homeowner’s or business insurance company won’t be mad at you). That’s the deal, it’s exactly like a lawyer or doctor, only they get to do certain types of work and call themselves that, but in return they are liable and responsible for that work.

However, some smaller houses and residential remodels can be drawn up by anyone, hence why your kitchen designer can do all the drawings for your kitchen remodel. And as we said in the approvals section above, some really simple projects don’t even need drawings, just written descriptions, and can have over-the-counter permits. 

Variances

A ‘Variance’ is when you get official written approval to either not have to follow a specific rule in the code, or replace one rule with another. These also have to typically be applied for, and approved by the building officials, and honestly can be quite hard to get in many cases. You have to have a really good reason for it, and usually have to do something more strict in ‘trade’ to get one. 

For example, let’s say you have an existing building that was built a long time ago, and the planning rules have changed, and now your building has windows that are too close to the property lines to meet code. It may be possible to work out with the City that you’ll add in much more fireproofing around those windows, replace the windows with highly fire-rated ones, and add in a fire sprinkler system, and once you’ve documented how you’re going to do all of that, the City could grant you a variance that for this one specific project, and this one time, just this once, you’re going to be allowed to keep those windows because you’re doing above-and-beyond what’s normally needed.

So while variances are possible, they are unlikely and hard to get, so don’t be the future of your project on them until you have them in hand.

Applications get you approvals (and usually require plans), approvals get you permits, permits allow you to legally build things.

Next up in our final installment in this series we’ll dive into Inspections and Inspectors, how things tend to happen during the project, and project close-outs. I hope you’ve been finding this series helpful and as always I love to talk about these things, so please reach out to me if you have questions!

The Parklets for the Interval that we design, built, and delivered have been such a hit that a new client asked for something similar, but even more portable, so they would work well for their mobile food / event business. These units have just started to make their quiet debut in San Francisco, and here’s a sneak peek!

These inviting mobile parklets easily come apart for easy shipping too.

Looking forward to seeing them this summer!

In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.

The prior posts in the series are available here:

Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?

Hacking the Building Code: Part Two - Building Officials and how to approach them.

Hacking the Building Code: Part Three - Use is the Key Factor

Hacking the Building Code: Part Four - Zoning & Occupancy

Disclaimer

This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.

Occupant Loads & Construction Type

In our last posts, we covered Use and Occupancy. In this (rather long) post we’ll get into how specific Occupancies determine how many people can use a space or building, what a building has to be in order to support that use and number of occupants, and some of the other rules that can kick in depending on how many people are going to be within a space.

Occupant Load Factor

Every Use of a space drives something called the Occupant Load Factor. You take the area of the space, you divide it by this factor, and that gives you the number of occupants, or Occupant Count, you have to design the space to be able to accommodate. The Occupant Count is a theoretical assumption of how many people would be in a building or space in its normal everyday use. This number is very important, for that’s how many people you’ll need safe exits for, how big those exits and hallways / stairs to get to those exits need to be, what sort of hardware has to be on the exit doors, how many restrooms you’ll need to have, and more.

For example, if you’ve got an office space, the Occupant Load Factor is 100 in the office areas. So if your open office area is 6,000 square feet, that means the space has to be legal to have up to 60 people using it (6000 / 100 = 60). But let’s say your building also has a 1000 square foot storage area, and three big conference rooms that total 600 square feet as well. Storage space only has an Occupant Load Factor of 300, so it would at most have four people in it (rounded up), but an Assembly space such as your conference rooms might have an Occupant Load Factor of 15, which would give you 40 more Occupants there as well. If these additional forty-four people are going to be exiting through the same open office area, the hallways / stairs and exits from that area now have to work for 104 people instead of just 60, etc.

An exit, and the ‘path of travel’ you use to get to that exit, are required to be a certain size and have certain features depending on the number of people that will potentially need to use it when the building is fully occupied, and in some cases certain occupant counts or distances to an exit will require multiple exits regardless of their size. This is why theaters and sport areas have lots of large exits located all over the place that ideally go straight outside, and a small three-story office building still has to have multiple staircases within it. 

You can get the Occupant Load Factor from your local Building Codes or officials, there’s usually a table that calls them all out. The 2019 International Building Code has it as Table 1004.5, but your local rules might be different, so it’s always best to check in with a building official or professional.

Again, where this gets really critical is when you’re changing the Use of a space from what it was before, for by changing the Use, you chance the Occupancy, and by changing the Occupancy, you change the Occupant Load Factor, and by changing the Occupant Load Factor you change the theoretical number of people you have to have the building safely work for. Hence why changing an old warehouse into an event space can be tricky, for a warehouse only needs exits and bathrooms for a small handful of people, whereas an event space could easily have ten times or more people within it.

In some cases you are able to negotiate to either have less people in a space, and thus less strict rules that have to be followed. For example, if you have a space that would typically be a A-3 assembly occupancy, but you limit the number of people allowed in the space to under 50, there’s a special exemption that lets you classify that space as a less-strict B occupancy instead. Hence why you see in many small cafes and bars the sign ‘Max Occupancy 49 people’. By voluntarily limiting the number of people, you can negotiate with building officials and find exemptions that make it easier to use a space. So even if the Occupant Count from the Occupant Load Factor is over 50, by limiting to under 50 in this case, you don’t have to have a second exit, extra bathrooms, more fire-resistant construction, etc.

Or in some cases you can negotiate to have more people in a space that what is set by the Occupant Load Factors by going the extra mile. Adding extra exits, fire sprinklers when you don’t already need them, higher fire-rated construction, more signage, and other extra efforts when negotiated ahead of time with the building officials can sometimes get them to allow you to go over what the Occupant Load Factor says a space should be limited to.

One-time events can usually go over the allowed number if proper steps are taken as well. Party permits, approvals from the Fire Marshall, trained staff at key locations to help people to an exit in case of an emergency, additional signage, and more can all make it fully legal to have many people within a space for parties, events, and conventions that what’s normally allowed.

Finally most building permit applications require an ‘exiting plan’ that shows the Occupancy, Occupant Load Factor, and the calculated number of Occupants for every space within a building; as well as the path of travel from those spaces to the exits, what the ‘Fire Rating’ is of those parts of the building, how wide those exits are, and how many people would be using each exit. This sort of plan summarizes everything that the Building Department cares about when it comes to Occupancy and Exiting, and can be very useful to already have when trying to figure out how to affordably change the Use of various spaces within a Building. It’s something you can hire us or any other competent commercial Architect to put together as part of a project assessment, so that you can really understand just how much work your project might be!

Construction Types & Fire Ratings

The Occupancy, and thus the Use, of a building or space also drives what it’s made out of for fire safety. For example, with the tragic Ghostship fire that inspired me to produce this series, it’s my understanding that a major factor in the travesty was that there was only one main exit stair from the upstairs event space, and that stairway was made from salvaged, unfinished wood (some from pallets even!) and was open to the downstairs space. So once a fire started downstairs, the only exit stair caught on fire too, and there was no safe way for people upstairs to exit. Had it been a legal event space, there would have been more than one exit stair, and those exit stairs would have been required to be much more fire-resistant and made from ‘non-combustible’ materials.

The way the Building Code handles this issue is that Buildings are classified into ‘Construction Types’ based upon how fire-resistant they are, which is dependent upon what they are generally made out of. There are five main types, denoted for some reason with roman numerals, going from the most fire resistant “Type I” to the least resistant “Type V”. How big of a building or space of a certain Occupancy is allowed is determined by these Types. And in some cases, certain Occupancies aren’t even allowed if the building isn’t a minimum Type. It’s easy to classify most buildings, as you’ll see below with each Types definition.

Additionally, specific parts of the building are ‘Fire Rated’. This is a measure of how long it would take for a fire on one side of something to reach the other side. So, for example, a One Hour Rated wall is made of materials such that a fire of a certain size on one side of the wall would take an hour to reach the other side of the wall. This ‘Fire Rating’ is used for all sorts of construction; walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, stairs, and even whole assemblies of these parts. So a ‘Two Hour Rated exit corridor’ is an entire hallway to the exit where all its walls, the floor, and the ceiling would hold back a fire for two hours to allow people to safely exit the burning building in that time span. 

There are five levels of Fire Rating, from the most fire-resistant ‘Four Hour’ rating, to a slightly less fire-resistant ‘Three Hour’, ‘Two Hour’, ‘One Hour’, and finally the ‘Unrated’ for everything else. In order for part of your building to be Fire Rated, it has to match lab-tested and proven pre-defined constructions, and have to follow specific building codes exactly (down to nail placements!) in order to work. Chapter Seven in the International Building Code is all about this, and there are construction guides, such as the UL one here, and the USG one here, that show some of the pre-approved ‘assemblies’ that work. 

The tests are actually really cool! They build the structure as it is defined, and then do a controlled burn on one side of it under strict conditions and measure the results. There’s some neat videos of the process, like this one:

But this is why it can be challenging even for building professionals to determine what Fire Rating parts of an older existing building’s construction are, or what needs to be done to get them to be properly Fire Rated. As there are lots of different pre-approved ways to accomplish it, but they are all complex and demanding, and to prove that something was built correctly to a specific specification you might have to take some of it apart for proper inspections. This is where a building professional with lots of experience in accessing older buildings for creative new uses (such as BWC!) can go a long way to affordably figuring out what’s really possible.

This is also why building with non-traditional materials, such as with hay bales, can be so challenging, for until there is a proper UL tested and approved assembly to reference, the Building Department won’t approve it without some major work on your part to either prove that it works, or do something they feel makes it work (like add in additional fire sprinklers that weren’t required before).

Finally most materials fall into a ‘Combustible’ vs. ‘Non-combustible’ classification, where ‘Non-combustible’ = a material that can’t burn at all under normal circumstances (i.e. concrete, steel, glass) and ‘combustible’ (everything else). Sometimes a combustible material isn’t allowed within a certain construction type, fire rating, assembly, or even exit pathway; which is why exit hallways can be a drab combo of raw concrete and painted drywall. 

Here’s a quick summary of each Construction Type:

Type I

Type I buildings are the most fire resistant. Nothing flammable can be used for its exterior walls, structure, interior walls / floors / ceilings / etc. In some classifications flammable finishes can be used, but in the most restrictive classification even that isn’t allowed. Examples are skyscrapers, hazardous modern factories, and concrete bunkers. There are two subclasses of Type I buildings, based upon the Fire Ratings of their parts, with a Type IA being more fire-resistant than a Type IB. 

Type II

Type II buildings are mostly educational buildings, newer commercial buildings, shopping malls, and smaller theaters. Again, the exterior walls, floor, and frame are non-combustible; but don’t have to be as highly fire-rated as a Type I building, and some combustible interior elements are allowed. There are two subclasses, with Type IIA following more strict testing standards than Type IIB. 

Type III

Type III buildings are probably the most common type for an older existing commercial or a newer residential condo / apartment building in a city, where the exterior of the building is made of inflammable rated materials, but the ‘guts’ of the building are not. Think of your typical older warehouse, small office building, or larger condo building; concrete or brick exterior walls with wood structure and floors inside. It, too, has two subclasses, with a Type III-A having more fire-resistant ‘guts’ in it’s interior structure and floors / roof, and a Type III-B that only requires the exterior walls to be fire-rated.

Type IV

Type IV buildings are mostly historic, pre-1960, for they have a main structure made of heavy wood timbers 8” or larger. It’s extremely unlikely for a modern building to fall into this classification, but some older factories, churches, and warehouses do. They are very similar to a Type III-B building, in that only the exterior walls need to be fire rated, but they are generally more fire resistant than the following Type V building. 

Type V

Type V buildings are the least fire-resistant, and are mostly made of wood. Houses, smaller apartment buildings, and some smaller commercial buildings fall into this category. Here, too, there are two subclasses, with a Type V-A requiring the exterior walls, interior structure, and floors / roofs to be at least 1 Hour Fire Rated (the lowest, easiest rating to produce) and a Type V-B that doesn’t have many limits on what you can use to built it with.

Construction Limits

As was stated at the beginning of this section, there are limits on how big of a building or space of a particular occupancy can be. The Construction Type will set what how tall a building of a particular Occupancy can be, how many stories it can have, how much square footage, and more. Chapter 5 of the International Building Code goes into lots of detail on this, with lots of tables where you can look up what type and size of Occupancy is allowed within a certain Construction Type.

So it’s best to do an initial assessment of any existing building to determine its Construction Type to better understand if the Use, and the number of people, you’re planning on is allowed in that specific kind of building (or part of it). It could be that a space that works just fine for a small Café won’t work if that Café is expanded into a large restaurant that takes over the rest of the all-wood building.

Additional Fire Rated Constructions

So while the Construction Types set the overall requirements for what has to be fire rated parts of the building, there are other rules that also trigger additional rated elements. These are too numerous to list, but we’ll cover the big ones you’re likely to encounter.

Separations between certain Occupancies are required. For example, no rated separations are required between an Business occupancy and a F-1 light manufacturing one. But an Assembly occupancy of a certain size has to be separated from a Business occupancy with two-hour rated construction. In some cases, certain occupancies aren’t even allowed to be connected at all, and have to be completely separate. Like a Residential use being combined with a Hazardous use. Table 508.4 in the International Building Code shows all of the variations and what has to be separated from what and how. Note that in many cases, having fire sprinklers makes the Rating requirements much lower (that’s what the ‘S’ vs ‘NS’ at the top of the chart is for).

Also it’s typical that the hallways going to an exit, exit corridors / stairs, and exits themselves have to be Fire Rated, even when the surrounding parts of the building might not need to be. For example, in a Type III-A larger building, the stairways and hallways to them will all be 1 Hour Rated or more, even when the rest of the interior construction isn’t.

Finally, specific Uses and even equipment may require additional Fire Rated construction around them, such as a commercial kitchen or an industrial oven within a larger non-rated space.

Use sets the Occupancy, Occupancy sets what kind of building is allowed, what Fire Ratings the parts of it have to have, and how many people can use it.

In our next section, we’ll get into Applications, Plans, Permits, Variances, and Reviews!

Now that we have the Zund’s router attachment really dialed in the quality of our engravings has been just wonderful. Since it spins up to 50k RPM (!!) you can get amazingly clean lines with it in harder materials, like this polycarbonate.

It’s very satisfying to peel the protective layers after the fact too…

In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.

The prior posts in the series are available here:

Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?

Hacking the Building Code: Part Two - Building Officials and how to approach them.

Hacking the Building Code: Part Three - Use is the Key Factor

Disclaimer

This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.

Certificate of Occupancy

The Certificate of Occupancy is an official document on file at the city that says what a specific building’s current Use is. Like we covered in the last section, changing this Use can be difficult and expensive. This section of our guide is a deeper dive into this subject with the hopes that you’ll be able to determine the various rules around your planned Use, and what changing the Use of a building might entail.

Zoning

Most planning departments have divided their cities up into various ‘zones’ that denote what Uses are allowed within those areas. These zones typically have a ‘code’ that’s used, such as ‘R-30’ or ‘NC-3’ that are tied to a whole series of rules the buildings in that zone have to follow per the use of said building.

So a zone will do more than just say what Uses are and aren’t allowed, they often also state how big a certain Use can be, how much parking is required for a specific Use within that zone, how close a building of a certain Use can be to its property lines, and more. They can even tie into local incentives that are trying to encourage a certain type of development within a specific zone.

Again, as we covered in the first section of this guide, Planning says what can be built where. Your local Planning department will have a map that shows what areas are in what zone, and then you’ll need to look up all the rules that pertain to that zone to understand how it will impact your planned Use of a particular specific building you’re thinking of renting / buying with the intent of using it in that way.

Sadly, these Zoning codes aren’t standardized at all from city to city, what’s an ‘R-30’ in one city might be wildly different from what is an ‘R-30’ from one town over, so you’ll need to do your research on this one. Thankfully most planning departments have moved most of their information online, but there can still be ‘unwritten’ rules that were made at a public hearing or are a general policy within a planning department that aren’t in the code. Yes, that can be wildly unfair.

So prior to renting or buying any property with the intent of using it in a way it wasn’t exactly used before, you’ll want to do some due diligence and research that the use you’re planning on is allowed in that Zone. A quick trip or call to the Planning department can save huge headaches later on. Even something as simple as a ‘home office’ within a residential area might have severe limitations on signage, onsite employees, and available tax incentives. And even if a building has been used in a certain way for a while by a prior tenant, don’t assume that Use was legal.

We’ve heard of cases such as a new boxing gym moving into an existing warehouse space in an industrial area that had been a Crossfit gym for the last five years. Same use, just different tenants. They discovered after about a year of occupancy that the building’s Certificate of Occupancy hadn’t been updated for this new use by the prior tenant, and that the Use was still listed as an industrial one. So not only was the gym (which was a new Use) not legally operating within that building, the local zoning didn’t even allow for an industrial building of that size to be a gym at all in that specific area. To get legal it would take some sort of variance that required a public hearing, a mess that would take many months to sort out, on top of lots of building upgrades to support the new Use and more. Sadly they had to close.

So as we said in the last section, Use is the key that all the other rules derive from. Find out what the current Certificate of Occupancy is for any building you may be renting or buying to know what you’re getting into, for while you can change the Use of a building or space, it can be messy and expensive.

Occupancy

The Building Code handles Use somewhat differently than Planning does. Again, like we talked about in our first section, the Building Department gets to say how something should be built depending on its Use. Thankfully, because the building code is standardized between most cities, it’s much more consistent.

The building code divides up various Uses into Occupancies, which are given an ‘Occupant Code’. These Occupant Codes then set the rest of the rules for a building, or a space within it, such as how many people are allowed to use that space, how many exits are required, how fire-resistant the construction of the building has to be, and more.

Small Spaces

What about small spaces within your building that have other uses? Like the storage area in your office building? Well you’re allowed a certain percentage of the total area to be for other uses without having to make the whole building that Occupancy too, as long as those spaces follow the rules for that Occupancy. For example, an office building is a B Occupancy. But it has a loading dock / storage area (S-1 occupancy), and a few big meeting rooms (A-3 occupancy). But as they are less than 20% of your building, you just need to meet whatever standards those rooms need, you don't have to meet all the standards an Assembly use would trigger for the entire building. So if the Certificate of Occupancy says it’s an Office building, and you want to put a small café into the lobby, it’s still an Office building, and if the café is small enough it’s still even a B Occupancy.

If the building really is mixed up, it's called a Mixed Occupancy.

Mixed Occupancy

When your building is really a somewhat-equal mix of spaces that fall into very different occupancies, it’s going to get complex. This is called a ‘Mixed Occupancy’ and each part of the building is treated as a different Occupancy depending on it’s use, and whichever the ‘strictest’ Occupancy is tends to be what you have to follow in regards to other rules, like area limits, fire separations, construction type, etc.

Occupancy Codes

The Occupancies most creative people would encounter are below, with snippets of code up front and a summary below. There is no way to get into all the rules about each one here, this guide is just to help you find out what Occupancy your Use may be, so that you can see if the Certificate of Occupancy matches it, and then do more research about the specific Occupancy and what rules it may have.

A - Assembly

303.1 Assembly Group A. Assembly Group A occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, for the gathering of persons for purposes such as civic, social or religious functions; recreation, food or drink consumption or awaiting transportation; or motion picture and television production studio soundstages, approved production facilities and production locations.

Everything from a big theater to a conference center to a neighborhood cafe could be classified as an A Occupancy. There are different levels here, A-1 through A-5, for different uses. The rules for these spaces are some of the more strict ones; with higher standards and requirements for exits, life safety, seismic upgrades, bathrooms, and more. Maker cafes, performance spaces, event spaces, large lecture halls, and community centers all fall into this category.

Pro Tip: There is a special provision that if you limit the number of people in your space to under 50, or the space is less than 750 square feet, then you can count that space as a B occupancy instead of the more strict A. This is why most cafes have a ‘Limit 49 Persons’ sign on the wall!

If this is the sort of space you want, it’s best to just get one that is already at least close to the same use if not the same use. Or compromise on what sorts of things you’ll use the space for, and hold smaller events. Converting a space over to an Assembly use is expensive, time-consuming, and doesn’t have a lot of bang-for-the-buck. That big cheap warehouse might actually be the worst space to use!

B - Business (office)

304.1 Business Group B. Business Group B occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, for office, professional or service-type transactions, including storage of records and accounts. 

One of the more straightforward occupancies, any general office space falls under the B Occupancy. Coworking spaces, Classrooms for adult programs, Maker Businesses that focus more on design/prototyping/research and engineering than hands-on production, and even hackerspaces that lean more towards small electronics or biohacking could fall under this category. Since office buildings are pretty common, the challenge here is more how to safely and legally fit in the more industrial tools Makers tend to want to use within an office-type space. We’ll talk more about that later in this guide.

E- Educational

305.1 Educational Group E occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, more than six persons at any one time for educational purposes through the 12th grade.

This occupancy can be one of the most strict when it comes to things like fire, exits, and seismic safety, so again, if the building wasn’t a school before, and you want to make the building into one, you might have a great deal more work in front of you than you initially think. It’s unlikely that most creatives will encounter this occupancy however, for if you’re just looking to add a daycare into your Office occupancy for example, depending on your local rules you might be able to have that fall under a less strict B or R occupancy instead.

F - Manufacturing

306.1 Factory Industrial Group F. Factory Industrial Group F occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, for assembling, disassembling, fabricating, finishing, manufacturing, packaging, repair or processing operations that are not classified as a Group H hazardous or Group S storage occupancy.

Simultaneously one of the less strict and more strict occupancies, the F or Factory occupancy is one many spaces creatives work in will fall into. It’s less strict, because they don’t assume many people will be in that space, so things like exits, bathrooms, and lighting can be very minimal. However, due to fire hazards from industrial use, things like requirements for specific fire sprinklers, life safety, proper storage of combustibles, OSHA guidelines, and more can make these spaces complex to be fully legal as well.

The shop within a Makerspace, many Maker businesses that do a lot of production, and even a school’s shop class all fall into a F category. There are two levels as well, mostly depending on how flammable the kind of work is, with a more strict F-1 for more dangerous ‘heavy manufacturing’, and an F-2 for less dangerous, ‘light manufacturing’ work. Really dangerous things like firework factories fall into an ‘H’ occupancy, and extremely low risk things like storage warehousing would fall into an ‘S’ occupancy instead.

Note that if a building doesn’t have fire sprinklers, it will probably be rather difficult to change it into an F use if it wasn’t already without adding them.

H- Hight Hazard

307.1 High-hazard Group H occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, that involves the manufacturing, processing, generation or storage of materials that constitute a physical or health hazard in quantities in excess of those allowed in control areas complying with Section 414, based on the maximum allowable quantity limits for control areas set forth in Tables 307.1(1) and 307.1(2). Hazardous occupancies are classified in Groups H-1, H-2, H-3, H-4 and H-5 and shall be in accordance with this section, the requirements of Section 415 and the California Fire Code. Hazardous materials stored, or used on top of roofs or canopies, shall be classified as outdoor storage or use and shall comply with the California Fire Code.

This is for really serious stuff, and is unlikely to be encountered by most creative people looking to do something interesting with an existing space. But if you’re in manufacturing it’s good to check that your planned Uses don’t fall under a H occupancy instead of a F due to the amount of certain chemicals you may need on hand. Even the addition of a new kind of tool within an F Occupancy space might be considered an H use instead, such as certain new 3D metal powder-based printers being much more toxic and potentially explosive than other 3D printing equipment. It’s also possible that your planned use falls well under the limits put forth in section 414, and thus it could still be an F or other Occupancy, so again, do your research to know what’s allowed.

I - Institutional

308.1 Institutional Group I occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, in which care or supervision is provided to persons who are or are incapable of self-preservation without physical assistance or in which persons are detained for penal or correctional purposes or in which the liberty of the occupants is restricted. Institutional occupancies shall be classified as Group I-2, I-2.1, I-3 or I-4. Restraint shall not be permitted in any building except in Group I-2 occupancies constructed for such use in accordance with Section 407.1.1 and Group I-3 occupancies constructed for such use in accordance with Section 408.1.2.

This one is mostly for Hospitals and prisons, and is going to be far outside the Use of what most creatives looking to do things with space are going to encounter.

M - Retail

309.1 Mercantile Group M. Mercantile Group M occupancy includes, among others, the use of  a building or structure or a portion thereof, for the display and sale of merchandise and involves stocks of goods, wares or merchandise incidental to such purposes and accessible to the public.

A whole retail store to even just the space in the front of your Makerspace where you sell T-shirts could be considered an M type occupancy. It is one of the less strict occupancies, other than they assume you may have many people within it in the sales area which might impact you exit requirements.

R - Residential

310.1 Residential Group R. Residential Group R includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, for sleeping purposes when not classified as an Institutional Group I or when not regulated by the California Residential Code.

The Residential Occupancy Group is what any sort of living area would fall under, and there’s four levels. R-1 is mostly for hotels, R-2 is mostly multi-unit residential like apartments, condos, or dorms, R-3 is mostly for smaller single-family homes and small daycares, and R-4 is mostly for nursing homes. R-2 & R-3 is going to be what 99% of the cases most creatives meet will fall into, but if your Makerspace or Office wants to provide a daycare as well, it’s possible some of these other occupancies may come into play. While it’s not a terribly demanding occupancy, it does have some severe limits as to what other sorts of occupancies it can share space with without requiring fire separations (or possibly no adjoining openings of any kind!).

S - Storage

311.1 Storage Group S. Storage Group S occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, for storage that is not classified as a hazardous occupancy.

Storage is probably the most forgiving occupancy a creative use will encounter. There are two levels, with an S-1 for more flammable storage such as furniture, wood, office documents, and clothing; and a S-2 for less flammable storage such as metal, beverages in containers, and parking garages. So it is good to know that storage of some items, like wood, is deemed more hazardous and may require different construction and rules than storage of metals.

U - Utility and Miscellaneous

312.1 Buildings and structures of an accessory character and miscellaneous structures not classified in any specific occupancy shall be constructed, equipped and maintained to conform to the requirements of this code commensurate with the fire and life hazard incidental to their occupancy. 

This Occupancy mostly applies to utility rooms within larger buildings, private parking garages, various agricultural buildings, airplane hangers, and more. It’s one of the least strict ones, but you may encounter it within a larger project.

L - Laboratories

313.1 Group L occupancy includes the use of a building or structure, or a portion thereof, containing one or more laboratory suites as defined in Section 453.

Another serious Occupancy for serious use, this Occupancy is for all things lab related. Just a reminder that even a Use within a larger building counts, such that a larger office building that’s mostly a B occupancy, but that has some bio-tech labs within it, would have those lab spaces count as an L occupancy, and would have very different rules about them.

C - Organized Camps

314.1 Organized Camps Group C. An organized camp is a site with programs and facilities established for the primary purpose of providing an outdoor group living experience with social, spiritual, educational or recreational objectives, for five days or more during one or more seasons of the year

This one sort of explains itself.

Live / Work

419.1 General. A live/work unit shall comply with Sections 419.1 through 419.9. 

Exception: Dwelling or sleeping units that include an office that is less than 10 percent of the area of the dwelling unit are permitted to be classified as dwelling units with accessory occupancies in accordance with Section 508.2.

Live / Work is a special case, with lots of rules about it. It’s mostly a mix of R-2 and B or F-1 type occupancies. They have to have fire sprinklers, and have some limits on how much area can be devoted to different uses. However you don’t have to separate those uses with fire walls like you normally would. Usually it has to be a 50/50 or 33/66 mix of living vs. working area. It can’t be all working or all living. Otherwise it follows similar rules of a Mixed Occupancy.

Other Occupancies

So there are some other ‘special’ occupancies (such as Live / Work above) that are listed in Chapter 4 and only in certain states or even cities (such as Oakland’s special ‘Work/Live’). Also your local State, County, or City might have modified the rules around what Use falls under what Occupancy and/or the rules around various Occupancies altogether. So the above list is not intended to be comprehensive or complete, and you’ll need to do some legwork to really understand your local rules.

Use drives Zoning and Occupancy, which then drive other rules…

Next section we’ll get deep into Occupant Load Factors, Types of Construction, and more around what sorts of Rules these various Occupancy Codes require one to follow.

If you’re finding this series helpful, or need some help understanding these complex issues just shoot me a note, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The Serpent Twins had a wonderful appearance at the Oakland Botanical Garden’s Autumn Lights Festival!

Along with the fun signage and lanterns we made for them back in 2013:

Big congrats to the Empire of Dirt crew for an impressive showing!

In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.

The prior posts in the series are available here:

Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?

Hacking the Building Code: Part Two - Building Officials and how to approach them.

Disclaimer

This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.

Use

‘Use’ is the pivot upon which all of these codes turn. Every building has what’s called a Certificate of Occupancy on file at the City. This is the officially listed Use for the building, which in turn defines what standards it has to meet.

It goes like this: let’s say you have a new product you prototyped in your garage, you just had a wildly successful kickstarter, and now it’s time to scale up and make them For Real in a proper space to do so. 

This is an Industrial Use, specifically a Manufacturing Use, and you’ll need to find a building to rent where you can legally have that Use.

From our first chapter, we can follow the same order of authority. The City Laws define if a Use is even allowed in the city, and what permits and requirements you may need for that use in some cases. City laws will define if you can even have welding or certain toxic chemicals in your space without a special permit, how much noise you can make, and what hours your business can be open. It could very well be that you’ll need to locate your new venture in another City altogether than the one you live in!

The Planning / Zoning Department gets to say where certain Uses in the City are allowed, so that a potentially loud and messy industrial manufacturing space doesn’t get to be located in the middle of a quiet residential area. So even though there’s an awesome storefront former retail space just down the street from your garage that could be a perfect spot for you to build your manufacturing facility, it might not be Zoned for that Use, and simply won’t work without lots of expensive and time-consuming work put into it to change the Use, the Zoning, or get a Variance (more on all of those later).

The Building Department gets to say how a building needs to be built based on its Use, such that an industrial building such as your manufacturing facility has to be more fire-resistant than a home, so it has to be in a building where the outside walls are ‘non-conbustable’ i.e. made of concrete or metal, and has to have fire sprinklers. So again, that awesome retail space we just talked about might pass Zoning, but will never pass Building without lots of expensive renovations.

And the Fire Department, OSHA, Health Department, and other agencies get to say what your space needs to operate safely for its specific Use, such as requiring a certain number of fire extinguishers and alarms in your manufacturing space and healthy noise limits for those working inside of it. There are lots of agencies like this you may need to work with depending on your Use. A cafe within a Makerspace might also need the Health Department to review it, or an educational space might have someone from the local schools in charge of it. 

So what the Use of a space is can be a very big deal, as is changing the use. 

Changing Use

What’s critically important to understand is if you change the Use of a building, legally you are supposed to apply for a change to the Certificate of Occupancy. And in order to get that you need to most likely change the building itself to meet the new standards that new use requires. This even applies to spaces within a building, which while maybe not needing a change to the Certificate of Occupancy, still would be required to meet the new standards the new Use brings. 

So, for example, a warehouse meant for making stuff in (and not just storage) is probably listed as a ‘F-1 Light Industrial Use’ on its Certificate of Occupancy at the City. In order to legally be built in the first place, it had to meet the standards of a building of that use in that location. That means a certain number of exits, a certain level of fire-resistance in its construction, a certain number of bathroom and parking spots, and other rules it had to follow. Possibly limits, too, imposed by the zoning code or city law about that use as well, such as how big it can be, when it can be open, how much noise it can make, or what forms of pollution it can produce.

Now let’s say someone rents or buys this particular warehouse with the intention of using it as an event space. That is what’s called a ‘Change of Use’. Event spaces have different, more strict standards that have to be met because there will be way more people in an event space than in a warehouse. So now that warehouse, which was legal before, does not meet those new standards, and is not legal for this new Use. If you were to go down to the City and apply for a new Certificate of Occupancy to change the building into a legal event space, they would refuse until you got the building up to the new standards that use requires. Unless the building is renovated to meet the new building and fire code standards for an event space, such as adding exits, fire wall separations, exit signage, lighting, bathrooms, fire sprinklers, etc. it can’t legally be used as an event space. Also, the Planning Code may not allow for that use in the area the building is in, for they deem it to be a traffic problem or a disruption to the neighbors of that area. Finally, the city itself may have additional local laws that require you to get special permits for certain kinds of events, or certain sized events, or not allow you to serve booze or even coffee without special licenses.

So changing the use of a building is a big deal. It ‘triggers’ all sorts of required upgrades and modifications to be legal. And sadly, it’s far too easy to do, and something creative people can stumble into without meaning to. 

Because this also applies to spaces within a building. So with our warehouse example above, let’s say that only part of the building is going to be for events, and most of it is going to be for making things (like artist studio spaces with a gallery in the front). Well as long as that event space isn’t more than a certain percentage of the overall space, you wouldn’t need to get a new Certificate of Occupancy. But you would need to make the event space part meet the more strict codes it requires, like adding exits and signage and changing out the doors, and in some cases maybe even completely separate it from the rest of the inside of your building depending on what the fire separation rules state for that kind of building and Use.

For example, your friendly small CO-OP Hackerspace / Coworking / Cafe that’s rented a storefront retail space somewhere is suddenly gifted a used pick-and-place line complete with silk-screening station and board oven. Awesome! You’ve got an empty back room where it could go, and the smarts to set it up and start cranking out boards for you and your friends. Coffee and circuit boards! What else goes better together? 

Except that the space you’re in isn’t on file for making circuit boards as it’s Use, your city doesn’t allow anything like that anywhere near food, your local zoning doesn’t allow manufacturing in this neighborhood, the only room you’ve got to put it in isn’t fire rated and doesn’t have the right ventilation for it, and you didn’t change out the fire extinguishers in that room and don’t have good exits and emergency shut-offs.

So by accepting that used tool, and locating it in that back room, you’ve just inadvertently changed the Use of that space, and now you’ve got troubles you won’t be aware of until you possibly get into big trouble.

So the best thing is to find a space in the first place that already supports the sorts of things you’d like to do, even if it may not be the ideal location. If you want to be industrial for example, then go find industrial space, and compromise on your location. The next best thing is to be aware of the issues that arise when changing the use of a space, and to take steps to make that use legal. So putting a Makerspace into your local school’s unused storage space? That’s awesome, but check about fire sprinklers and exits first. The hardest thing to do is change the use of an entire building, and it’s not to be taken on lightly. So no matter how cool and cheap to rent that old church might be, it’s going to make a terrible bar without way more work than you might be thinking.

Violations

Ironically, while Use flows down from the City to the various agencies like the Fire Department, in terms of a renter or building owner’s concerns regarding legality and getting in trouble, it flows the other way. In other words, violations of fire code are severely punished, fire inspectors are supposed to do regular surveys of buildings, and the fire marshal has a huge amount of power and special rights.

Building Code violations, on the other hand, are only found when reported by someone, and typically lead to fines until the issues are addressed unless things are so bad a building is outright condemned. Zoning violations, while obviously bad and illegal, also are only found unless reported, and again, mostly result in fines. And the City might never get around to actually following up on things. So while it’s a terrible idea to not follow any of these codes, if you have found that you are not legal and are struggling to get legal start with Fire, and then Building, and then Zoning, and then the City.

And in some cases, when someone is doing something that isn’t really allowed, but is a really great idea, and everything else is legal and up to code, sometimes the Powers That Be will allow that Use to continue if it’s deemed a good thing for the community, and allow what’s called a Variance or in some special cases even revise the Codes to allow it. Variances are special permissions given as a one-time case to allow for you to not have to follow some specific section of code, or to follow a different set of standards instead. 

For example, you could get a Variance from Zoning to allow you to use what was a shipping / receiving area in an office building as a prototyping shop, even though manufacturing isn’t allowed in that neighborhood. Variances can take a very long time, and lots of expensive professionals to obtain, so don’t rely on them as a given to fix a situation. In our example here, you may have to go before a Planning board (that only meets a few times a year) and make your case to get the Variance, arguing (and showing via plans and pictures) that the Use is both safe and good for the community.

Also sometimes a Variance isn’t needed, for the City will change it’s rules if it’s a good enough idea. After all, it’s all made of people. A great recent example of a City changing the rules to support something new and good is what happened with the urban farming movement in Oakland. Some people rented some defunct and almost-abandoned lots in a forgotten corner of an industrial area of Oakland and turned it into an awesome urban farm. They followed all the rules they knew of in regards to farming and food, but it turns out ‘farming’ wasn’t an allowed Use within that part of Oakland. But everyone thought it was a great idea. So the City assigned a planner to work with the urban farming folks and revise the Planning Code to add in the rules needed to cover this sort of creative use, and then helped get the farm to be fully legal. And set the rules for other people to be able to follow, to allow for more such farms to more easily exist.

So don’t break the law. It’s a terrible idea. But just know that if you break the law without knowing, but are doing something great and doing it in a safe way, you can probably work with the authorities to fix the problem (even revising the rules!) and make everything better for everyone. With our urban farming example, if those folks had been unsafe with lots of Health and Fire Code violations, they would have simply been shut down. YMMV.

Occupancy

In many codes, the Uses are collected together into what’s called an ‘Occupant Code’ or just ‘Occupancy’. So for example many professional ‘Maker’ uses all get grouped under ‘F-1’ for ‘Light Manufacturing’. So a wood shop, a welding shop, a machine shop, a 3D printing and assembly shop, etc. would all just be an ‘F-1’ Occupancy. Most office use falls under a ‘B’ occupancy, residential under an ‘R’ occupancy such as ‘R-1’ or ‘R-3’, etc. This is important, for many rules within the Codes are written in reference to the Occupant Code of a space, and not the more specific Use that may be listed on the Certificate of Occupancy.

So in our next chapter we’ll do a deep dive into the various Occupancies and what they mean for different uses and codes.

This last weekend brought the close of the Lunar New Year celebrations, so we sent out a handful of 2023 bouncing rabbit / pop-up cards designed and assembled by our new and youngest ever Intern! She is currently 8, which we think is pretty great. The full process of concept to prototyping to fabrication & assembly were realized in this project. We expect great things from this one! And we hope for great things to all of you. Happy year of the rabbit!

Along with a bouncing rabbit, our New Years card showcased our new BWC architects logo, now featured across our website & marketing .

We’ve added the work Architects to our name, as we are doing more and more Architecture jobs these days. It has become a core part of our business. The fabrication shop at BWC is still going strong. We’ll even be releasing a new brand for just that side of our firm later this year. Perhaps another pop-up card project will be released at that time (!!). Stay tuned!