2021 International Building Code: 308.5 Institutional Group I-4 Day Care Facilities
Child Care Center Design
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Healthcare Occupancies
2025 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS
Safety and sustainability for any facility, not just university-affiliated healthcare facilities, usually begin with an understanding of who, and how, shall occupy the built environment. University settings, with mixed-use occupancy arising spontaneously and temporarily, often present challenges and they are generally well managed.
First principles regarding occupancy classifications for healthcare facilities appear in Section 308 of the International Building Code, Institutional Group I; linked below:
2021 International Building Code Section 308 Institutional Group I
There are thousands of healthcare code compliance functionaries and instructors; most of them supported by trade associations and most of them authoritative. Hewing to our market discipline to track only the concepts that will affect university-affiliated healthcare enterprises only. There are a few noteworthy differences between corporate healthcare businesses and university affiliated healthcare enterprises (usually combined with teaching and research activity) that we identify on this collaboration platform.
We collaborate closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which takes a far more global view of the healthcare industry. That committee meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.
Finally, we encourage our colleagues to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. Contact Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for more information about its healthcare committees and how to participate in the ICC code development process generally. Tranches of ICC titles are developed according to the schedule below:
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
Issue: [18-166]
Category: Architectural, Healthcare Facilities, Facility Asset Management
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben
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The ICC Code Development Process
Bleachers, Folding Seating & Grandstands
“View of the Colosseum” 1747 Giovanni Paolo Panini
Play is the making of civilization—how one plays the game
more to the point than whether the game is won or lost.
We follow development of best practice literature for spectator seating structures produced by the International Code Council, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 102), the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute (ASCE SEI-7). There are also federal regulations promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. (Note that some of the regulations were inspired by the several regional building code non-profits before the International Code Council was formed in year ~ 2000)
The parent standard from the International Code Council is linked below:
ICC 300 Standard on Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating, and Grandstands
The development of this standard is coordinated with the ICC Group A Codes. We have tracked concepts in it previous revisions; available in the link below.
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
As always, we encourage our colleagues with workpoint experience to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. CLICK HERE to get started.
Issue: [15-283]
Category: Athletics & Recreation, Architectural, Public Safety
Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben
Virtual reality technology in evacuation simulation of sport stadiums
LEARN MORE:
Sports Equipment & Surfaces
Student Membership | @ASTMStudentFans
“The National Game” 1889 Arthur Streeton
Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sport programs, facilities and equipment support one of the most visible and emotionally engaging enterprises in the education communities. These programs are central to the brand identity of the community and last, but not least, physical activity keeps our young people healthy in body and mind.
ASTM International is one of the first names among the 300-odd ANSI accredited standards setting organizations whose due processes discover and promulgate the standard of care for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of the facilities that support these enterprises. The parent committee is linked below:
ASTM Committee F08 on Sports Equipment, Playing Surfaces, and Facilities
While ASTM bibliography is largely product-oriented, there are many titles that set the standard of care for sport enterprises and the accessories to these enterprises. To identify a few:
ASTM F1774 Standard Specification for Climbing and Mountaineering Carabiners
ASTM F2060-00(2011) Standard Guide for Maintaining Cool Season Turfgrasses on Athletic Fields
ASTM F1703-13 Standard Guide for Skating and Ice Hockey Playing Facilities
ASTM F1953-10 Standard Guide for Construction and Maintenance of Grass Tennis Courts
ASTM F1081-09(2015) Standard Specification for Competition Wrestling Mats
ASTM F2950-14 Standard Safety and Performance Specification for Soccer Goals
When the General Requirements of an athletic facility construction project indicates: “Conform to all applicable standards” then, in the case of an sport facility, the ASTM title is likely the document that defines the standard of care from a product standpoint. Interoperability of the products in a sport setting are quite another matter.
At the international level, we track action in ISO/TC 83 Sports and other recreational facilities and equipment administered globally by the Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. ASTM International is ANSI’s Technical Advisory Group for this committee.
University of Maine
The ASTM standards development process depends heavily on face-to-face meetings — typically two times per year – in different parts of the United States. The benefit of this arrangement lies in the quality of discussion among subject matter experts that results produced from face-to-face discussion. The price to pay for this quality, however, lies in the cost of attendance for the user-interest in the education industry. Relatively few subject matter experts directly employed by a school district, college or university who are charged with lowering #TotalCostofOwnership can attend the meetings. Many of the subject matter experts who are in attendance at the ASTM meetings from the education industry tend to be faculty who are retained by manufacturers, insurance, testing laboratories, conformity and compliance interests. (See our discussion of Incumbent Interests)
That much said, ASTM welcomes subject matter experts on its technical committees (Click here) We encourage participation by end users from the education industry — many of them in the middle of athletic facility management organization charts. The parent committee meets twice a year; after which we usually find public review redlines developed during those meetings to hit our radar. The link to the schedule of face-to-face meetings appears below:
Note that the August 2020 cancelled but the November 2020 meeting still appears on the schedule. It is likely that much of the committee work will be done online.
We are required to review draft ASTM consensus products with some care — owing to copyright restrictions — so we do it interactively online during teleconferences devoted to Sport. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [7-7] [10-32] [13-165] [20-156]
Category: Sport, Management, Risk Management
Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, George Reiher, Richard Robben
Harvard upgrades stadium field | ASTM develops turf safety standards http://t.co/pObQduSg0Khttp://t.co/wRoCPDeVbZ pic.twitter.com/7gLp9tO3B1
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) April 22, 2015
Writing Boards
Liebfrauenschule Cloppenburg
First week of classes and it’s good to see our common room blackboards covered in math again! Welcome home to all our mathematicians! #harvardmath pic.twitter.com/Jm7OauGA6r
— Harvard Department of Mathematics (@HarvardMath) September 3, 2025
The central element in any educational space is the writing board; sometimes a “blackboard”, “chalkboard” or a “dry-erase board” — all used for teaching. During today’s session we survey the product and the installation standards with special attention to optics, illumination, mounting heights and distances.
EN 14434: Writing boards for educational institutions. The primary European standard specifically for school whiteboards and chalkboards. Covers safety requirements (no sharp edges, stable frames, non-toxic surfaces), magnetic performance, writability/erasure, durability, fire resistance, and hygiene (easy-to-clean surfaces).
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ASTM F2957-13 (2021): Standard Specification for Whiteboards. American standard for dry-erase whiteboards. Defines requirements for surface gloss, erasability, stain resistance, scratch resistance, and color fastness.
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Some state level procurement and installation standards — Kansas and Connecticut, for example — are de facto standards for visibility, accessibility and mounting hardware.
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
School stuff from reindeers to guest readers. We’re having a blast in 2nd grade! 🫶🏼 pic.twitter.com/TnRaWXHRC0
— Jenny (@RiseShineJenny) December 4, 2025
Interiors
Donegan Acoustics
Today we unpack the latest in codes, standards, guidelines, recommendations and safety legislation that set the standard of care for the design, manufacture and maintenance of interior fixtures such as carpet, furniture, bookshelves and ceiling tiles, plumbing fixtures — a large part of what construction industry professionals find in CSIGroup MasterFormat Division 12 — Furnishings. — i.e. “Things that are not nailed down” Such things can elude infrastructure budgets that are dominated by real assets fixed in place.
Other accredited standards developers in this domain:
APPA Leadership in Education Facilities
ASHRAE International
ASTM International
International Code Council
Illumination Engineering Society
National Fire Protection Association
National Floor Safety Institute
Underwriters Laboratories
There are others.
In large research universities, it is common for building service personnel engaged in keeping facilities clean and tidy to constitute the largest proportion of permanent employees.
I-Code Group B Committee Action Hearings
Committee Action Hearings Webcasts – Group B #1
Complete Monograph (2630 Pages)
IBC Rebuttal on G153-25 Performance Electrical Design
(response with hyperlinks to supporting research)
Partial listing. We have until July 15th to comment on committee action
Our proposal G153-25: Page 754
Michigan Modular G195-25: Page 859
“Clinical Need” definition for enhanced security: Page 765
“Electric Vehicle Charger” definition by the National Parking Association/Parking Consultant’s Council: Page 457
“EV Charging Space” definition: Page 458
“EV Supply Equipment” definition: Page 460
ADM20-25 Authority of building official in natural disasters and high hazard regions, p141
ASM3-25 Electrical equipment re-use, p195
G2-25. New definition for Animal Housing Facilities, p438
S57-25. Quite a bit of back and forth on wind and PV “farms, p1053, et. al (“Wind and solar farms are different from animal and produce farms” — Mike Anthony)
G143-25 Lighting Section 1204L remote rooms, windowless rooms, University of Texas Austin student accommodation costs, p. 737-
PM31-25 Housekeeping and sanitation in owned property as law, p1794
PM50-25, Sleeping units to be private, p.1829
RB146-25. Energy storage systems installed in garages, requirements for physical protection, p. 2195
RB144-25, Load capacity ratings and compliance with NFPA 855, p. 2186
RB143-25, Working roof walking access around solar panels, p. 2180
SP1-25 New definition of base flood elevation for purpose of correlating requirements for electrical safety, et. al, p. 2578
Link to Track 1 and Track 2 Webcast
Modular Office Furniture Wiring
2026 NEC CMP-18 Public Input Report
“Office in a Small City” (1953) / Edward Hopper
Modular furniture systems with integral power and telecommunication fittings require attention to power and digital pathways. “Modular systems furniture” is a generic term for bundles of panels, worksurfaces, shelves, and other items sold by a single manufacturer as a package for furnishing offices. The modular furniture system environment is characterized by close proximity to electrical energy. Where there is electrical energy there are concerns for shock and fire safety.
Fire safety considerations appear in NFPA 70 National Electrical Code (NEC)– generally in Articles 210 (Branch Circuits), Article 220 (Branch Circuit, Feeder and Service Load Calculations) — and with more specific safety considerations appearing in Articles 604 (Manufactured Wiring Systems) and Article 605 (Office Furnishings). The current edition of the National Electrical Code is linked below:
Public Access 2023 National Electrical Code
Over the past 30-odd years modular furniture manufacturers have worked out a lot of the bugs in products; making it easier for furniture contractors to deliver a safer and more effective installation. What remains are site-specific conditions — such as lighting load, current draw of space heaters and personal air conditioners through the furniture power pathway — that must be reckoned with. A sample of other considerations:
- Harmonic heating of the furniture pathway caused by non-linear, harmonic load
- The risk of double-phasing when circuit breakers are joined with handle ties back at the panelboard and share a neutral
- Any lighting equipment used with the partitions must have of properly sized cord no more than 9 ft long
- Modularity in power tap cords (“whips’) between furniture raceways and the first gathering point
There are other safety and sustainability issues related to USB outlets, and data/voice outlets[2] that we will cover in another post and in our collaborations with IEEE SCC-18 and the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (IEEE E&H).
Seneca College / Toronto
We find office wiring a relatively lively “promontary” in safety and sustainability circles. The transcript of debate among interior wiring experts is always a good place to listen in on the technical discussion; linked below:
Public Input Report – 2023 National Electrical Code Panel 7
Public Input Report – 2023 National Electrical Code Panel 18
We find manufactured wiring concepts tracking that effects office occupancies for all industries. Market incumbents continue advocacy for more ground fault and tamper-resistant receptacles in day care and gymnasium.
A more significant debate tracks in Chapter 2 — related to office modular furniture wiring because electrical load calculations determine how designers specify branch circuits for all occupancy classifications present in education communities (which is nearly every occupancy type defined in the International Building Code):
Public Input Report – 2023 National Electrical Code Panel 2
,Standards Michigan, beginning with its inspiration in the original University of Michigan standards advocacy enterprises, has a long and storied engagement with Chapter 2 of the NEC covered here and also academic literature and also in research sponsored by NFPA’s Fire Protection Research Foundation.
We always encourage our workpoint experts in the thousands of electrical and telecommunication units in the education and healthcare facilities industry to participate directly in the NFPA Code Development process (CLICK HERE to join a committee).
Since both the National Electrical Code and the National Electrical Safety Code revision cycles are roughly coincident in 2021 we working on electrical power issues every day, collaborating with the IEEE E&H Committee. Online meetings are open to everyone.
Issue: [16-102]
Category: Electrical, Interior Furnishings, Telecommunications
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Massimo Mitolo
[1] Rightsizing electrical power systems in large commercial facilities
[2] Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard
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New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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