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International Building Code Assembly Group A

December 19, 2025
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Section 303

Cranbrook Academy | Oakland County Michigan

LIVE: I-Code Group B Public Comment Hearings

I-Code Group B Committee Action Hearings

Occupancy classifications inform every dimension and every discipline of the built environment.  Classifications are grouped primarily based on their relative fire hazard and life safety properties such as how many people will be in the area, are there hazardous materials or manufacturing, and are people sleeping, cooking, living etc.  Getting people and animals out of a built space with an unobstructed egress path to exit buildings, structures, and spaces inform occupancy classifications. A means of egress is comprised of exit access, exit, and exit discharge.

CLICK HERE for 2021 Edition

Workspace / ICC

https://standardsmichigan.com/category/kitchen/

Kitchens 300

December 18, 2025
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United States Air Force Military Academy

Commercial kitchens in school cafeterias and college dormitories are designed to meet strict health and safety standards, accommodate high-volume food production, and provide nutritious meals to students in an efficient and organized manner.  Some common features:

  • Industrial-grade cooking equipment: This may include commercial ovens, grills, ranges, fryers, steamers, and other specialized cooking equipment designed for high-volume cooking.
  • Food preparation areas: These may include spacious prep tables, cutting boards, sinks, and other food preparation stations for washing, chopping, and assembling ingredients.
  • Walk-in refrigerators and freezers: These are used for storing large quantities of perishable food items at appropriate temperatures to maintain freshness and safety.
  • Food storage facilities: These may include shelves, racks, and cabinets for storing dry goods, canned goods, and other non-perishable food items.
  • Dishwashing area: This may include commercial dishwashers capable of handling a large number of dishes and utensils efficiently.
  • Serving stations: These may include counters, warming stations, and other facilities for serving food to students.
  • Ventilation and exhaust systems: These are essential for maintaining a clean and safe kitchen environment by properly removing smoke, steam, and odors generated during cooking.
  • Safety features: These may include fire suppression systems, emergency exits, and other safety measures to ensure compliance with local health and safety regulations.

Owing to the complexity of the domain, starting 2023 we will break down the standards for education community safety and sustainability into two separate colloquia:

Kitchens 100 will deal primarily safety — fire, shock hazard, sanitation, floors, etc.

Kitchens 300 will deal with sustainability criteria in large commercial kitchens common in school cafeterias, dormitories, sports venues and hospitals.

Williams P. Clements Jr. University Hospital

Owing to the complexity of the domain, starting 2023 we will break down the standards for education community safety and sustainability into two separate colloquia:

Kitchens 100 will deal primarily safety — fire, shock hazard, sanitation, floors, etc.

Kitchens 300 will deal with sustainability criteria in large commercial kitchens common in school cafeterias, dormitories, sports venues and hospitals.

Relevant catalogs:

3-A Sanitary Standards

American Gas Association

AGA Response to The Atlantic Article about Natural Gas Cooking

ASHRAE International

Ventilation for Commercial Cooking Operations

ASTM International

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

Noteworthy Research:

Design Application of Smart Kitchen for Aging Based on Interactive Behavior Analysis

IAPMO International

Prefabricated Gravity Grease Interceptors

International Code Council

International Building Code Sections 303 Commercial Kitchens

National Fire Protection Association

National Electrical Code

Standard for the Installation of Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Systems

NSF International

The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies

We will also review federal and state-level regulatory action.   Open to everyone.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Related:

Kitchen Flooring Standards

Food 500

 

Kitchen Exhaust

December 18, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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God walks among the pots and pans.

— Saint Teresa of Ávila c.1582

 

One of the concentrated risk aggregations in any school district, college, university and technical school, athletic venues and university-affiliated healthcare systems, rests in the food preparation units.  On a typical large research university there are hundreds of kitchens in dormitories, student unions, athletic venues, hospitals and — to a surprising degree — kitchen facilities are showing up in classroom buildings.  Kitchens that used to be located on the periphery of campus and run by private industry are now moving into instructional spaces and operated by private food service vendors. 

Food preparation facilities present safety challenges that are on the same scale as district energy plants, athletic concession units, media production facilities and hospital operating rooms.   There are 20 accredited standards setting organizations administering leading practice discovery in this space.  Some of them concerned with fire safety; others concerned with energy conservation in kitchens, still others concerned with sanitation.    The International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association is one of the first names in this space and maintains an accessible standards development home page; linked below:

IKCEA Standards

The IKECA catalog of titles establish a standard of care for cleaning activity that fills gaps in related ASHRAE, ASME, ICC and NFPA titles.  For example:

IKECA I10 Standard for the Methodology for Inspection of Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems

IKECA C10 Standard for the Methodology for Cleaning Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems

Hazards posed by un-maintained exhaust systems are covered in the NFPA Report: Structure Fires in Eating and Drinking Establishments

Princeton University Teaching Kitchen

We encourage subject matter experts in food enterprises in the education industry to communicate directly with John Dixon at IKCEA (jdixon@fernley.com) or Elizabeth Franks, (215) 320-3876, information@ikeca.org, International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association, 100 North 20th Street, Suite 400, Philadelphia, PA 19103.   

We are happy to get specific about how the IKECA suite contributes to lower education community cost during our Food  teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [18-24]

Category: Facility Asset Management

Colleagues:  Larry Spielvogel, Richard Robben


LEARN MORE:

Dormitories, Fraternities, Sororities and Barracks

Keele University “Look When You Cook”

Commercial Kitchen Ventilation

Traps, Interceptors and Separators

Workspace / IKCEA

 

Teaching Kitchen

December 18, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Standards Ohio

Net Position: $393.3M (Page 13)

Ventilation for Commercial Cooking Operations

December 18, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Kitchen cooking ranks high as the causes of fire hazard in the built environment. ASHRAE 154 provides design criteria for the performance of commercial cooking ventilation systems.  Education communities have hundreds of food preparation enterprises in school districts, residence halls, hospitals and athletic venues. It is not intended to circumvent any safety, health or environmental requirement; however we find a fair amount of drama regarding the competing requirements of fire safety and sustainability among subject matter experts.  The stabilized version is dated 2022.

“Dutch Kitchen” / Artist Unknown

A noteworthy title in the ASHRAE standards catalog is ASHRAE 154 Ventilation for Commercial Cooking Operations.  Food preparation enterprises in school districts, residence halls, hospitals and athletic venues and central features in education communities.   Access to the 2022 edition is linked below:

FREE ACCESS ASHRAE 154

The purpose of ASHRAE 154 is to provide design criteria for the performance of commercial cooking ventilation systems.  It covers kitchen hoods, exhaust systems and replacement air systems,   It is not intended to circumvent any safety, health or environmental requirement; however we find a fair amount of drama between partisans of air movement controls and energy conservation interests.  Fire safety and the sustainability advocates are well funded voices.

There are no open consultations at the moment; but you may track release of any at the link below:

Public Review Draft Standards / Online Comment Database

Titles in the ASHRAE catalog move swiftly; many of them consultations lasting less than 45 days.

Interior environmental air safety is a concern that cuts across many professional disciplines.  Accordingly, we maintain this title on the standing agendas of several colloquia — Mechanical Engineering, Energy and Housing.  Starting 2022 we will break out this the subject of a separate, dedicated colloquium   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [14-92]

Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues:  David Conrad, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Kitchen cooking ranks high as the causes of fire hazard in the built environment. ASHRAE 154 provides design criteria for the performance of commercial cooking ventilation systems.  Education communities have hundreds of food preparation enterprises in school districts, residence halls, hospitals and athletic venues. It is not intended to circumvent any safety, health or environmental requirement; however we find a fair amount of drama regarding the competing requirements of fire safety and sustainability among subject matter experts.  The stabilized version is dated 2022.

Smart Cities: Wicked Problems

December 17, 2025
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“Oxford from the River with Christ Church in the Foreground” | William Turner (1820)

 

Smart cities: moving beyond urban cybernetics to tackle wicked problems

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Volume 8, Issue 1, March 2015 | “The Smart City”

 

Abstract. This article makes three related arguments. First, that although many definitions of the smart city have been proposed, corporate promoters say a smart city uses information technology to pursue efficient systems through real-time monitoring and control. Second, this definition is not new and equivalent to the idea of urban cybernetics debated in the 1970s. Third, drawing on a discussion of Rio de Janeiro’s Operations Center, I argue that viewing urban problems as wicked problems allows for more fundamental solutions than urban cybernetics, but requires local innovation and stakeholder participation. Therefore the last section describes institutions for municipal innovation and IT-enabled collaborative planning.

Glühwein

December 16, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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The festive season at Southampton


Russell Group Red Brick Universities

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