Architectural/Hammurabi Archives

Building Structural Maintenance

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Any multi-story building requires inspection and maintenance of structural steel framework. The steel supports the building’s weight and resists environmental forces like wind and seismic activity. Over time, corrosion, fatigue cracks, or connection failures can weaken the structure, risking collapse. Inspections detect these issues early, while maintenance, like repainting or replacing damaged parts, preserves steel integrity. For student housing, occupant safety is critical, and compliance with building codes reduces liability risks. Neglecting these practices can lead to structural failure, endangering residents and causing costly repairs or legal issues. Regular upkeep ensures safe, long-lasting buildings.

During today’s session we examine the relevant standards with proposed revisions open for public comment. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

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Introduction to Structural Equation Models

No single universal code or standard guarantees that buildings will never crack or fail structurally, as structural integrity depends on various factors like design, materials, construction quality, environmental conditions, and maintenance. However, several widely adopted codes and standards aim to minimize the risk of structural failure and ensure safety, durability, and serviceability. These provide guidelines for design, construction, and maintenance to prevent issues like cracking or catastrophic failure.

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Key Codes and Standards:

International Building Code (IBC): Widely used in the United States and other regions, the IBC sets minimum requirements for structural design, materials, and maintenance to ensure safety and performance. It references standards like ASCE 7 (Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures) for load calculations (e.g., wind, seismic, snow).Maintenance provisions require regular inspections and repairs to address issues like cracking or deterioration.

ACI 318 (Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete): Published by the American Concrete Institute this standard governs the design and construction of concrete structures.Includes requirements to control cracking (e.g., reinforcement detailing, concrete mix design) and ensure durability under environmental exposure.Maintenance guidelines recommend periodic inspections for cracks, spalling, or reinforcement corrosion.

AISC 360 (Specification for Structural Steel Buildings): Published by the American Institute of Steel Construction, this standard covers the design, fabrication, and erection of steel structures. Addresses fatigue, connection design, and corrosion protection to prevent structural failure. Maintenance involves inspecting for issues like weld imperfections or coating degradation.

ASCE/SEI 41-17 (Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings): Focuses on assessing and maintaining existing structures, particularly for seismic performance. Guides retrofitting to address vulnerabilities like cracking or inadequate load paths.

Maintenance Standards

ACI 562 (Assessment, Repair, and Rehabilitation of Existing Concrete Structures):
- Provides a framework for evaluating and repairing concrete structures to address cracking, spalling, or other damage.
- Emphasizes regular inspections and timely repairs to maintain structural integrity.
NACE/SP0108 (Corrosion Control of Offshore Structures):
- Covers maintenance practices to prevent corrosion-related failures in steel structures.
ASTM E2270 (Standard Practice for Periodic Inspection of Building Facades):
- Outlines procedures for inspecting facades to identify cracking, water infiltration, or other issues that could lead to structural problems.

IEEE: Structural Health Monitoring system based on strain gauge enabled wireless sensor nodes

Steel research in the steel city

Researchers Make Wood Stronger than Steel

Concrete Matters

Elevator Safety Code

Today, special attention to managing elevator passengers trapped in elevators during power outages. Incident management involves the following:

Automatic battery-lowering systems (standard in modern elevators) gently descend the car to the nearest floor and open the doors within minutes.
Backup generators or UPS units keep lights, intercoms, and ventilation running.
Mandatory two-way communication and remote monitoring allow instant contact with 24/7 response teams.
Fire-service phase II keys and firefighter overrides ensure rapid rescue.
Clear emergency instructions and regular maintenance of brakes and overspeed governors prevent falls.

These redundancies, required by ASME A17.1 codes in most jurisdictions, have made prolonged entrapments extremely rare and almost never dangerous.

2026 National Electrical Code Article 620: Elevators, Dumbwaiters, Escalators, Moving Walks, Platform Lifts, and Stairway Chairlifts.

CMP-12 Public Input Transcript | CMP-12 Public Comment Transcript

American School & University: Modernizing Elevator Emergency Communications on School and University Campuses

Elevator, escalator and moving walk systems are among the most complicated systems in any urban environment, no less so than on the #WiseCampus in which many large research universities have 100 to 1000 elevators to safely and economically operate, service and continuously commission. These systems are regulated heavily at state and local levels of government and have oversight from volunteers that are passionate about their work.

These “movement systems” are absorbed into the Internet of Things transformation. Lately we have tried to keep pace with the expansion of requirements to include software integration professionals to coordinate the interoperability of elevators, lifts and escalators with building automation systems for fire safety, indoor air quality and disaster management. Much of work requires understanding of the local adaptations of national building codes.

Some university elevator O&M units use a combination of in-house, manufacturer and standing order contractors to accomplish their safety and sustainability objectives.

In the United States the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is the dominant standards developer of elevator and escalator system best practice titles; its breakdown of technical committees listed in the link below:

A17 ELEVATORS AND ESCALATORS

STDMi: Elevator Backup Power

C&S Connect: ASME Proposals Available for Public Review

~~Public consultation on a new standard for electrical inspector qualifications closes May 27th.~~

ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7 – 20XX, Performance-based code for elevators and escalators (280 pages)

Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators

Guide for Inspection of Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Walks

Guide for Elevator Seismic Design

As always, we encourage facility managers, elevator shop personnel to participate directly in the ASME Codes & Standards development process. For example, it would be relatively easy for our colleagues in the Phoenix, Arizona region to attend one or more of the technical committee meetings; ideally with operating data and a solid proposal for improving the A17 suite.

Get Involved ASME Standards & Certification Activities

University of Wisconsin Stadium Elevator

All ASME standards are on the agenda of our Mechanical, Pathway and Elevator & Lift colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconferences; open to everyone. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Issue: [11-50]

Category: Electrical, Elevators, #WiseCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

More:

Bibliography: Elevators, Lifts and Moving Walks

ISO/TC 178 Lifts, escalators and moving walks

Human Factors Using Elevators in Emergency Evacuation

Archive / Elevator Safety Code

Storm Shelters

Current Code Development Cycle: 2024–2026

Happening Now: Groups A&B Public Comment Hearings

March 12, 2026

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

Eurocodes

Erasmus+ EU programme for education, training, youth and sport

CLICK ON IMAGE TO LAUNCH INTERACTIVE MAP

The Eurocodes are ten European standards (EN; harmonised technical rules) specifying how structural design should be conducted within the European Union. These were developed by the European Committee for Standardization upon the request of the European Commission. The purpose of the Eurocodes is to provide:

A means to prove compliance with the requirements for mechanical strength and stability and safety in case of fire established by European Union law.^[2]
A basis for construction and engineering contract specifications.
A framework for creating harmonized technical specifications for building products (CE mark).

Since March 2010 the Eurocodes are mandatory for the specification of European public works and are intended to become the de facto standard for the private sector. The Eurocodes therefore replace the existing national building codes published by national standard bodies, although many countries have had a period of co-existence. Additionally, each country is expected to issue a National Annex to the Eurocodes which will need referencing for a particular country (e.g. The UK National Annex). At present, take-up of Eurocodes is slow on private sector projects and existing national codes are still widely used by engineers.

Eurocodes appear routinely on the standing agendas of several of our daily colloquia, among them the AEDificare, Elevator & Lift and Hello World! colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

So proud to announce the @ellisoninst is beginning construction on our new campus at the @UniofOxford and broadening our mission: Science & Engineering for Humanity. EIT develops & deploys technology in pursuit of solving four of humanity’s most challenging & enduring problems.… pic.twitter.com/vSkHWSS8EK

— David Agus (@DavidAgus) October 15, 2023

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REGULATION (EU) No 305/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

Building Environment Design

Education & Healthcare Facility Electrotechnology Committee

Delta Upsilon Fraternity House (1331 Hill Street)

Delta Upsilon Home

Chartered in 1876, and having outgrown its home by the early 1900s, its alumni hired Detroit architect Albert Kahn for his earliest surviving non-industrial, non-commercial commissions. Kahn created a handsome 2½-story Tudor Revival building with half-timbered stucco exterior, slate roof, prominent gables. It pioneered the shift of fraternities to Hill Street, inspiring many others to follow. The house has been continuously occupied by the fraternity since completion—the oldest such in Ann Arbor. It earned National Register of Historic Places listing in 1995.

Delta Upsilon Fraternity, 1903/2012 | Ann Arbor District Library

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Albert Kahn at the University of Michigan

A Chronology of University of Michigan Buildings, 1840-2022

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Historic Buildings

2024 / 2025 / 2026 Code Development: Group B (2025)

Complete Monograph (2630 pages)

Notre-Dame de Paris “Our Lady of Paris” Wikimedia Commons

International Existing Building Code: Chapter 12 Historic Buildings

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

Notre-Dame de Paris “Our Lady of Paris” Wikimedia Commons

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

LIVE: I-Code Group B Public Comment Hearings

The University Campus As A Designed Work and an Artefact of Cultural Heritage

The University Campus in the United States—As a Designed Work to Produce Knowledge; and as an Artefact of Cultural Heritage

Paul Hardin Kapp
School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States

ABSTRACT: The university campus in the United States is a unique architectural and landscape architecture typology. Nothing like it existed until Harvard University was established in 1638. Invented during in the 17th century by the American colonists and later developed during the American Industrial Revolution, the American campus is a community devoted to teaching and generating knowledge. It can be urban, suburban, and/or rural in form and its planning directly correlates with a university’s research mission and the pedagogy of the American university system. Its buildings and landscapes are embedded with iconography, which the founding builders used to convey their values to future generations.

This paper presents the history of how this designed work first emerged in American society and then evolved in ways that responded to changes that occurred in America. At the end of the 20th century, universities conserved parts of them as cultural heritage monuments. Originally, the university campus was built to disseminate a classical education, but later, the campus was built for technical and agricultural education. By the beginning of the 20th century, professional education and sport changed its architecture and landscape. The paper briely discusses that while it has inspired how universities are built to teach and generate knowledge throughout the world. It concludes by reairming its value to cultural heritage and that it should be conserved.

Illinois

Architect students building a playground

Om SIS

Sweden

Kansas City Jackson County Missouri 816

Major Building Projects Taking Shape at UMKC | University of Missouri – Kansas City https://t.co/OfHCEnGB8D

— StandardsState (@StandardsState) April 15, 2026

Missouri

Category Archives: Architectural/Hammurabi