8:00 AM to 8:30 AM: Advocacy News
Featured speaker:
John Nunnari, Executive Director of AIA/MA

John Nunnari provides a brief report on codes & regulatory activities including the status of pending legislation and Building Code / regulatory changes of interest to Owners, Architects, and Engineers.

8:30 AM to 10:00 AM: Presentation Understanding Height and Area and Construction Types
Guest Speaker:
Brian Kuhn, PE, Code Red Consultants

For this 6th session of the 2020 Codes Committee’s annual cycle of code presentations, we are pleased to welcome Brian Kuhn from Code Red Consultants. Brian is a fire protection engineer and life safety consultant with over 15 years of experience in the industry.

Establishing the type of construction that is allowable for your project is one of the more fundamental and early design decisions that you make, as is whether the structure will need to be fire-rated. Most importantly, you don’t want to unnecessarily over-design the project and incur additional costs that could otherwise be avoided.

This presentation will focus on the 9th Edition of the Massachusetts State Building Code regarding height and area and construction types for new construction. Topics will include identifying where combustible materials are permitted, understanding alternative approaches to height and area for challenging designs, recognizing construction options for designers, and interpreting height and area tables provided in the 2015 Edition of the IBC. Brian will discuss examples of why selecting the right combination of these factors is critical to project success.