Plumbing Design

The reemergence of our core cities as more active and vibrant communities brings pressure and challenges to those who design buildings and their systems. !e density of buildings, tra"c, the scarcity of land, and a competitive spirit among developers are all factors that work together to push modern buildings higher. Sometimes, we envision high-rise buildings as towering sky- scrapers. While this is the romantic and not always incorrect vision, a “high” rise can be as short as eight to 10 #oor levels. !e National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) de$nes a high-rise building as a building with an occupied #oor that is 75 feet above the level where the $re$ghting apparatus would stage $re$ghting operations. !at low threshold requires several speci$c features to be designed into buildings to promote life safety and allow for emergency responders to safely and quickly access the higher levels of the building, thereby saving lives and considerable invested resources. With that fairly simple de$nition, all high-rise