The Serpent Twins had a wonderful appearance at the Oakland Botanical Garden’s Autumn Lights Festival!
Along with the fun signage and lanterns we made for them back in 2013:
In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.
The prior posts in the series are available here:
Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?
Hacking the Building Code: Part Two - Building Officials and how to approach them.
Disclaimer
This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.
Use
‘Use’ is the pivot upon which all of these codes turn. Every building has what’s called a Certificate of Occupancy on file at the City. This is the officially listed Use for the building, which in turn defines what standards it has to meet.
It goes like this: let’s say you have a new product you prototyped in your garage, you just had a wildly successful kickstarter, and now it’s time to scale up and make them For Real in a proper space to do so.
This is an Industrial Use, specifically a Manufacturing Use, and you’ll need to find a building to rent where you can legally have that Use.
From our first chapter, we can follow the same order of authority. The City Laws define if a Use is even allowed in the city, and what permits and requirements you may need for that use in some cases. City laws will define if you can even have welding or certain toxic chemicals in your space without a special permit, how much noise you can make, and what hours your business can be open. It could very well be that you’ll need to locate your new venture in another City altogether than the one you live in!
The Planning / Zoning Department gets to say where certain Uses in the City are allowed, so that a potentially loud and messy industrial manufacturing space doesn’t get to be located in the middle of a quiet residential area. So even though there’s an awesome storefront former retail space just down the street from your garage that could be a perfect spot for you to build your manufacturing facility, it might not be Zoned for that Use, and simply won’t work without lots of expensive and time-consuming work put into it to change the Use, the Zoning, or get a Variance (more on all of those later).
The Building Department gets to say how a building needs to be built based on its Use, such that an industrial building such as your manufacturing facility has to be more fire-resistant than a home, so it has to be in a building where the outside walls are ‘non-conbustable’ i.e. made of concrete or metal, and has to have fire sprinklers. So again, that awesome retail space we just talked about might pass Zoning, but will never pass Building without lots of expensive renovations.
And the Fire Department, OSHA, Health Department, and other agencies get to say what your space needs to operate safely for its specific Use, such as requiring a certain number of fire extinguishers and alarms in your manufacturing space and healthy noise limits for those working inside of it. There are lots of agencies like this you may need to work with depending on your Use. A cafe within a Makerspace might also need the Health Department to review it, or an educational space might have someone from the local schools in charge of it.
So what the Use of a space is can be a very big deal, as is changing the use.
Changing Use
What’s critically important to understand is if you change the Use of a building, legally you are supposed to apply for a change to the Certificate of Occupancy. And in order to get that you need to most likely change the building itself to meet the new standards that new use requires. This even applies to spaces within a building, which while maybe not needing a change to the Certificate of Occupancy, still would be required to meet the new standards the new Use brings.
So, for example, a warehouse meant for making stuff in (and not just storage) is probably listed as a ‘F-1 Light Industrial Use’ on its Certificate of Occupancy at the City. In order to legally be built in the first place, it had to meet the standards of a building of that use in that location. That means a certain number of exits, a certain level of fire-resistance in its construction, a certain number of bathroom and parking spots, and other rules it had to follow. Possibly limits, too, imposed by the zoning code or city law about that use as well, such as how big it can be, when it can be open, how much noise it can make, or what forms of pollution it can produce.
Now let’s say someone rents or buys this particular warehouse with the intention of using it as an event space. That is what’s called a ‘Change of Use’. Event spaces have different, more strict standards that have to be met because there will be way more people in an event space than in a warehouse. So now that warehouse, which was legal before, does not meet those new standards, and is not legal for this new Use. If you were to go down to the City and apply for a new Certificate of Occupancy to change the building into a legal event space, they would refuse until you got the building up to the new standards that use requires. Unless the building is renovated to meet the new building and fire code standards for an event space, such as adding exits, fire wall separations, exit signage, lighting, bathrooms, fire sprinklers, etc. it can’t legally be used as an event space. Also, the Planning Code may not allow for that use in the area the building is in, for they deem it to be a traffic problem or a disruption to the neighbors of that area. Finally, the city itself may have additional local laws that require you to get special permits for certain kinds of events, or certain sized events, or not allow you to serve booze or even coffee without special licenses.
So changing the use of a building is a big deal. It ‘triggers’ all sorts of required upgrades and modifications to be legal. And sadly, it’s far too easy to do, and something creative people can stumble into without meaning to.
Because this also applies to spaces within a building. So with our warehouse example above, let’s say that only part of the building is going to be for events, and most of it is going to be for making things (like artist studio spaces with a gallery in the front). Well as long as that event space isn’t more than a certain percentage of the overall space, you wouldn’t need to get a new Certificate of Occupancy. But you would need to make the event space part meet the more strict codes it requires, like adding exits and signage and changing out the doors, and in some cases maybe even completely separate it from the rest of the inside of your building depending on what the fire separation rules state for that kind of building and Use.
For example, your friendly small CO-OP Hackerspace / Coworking / Cafe that’s rented a storefront retail space somewhere is suddenly gifted a used pick-and-place line complete with silk-screening station and board oven. Awesome! You’ve got an empty back room where it could go, and the smarts to set it up and start cranking out boards for you and your friends. Coffee and circuit boards! What else goes better together?
Except that the space you’re in isn’t on file for making circuit boards as it’s Use, your city doesn’t allow anything like that anywhere near food, your local zoning doesn’t allow manufacturing in this neighborhood, the only room you’ve got to put it in isn’t fire rated and doesn’t have the right ventilation for it, and you didn’t change out the fire extinguishers in that room and don’t have good exits and emergency shut-offs.
So by accepting that used tool, and locating it in that back room, you’ve just inadvertently changed the Use of that space, and now you’ve got troubles you won’t be aware of until you possibly get into big trouble.
So the best thing is to find a space in the first place that already supports the sorts of things you’d like to do, even if it may not be the ideal location. If you want to be industrial for example, then go find industrial space, and compromise on your location. The next best thing is to be aware of the issues that arise when changing the use of a space, and to take steps to make that use legal. So putting a Makerspace into your local school’s unused storage space? That’s awesome, but check about fire sprinklers and exits first. The hardest thing to do is change the use of an entire building, and it’s not to be taken on lightly. So no matter how cool and cheap to rent that old church might be, it’s going to make a terrible bar without way more work than you might be thinking.
Violations
Ironically, while Use flows down from the City to the various agencies like the Fire Department, in terms of a renter or building owner’s concerns regarding legality and getting in trouble, it flows the other way. In other words, violations of fire code are severely punished, fire inspectors are supposed to do regular surveys of buildings, and the fire marshal has a huge amount of power and special rights.
Building Code violations, on the other hand, are only found when reported by someone, and typically lead to fines until the issues are addressed unless things are so bad a building is outright condemned. Zoning violations, while obviously bad and illegal, also are only found unless reported, and again, mostly result in fines. And the City might never get around to actually following up on things. So while it’s a terrible idea to not follow any of these codes, if you have found that you are not legal and are struggling to get legal start with Fire, and then Building, and then Zoning, and then the City.
And in some cases, when someone is doing something that isn’t really allowed, but is a really great idea, and everything else is legal and up to code, sometimes the Powers That Be will allow that Use to continue if it’s deemed a good thing for the community, and allow what’s called a Variance or in some special cases even revise the Codes to allow it. Variances are special permissions given as a one-time case to allow for you to not have to follow some specific section of code, or to follow a different set of standards instead.
For example, you could get a Variance from Zoning to allow you to use what was a shipping / receiving area in an office building as a prototyping shop, even though manufacturing isn’t allowed in that neighborhood. Variances can take a very long time, and lots of expensive professionals to obtain, so don’t rely on them as a given to fix a situation. In our example here, you may have to go before a Planning board (that only meets a few times a year) and make your case to get the Variance, arguing (and showing via plans and pictures) that the Use is both safe and good for the community.
Also sometimes a Variance isn’t needed, for the City will change it’s rules if it’s a good enough idea. After all, it’s all made of people. A great recent example of a City changing the rules to support something new and good is what happened with the urban farming movement in Oakland. Some people rented some defunct and almost-abandoned lots in a forgotten corner of an industrial area of Oakland and turned it into an awesome urban farm. They followed all the rules they knew of in regards to farming and food, but it turns out ‘farming’ wasn’t an allowed Use within that part of Oakland. But everyone thought it was a great idea. So the City assigned a planner to work with the urban farming folks and revise the Planning Code to add in the rules needed to cover this sort of creative use, and then helped get the farm to be fully legal. And set the rules for other people to be able to follow, to allow for more such farms to more easily exist.
So don’t break the law. It’s a terrible idea. But just know that if you break the law without knowing, but are doing something great and doing it in a safe way, you can probably work with the authorities to fix the problem (even revising the rules!) and make everything better for everyone. With our urban farming example, if those folks had been unsafe with lots of Health and Fire Code violations, they would have simply been shut down. YMMV.
Occupancy
In many codes, the Uses are collected together into what’s called an ‘Occupant Code’ or just ‘Occupancy’. So for example many professional ‘Maker’ uses all get grouped under ‘F-1’ for ‘Light Manufacturing’. So a wood shop, a welding shop, a machine shop, a 3D printing and assembly shop, etc. would all just be an ‘F-1’ Occupancy. Most office use falls under a ‘B’ occupancy, residential under an ‘R’ occupancy such as ‘R-1’ or ‘R-3’, etc. This is important, for many rules within the Codes are written in reference to the Occupant Code of a space, and not the more specific Use that may be listed on the Certificate of Occupancy.
So in our next chapter we’ll do a deep dive into the various Occupancies and what they mean for different uses and codes.
This last weekend brought the close of the Lunar New Year celebrations, so we sent out a handful of 2023 bouncing rabbit / pop-up cards designed and assembled by our new and youngest ever Intern! She is currently 8, which we think is pretty great. The full process of concept to prototyping to fabrication & assembly were realized in this project. We expect great things from this one! And we hope for great things to all of you. Happy year of the rabbit!
Along with a bouncing rabbit, our New Years card showcased our new BWC architects logo, now featured across our website & marketing .
We’ve added the work Architects to our name, as we are doing more and more Architecture jobs these days. It has become a core part of our business. The fabrication shop at BWC is still going strong. We’ll even be releasing a new brand for just that side of our firm later this year. Perhaps another pop-up card project will be released at that time (!!). Stay tuned!
In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.
The first post in the series is available here: Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?
Disclaimer
This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.
Building Departments & Officials
In our first section, we talked about what codes are and where to find them. Now we’re going to talk about the people in different departments who enforce these codes.
There are generally three different roles you’ll find in the various departments, and that are Managers, Reviewers, and Inspectors. Sometimes one person will play all of those roles in a smaller department, and in a larger department you might even have sub-classes of specific Reviewers for just parts of a project, such as someone who’s just reviewing the structural engineering vs. someone else who’s just reviewing the plumbing schemes. Some cities will even outsource some of these roles, such as a smaller town using a service to review plans instead of having someone in-house do it. But generally, these are the three ‘roles’ you will be working with, and we’ll go into some more detail on each one.
Managers help run the department. You’ll typically only work with them if you’re doing a larger project that requires larger submissions, multiple meetings with the department, special variances or rules applied, and/or public hearings. Most simple renovation projects probably won’t need to have them involved, but if you’re changing Use (more on that in the next post in the series) or doing something big and/or creative, then you’ll likely be working with them, as they will need to approve the project. So for example, let’s say you’re doing a project where you’re taking an old building owned by the City and trying to turn it into a creative theater space for a kid’s non-profit. You’d likely have to be working directly with the Mayor’s office in addition to the local planning and building departments, and you’d need to be talking directly to the various Managers therein well ahead of actually submitting for permits to ensure success on the project.
Reviewers are the ‘front line’ people you will be working with the most. When you go into the department to ask questions, review your plans, and/or submit for permits it’s a Reviewer that you’ll be talking with. They are entrusted with making certain that what you’re planning on doing follows the Code, and they are the ones who will sign off directly on your plans. As an example, let’s say you want to lease an old cafe and turn it into a book and coffee shop. You’d likely first be working with Planning and Building officials to review your plans and make corrections before you go for the permits, and obviously working very closely with them to obtain all the different permits needed to begin construction and actually open as a legal business.
Inspectors are the ‘field’ people you will be working with when the project is in construction. They are the ones who will be inspecting the work done, ensuring that it’s done correctly, and making notes on what has to be corrected for them to approve the work. They are the ones who will sign off that something was done correctly and is officially ‘done’. If we take our last cafe example from above, halfway through the project once the new plumbing was done, you’d need to have a Building Inspector review the work, and ‘sign off’ on it (typically on something called a ‘job card’) before it gets covered up by the rest of the following construction so that there is a record that the pipes you can’t see when the project is completed were done properly. Unless you’re acting as your own contractor, it’s more likely that the contractor will be scheduling these inspections and working with them, but there are plenty of times where you may have to directly engage with them as well, such as for Health Code inspections prior to opening something like a cafe.
It’s all made of people
All of these various departments are made of people. “The City” or “The Building Department” is not a monolithic all-knowing force out to stop you from doing what you want. It’s just a bunch of people. People you probably have far more in common with than you may realize. Just like you, they are into details, ideas, and love seeing things get built. They actually want to work with you, but only if they can see what you’re doing is safe, legal, isn’t going to get anyone in trouble, and possibly is good for the community. And they will only work with you if you’re not a jerk.
Bring them something they might not have seen before, like a Makerspace, and you’ve got some work to do to help them understand what it is. So getting upset, or approaching them as if you are smarter than they are, or thinking you can debate your way into being ‘right’ or thinking you’ve found some sort of ‘gotcha’ in the code doesn’t really help.
What helps is being nice, friendly, listening to what they have to say, and trying to connect with and understand where they are coming from first. Only then can you really try to explain what you’re trying to do, and help them clearly understand how they might help you do that.
And if they are wrong, which does happen, don’t be a jerk about it. Instead try to find common ground, and explain nicely and calmly your case for why you think you are right, not why they are wrong. You’re not trying to ‘win’ , you're trying to work together.
These People are Just Like You
These people are usually passionate about what they do. As an example, the Fire Marshal has spent their whole life working on fire safety. They are typically firefighters who worked their way up into this senior role over many years. They are huge fire safety nerds. And as a creative person, you can identify with being a huge nerd about something most people may not pay too much attention to.
The Fire Marshal not only cares deeply about fire safety, all their friends tend to be firefighters too. Firefighters that might be put at risk by the stupid thing you may be doing. It’s quite likely the Fire Marshal has lost good friends who died trying to save people who were doing stupid things. So have some respect for their knowledge and passion for the subject, and if they think you are doing something stupid you should listen, apologize, and ask them to help you not be stupid. They may seem upset all the time, but they are upset because they really do care. Don’t take it personally.
Ask them what they think about your extinguisher layouts, ask them what brand of smoke detectors they like, and try to take advantage of their deep knowledge. They would love nothing more than to talk fire safety with you for hours. And the same goes for many building officials. Try to tap into their passion, for most officials actually want to help.
People are Messy
It’s inherently opaque and disorganized. Get over it and on with it. Any bureaucracy is inherently un-democratic, because if you don’t know how to approach it, you can’t get anything done. And any given building is overseen by many different agencies. Agencies that not only don’t talk to each other, they aren’t even aware of each other's rules much of the time. And sometimes those rules will conflict. Also it’s totally possible that the Reviewer or Inspector you’re talking with has little experience with the specifics of the issue at hand, such as an Inspector with a deep plumbing background reviewing your accessible handrails you just installed. So it’s entirely on you to do the legwork, keep great notes, do your research, reach out to the City, get everything in writing if you can, and always ask every building official you talk to “who else should I speak with about this?”.
Yes, it stinks that it’s this way. Complaining about it doesn’t help. There is a reason professionals like me can make a living just helping others navigate these waters. It’s complex. Also most building professionals, like architects and engineers, would probably love to help you out for cheap or free if you’re doing something cool and good for the community. So don’t complain, put in the legwork, and get help if you can.
Get It Together
Because the departments aren’t typically well organized, you will need to pick up that slack, and the more organized you can be the better. Keeping good notes, clear documentation, and having great easy to understand plans goes a long way. Making the building official’s lives harder by making them have to work more to even understand what you’re trying to do is only going to make your project harder to pull off.
Also while it’s not fair, if you know the terminology, can fit into something they already understand, and have some credentials, building officials will usually be much easier to work with. For they will assume that you’re not going to waste their time or make things harder than they should be, or worse get them into trouble because they approved something they didn’t really understand that wound up becoming a problem.
For example, because I’m a licensed architect, it’s far easier for me to get results out of conversations with various department officials, for they assume that I’m working in Good Faith, that my ideas are reasonable, and that I know at least something about the problem at hand. Approaching them as ‘local well-organized Community Leader trying to open a gallery’ instead of ‘interesting but disorganized local artist looking to do something new and creative in a space that’s kind of like a gallery but isn’t’ is going to get much better results.
Think about how to organize and communicate your project such that anyone can understand exactly what it is with the least amount of effort on their part.
Know your Rights
If a building official says you can’t do something, or a neighbor raises a ruckus, but the law and codes are on your side, then it’s a good thing for you to know that. The more you can learn here the better. Look at this just like any other creative project, just like with most things there are rules, but there are also creative solutions, and a whole world of things that someone once said couldn’t be done. Getting professional help from a firm like mine or a lawyer who specializes in land use issues is highly recommended as well.
Also while there are lots and lots of rules, there is sometimes the possibility of a Variance, which is an official exemption or modification to a specific rule for your project. Variances can be difficult to get, so don’t bet your project’s success on them unless you already have them, but since it’s all made of people, it is possible to get the rules changed to allow you to do something great.
And know your lack of rights as well! For example, a Fire Marshal can enter any space they deem needs to be inspected for fire safety at any time. Unlike a Police officer, they don’t need a warrant, probable cause, or your permission; and they can literally have you arrested for interfering with them. Asking them for a warrant when they randomly show up will only convince them that you’re possibly an idiot who’s doing something stupid they need to stop. So don’t make them mad by misunderstanding your rights.
TL;DR: It’s People, all the way down.
Which is both amazing and frustrating, empowering and horrifying, inspiring and messy.
In the next section we’ll talk about the primary thing all the Codes and Officials pivot around, and that is the concept of Use.
In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with various planning and building departments by helping artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice to get fully legal. In my work at BWC, I’ve also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide, with the first post all about what Codes are and where to find them.
Disclaimer
This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.
The various codes and what they do
If you’re working on something good, you’re going to need space. Usually that’s going to be inside of a building. And when it comes to the rules around buildings things get complex quickly. All the various rules that apply to a building are confusing to even trained professionals in the industry. So it’s incredibly difficult for someone who’s never navigated these waters before to even understand what rules they have to follow, let alone properly follow all of them.
However, there are some easy-to-learn overarching concepts that I’ll explain in this series. My hope is that you’ll learn enough here to be able to complete your own research of what you need to do to ‘Meet Code’, or at least be better informed when you do hire an expert (like me) to help. Because every situation is going to be different and very specific to your needs, location, neighborhood, and city. Empowered with a basic understanding, you’ll be able to ask the right questions, get the right information, and get a better grasp on how the various codes apply to your efforts as a small business owner, creator, artist, or community.
Why do we even need codes?
‘Code’ is a catch-all term for the various laws, rules, statutes, and written codes you’ll need to follow. So you might say to yourself ‘why do we need all these rules? I’m safe and smart and sane!’. It’s because no matter how safe you might be, your neighbor might not be, so we have to have rules. These regulations are really focused on the health and safety of the community and have grown and changed as our understanding of safety has changed. They are a good idea, they save lives, and shouldn’t be broken. And if you’re not a building professional it is very possible that you don’t fully understand the risks you might be taking if you do break them.
The tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland shows that these rules are meant to protect far more than just the few people who may be making the (sometimes terrible) decisions of how to use a building. Yes, there are too many rules, and sometimes they conflict, and they don’t always make sense, and they totally get in the way sometimes, but at their core they are trying to help. Arguing that there should be less of them is pointless to actually getting anything done. So let’s get on with it!
Which codes and where to find them
When it comes to a building, there are four main types of Codes you’ll need to follow, and which rules apply within those codes depend largely upon the Use of the building. Use is something we’ll talk about in more detail in the next part of this series, but in brief it’s the formal on-record use that you will be using the building for.
The codes are A Lot, for they aren’t cross-referenced, easily searched globally, or coordinated between various departments. You’ll need to do a lot of legwork! Services like Upcodes can certainly help but just be forewarned that there can totally be more codes that apply to your situation that you aren’t aware of yet, but that do apply to what you’re doing. A comprehensive study and lots of questions to building officials are required to really get the full picture.
Also this isn’t computer code, it’s legal code, and intent counts a great amount therein. While there can be ‘loopholes’ you can find that sometimes can work to solve a specific minor issue, trying to apply said ‘loopholes’ when you’re honestly trying to cheat is only going to make building officials mad at you and thus make your project much harder to do. Also just because you’ve found a single detail in the codes that you think is a ‘gotcha’ that’s going to let you ‘pull one over’ on the building officials or get around a bunch of rules, in all likelihood you’re either misinterpreting the code and/or the building official is just going to say ‘no’ anyways. In other words, just because you put your tiny house on wheels, and now call it a ‘trailer’ so it’s technically ‘not a house’ anymore, doesn’t mean the Fire Marshal is going to let you get away with anything they think is unsafe.
City Codes
These are the laws your town has about buildings, and what you can use them for. It’s things like ‘you can only be open during certain hours if you’re a cafe that serves beer’ or ‘you can’t sell certain items (like beer) in a bookstore’ or ‘community spaces can’t also be industrial spaces’. While they tend to be pretty specific to how a business can operate, they can also get into more specifics when it comes to spaces a creative use might need. For example, in some places, in order to be a legal woodshop you have to have a special permit, and in order to get that permit you have to have a specific kind of fire sprinkler system (that’s been tested and certified to work), regardless of the fact that maybe the other various Codes don’t call for these things or even make mention of them.
City Codes vary by County and City. You can usually find them online from your local City’s website. Sadly they are not standardized at all, and even the way they are organized, the terms they use, and the way they cover things can be wildly different from county to county or city to city. Some places don’t even have all of them online! But it’s best to start here reviewing your specific case before you get any farther. Thankfully, most Cities have a business office of some kind, where you get your business permit for that City, and hopefully that office can answer your questions directly with just a nice visit or two.
Zoning Codes
Planning (sometimes also called Zoning instead) gets to say What sort of building goes Where. These Codes refer to what sort of use a building can have and what sorts of features the building has to have depending on its location. So for example, in some cities you can’t have an industrial space in certain residential neighborhoods, due to Planning Codes stating that only certain areas of the City can have “an industrial use”. Or maybe you can’t have a theater without the building having a certain number of parking spots. Or maybe you can’t add another story onto your building, even an interior mezzanine, for you can only have a certain ‘floor area ratio’ in a specific neighborhood.
Planning / Zoning Codes vary by County and City. You can usually find them online from your local City’s website. They are not standardized at all, and even the way they are organized, the terms they use, and the way they cover things can be wildly different from county to county or city to city. But thankfully most Cities have a Zoning or Planning department where you can visit in person, talk through your project and what you’re trying to do, and they can help point you to the right rules and code sections you’ll need to understand.
Building Codes
Building Code gets to say How a building is supposed to be made, depending on What sort of building it is. They drive standards such as doors having to be a certain width, floors having to support a specific weight, or a limit of how many people can be within a space based upon the number of exits it has and what it’s built out of. Typically it’s broken into different Codes, such as Building, Plumbing, Electrical, Fire, Historic, Energy, etc.
Building Codes vary by State, but are all typically based upon the International Building Code, with special additions made by your State, and sometimes even more additions made by your City. So they tend to follow the same structure and organization, and are much easier to deal with from town-to-town.
Sadly due to copyright issues, they probably aren’t listed on your State’s government website. However, It’s likely that your local Building Codes can be found on Public.Resource.org If so, please send Carl some money to his non-profit, because he’s fighting the good fight, is a great guy, and needs all the help he can get. Or you can pay for a service like UpCodes, which is also a great way to get access to the codes online. And most public libraries and some building departments will have physical copies you can read or even borrow.
Industry Standards
Industry Standards are all the various rules that apply to more specific ways that things need to be done. A great example is OSHA and its numerous standards for specific work activities. But another great example you may not have heard of is United Laboratories standards, which define all sorts of lab-tested standards that things need to meet to be safe.
Sometimes the more open and free Planning or Building codes will call out these more closed, non-public specific industry standards that you have to follow. One such example is the Building and Fire Code saying that Fire Sprinklers have to meet certain standards listed in the NFPA. Which is a copyrighted, closed standard that’s not even a law, but instead produced by a trade association devoted to fire safety.
Industry Standards, such as OSHA, NFPA, UL, and others can be very hard to find for free. Again, Public.Resource.org may have them, but if they don’t, the City may have a copy you can review for free. Some of these standards can cost a lot of money!
Watch out, there’s even more codes!
Lastly, always check what Codes will actually apply to your building. Sometimes Cities don’t adopt certain sections of codes. If you’re on federal land or in a historic building it’s possible you don’t have to follow certain codes. Certain uses can make other codes that aren’t part of this guide apply, such as serving food prompting you to meet health codes. And sometimes there can be additional codes just due to the location of the building because of it being next to a shoreline, national forest, or other existing feature.
The best way to figure all this out is to hire a professional. The next best way is to go to the City and talk to the Planning, Building, Business Development, and Fire departments and ask plainly ‘what other codes could apply to my building?’ and then dig deep into the codes to understand what applies and what might not.
Our next section will be all about how to talk to the various building officials in the most professional and productive ways.
A hot topic right now is the use of AI in design and art, and we here at BWC have been using tools like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion for generating inspirational images when exploring an idea or design.
There’s lots of talk about what AI and Automation will and won’t replace within the design world, and from having given talks on the subject in the past and being heavily involved with automation for furniture production, I thought we’d share our current thinking on the subject.
Looking through the lens of the ‘seven steps’ we use at BWC to describe and track the whole end-to-end process of creating a building or space, here’s how we think AI will impact each step.
Inspiration
What some call ‘schematic design’ or ‘concept design’ we call Inspiration. It’s the first step where we’re working closely with a client to determine what we’re going to build to best fit their needs, the preliminary costs of the project, and what the project could look like. We tend to create several different design options, 3D models, interactive walkthroughs, mood boards, and more during this step.
We think this step is both going to be the most impacted and the least impacted by AI.
It’s already making a big impact on generating visual ideas of ‘what the project could look like’. There are currently tools where you can submit a 3D model or photo and have an AI image generator do different versions with different materials, styles, and looks. Soon I think you’ll be able to submit photos of a building, space, or empty site, prompt for different styles, and get back lots of different actually workable ideas complete with plans and specific product lists. You probably won’t need a designer anymore for this part of this step, for anyone will be able to prompt a system to ‘show me what my house would look like with a modern addition that contains a bedroom and bathroom’. And with tools like Testfit and others, we can even see that the ‘schematic design’ of more complex projects could possibly be fully automated as well.
However, on the opposite end, a huge part of the Inspiration step is the insight, vision, and excitement a great designer brings to the table. Being able to really understand what the client wants and making sure it’s being addressed in the best way possible is still a very ‘soft’ skill. For example, we have lots of clients tell us that they love ‘Victorian Homes’ when in actuality what they love are big windows, tall ceilings, colorful exterior paint jobs, and cozy rooms dedicated to a specific use. They actually don’t want a real Victorian, which would be gray on the outside, a psychedelic riot wonderland of overlapping colorful wallpaper and trim and carpets and curtains and rugs on the inside, and a whole lot of money spent on historic reproductions and overall upkeep. Or a client wants to create an inspiring and stunning space for a group of people to gather, which requires really understanding what those people would find inspiring and stunning. Truly understanding what a client is looking for, how people respond to things, and helping get to the best idea possible isn’t something you can do with ‘prompt engineering’ alone. You can’t get what you want if you don’t know the right questions to ask to get it!
Configuration
This step is sometimes called ‘Design Development’ or ‘Concept Development’, it’s where the concepts from the first step are taken and broken down into designs detailed enough for accurate quoting and/or actual products that will be ordered and used.
It’s going from the idea of a new dining table for the dining room as part of the project to specifying a specific one from a specific brand in a certain wood and size.
We feel that this step could probably be automated at some point, where a trained model looks at your concepts and then generates plans and lists of the actual materials, products, and construction methods you might use to make the project; but that it’s more likely new combo ‘design + market’ tools like Canoa will move into this space with ever-better and smarter tools for this step. You’d be using an AI model, but via a ‘smart’ design tool that’s helping you make good selections by watching what you’re doing and predicting what else would be a good fit. Just as most good construction estimators use a combo of historic data and hard-won personal wisdom / experience to generate accurate price predictions, I think AI is likely to only empower most good professionals for this step with better data and tools to apply their experience to. There’s lots of problems in computer science where even the very best systems are only slightly better than a normal person, and not better than an expert, when it comes to certain complex multi-variable and abstract tasks. So you might be able to make a AI model that can do reasonable configurations, just like you can make one that can make a basic logo for a business, but you probably won’t be able to make one that’s significantly better at it than a trained, experienced professional who’s using AI-empowered tools.
Rationalization
This step is sometimes referred to as ‘construction drawings’, ‘shop drawings’, and/or ‘DfMA’, it’s where the configured designs are fully detailed out to where they can actually be built.
We feel that while this step is going to be greatly aided by automated AI systems, much like with Configuration there’s still a large domain of problems that aren’t deterministic enough or have too many possibilities that pure AI systems just might not be much better than a skilled human using AI-empowered tools. Engineering is still a balance of art and science, of figuring out the best compromises and solutions. So while I think automation and AI will have a huge impact on this step, it’s more likely to be in making the tools the designers are using to rationalize the work into properly manufacturable designs more productive for them to use, and not replacing the designers altogether like in some other steps.
Fabrication & Installation
These steps are where the actual construction of the project happens. Parts and materials are made and/or ordered (fabrication), then delivered to the site, modified as needed, and then assembled into place (installation).
We think this step could only be fully automated if the actual construction was so standardized and/or deterministic as to make the actual assembly easily done by robots. And from personally working with robots, nothing with them is actually very easy. Much like computers in general, they are amazing at tirelessly doing exactly what you tell them to do, over and over, but you quickly get into diminishing returns when you try to fully automate something completely.
What we think is more likely to happen is that the tools themselves used to create the parts for the project will get smarter and better, and the tools to help coordinate their assembly will get better, but much of the physical work will still be done by people. Semi-automated tools working together with skilled people will make the projects easier and faster, automated tools won’t replace the people for this step. A great example of this is all the awesome work going on in automated layout, where a robot draws or marks out where the walls, ducts, electrical, plumbing, etc. goes on the site, directed from the BIM / CAD models. The affordable and small robot makes the people doing the actual construction work more effective and productive, less likely to make mistakes, and more likely to see problems before they get too far into the project. Instead of trying to ‘solve’ the entire problem of construction assembly via robotics, even really smart AI-empowered robotics, which would cost a fortune and still not be 100% right, I see much more success in smaller, cheaper robots / AI that is just looking to empower the skilled workers already present.
Utilization
This final step is where the project is complete, and is now being used, and hopefully being studied for how well it’s actually working and/or minor follow up edits done to improve how it’s working.
This step is one where AI-driven automation could make a huge impact as well in helping identify problems and assess the performance of the project in ways that are currently too expensive to easily measure. Just a few simple cameras, cheap sensors, and a smart trained model could do what you’d normally have to hire expensive consultants to manually do. Or could make the tools that larger retail and entertainment companies already use in this space more accessible to smaller businesses that might want to measure things like ‘engagement’, ‘customer satisfaction’, a building’s energy footprint, or other post-occupancy studies.
The Robots are Here…
So the genie is out of the bottle, and AI-driven tools are here to change the construction industry in some big, bad, and awesome ways over the next decade, and I think it’s only going to accelerate from here.
Personally I’m very excited about it all! But don’t hide in ignorance and think your particular role within the construction industry is ‘safe’, instead I’d say to work on those ‘soft skills’ in understanding people better along with learning how to leverage these amazing AI-empowered tools to meet those people’s needs even better than before!
This month marks 12 years (!!) of our Architectural & Design Build practice. Thank you to all our partners along the way.
Here’s to 12+ more…..
We have met so many wonderful people through our practice that we now call friends, and want to thank you all for trusting us with your buildings, homes and all your cool design creation needs. We’ve enjoyed every project, and collaborating with you has made the work that much better.
Being able to work on projects that are truly imaginative and inspiring is such a privilege. We strive to hold that bar even higher as we continue to pour our hearts and professionalism into every project.
Cheers to you, all the people that we know, making our lives better and more interesting.
Cheers to the year to come and to those we've yet to meet.
We're looking forward to this year - and all that it will bring.
Happy New Year to all!
2022 in a few photos….
The final photos of one of our recent projects - this downtown Oakland Office - are now on our site.
A lovely small office in a vibrant area of downtown Oakland. The bright interior, living walls and dark hardwood slab tables make it a calm and effective place to work, while the uniqueness of the interior design elements create an inspiring environment for the staff and clients (if we do say so ourselves).
Living walls, thick hardwood slabs with custom made stout steel legs, bespoke ceiling sculptures and integrated lighting schemes. We’re excited to finally get this project online, added to our portfolio of uniquely excellent work and happy clients. You can see the full project page here, under our Architecture section.
As we enter the holiday season we’re fully embracing the festive feeling! Unpacking the holiday decor is always fun, and we currently have a stash of these Flat Pack BWC Holiday Trees in stock…
At 30” tall, they are large enough to be decorated with small ornaments and lights. These whimsically designed tabletop trees will bring holiday cheer to any room. Made of certified sustainably harvested woods and soy based glues, these lightweight Maple plywood ‘trees’ are sold unfinished in their natural raw wood. Enjoy them in their warm natural wood beauty, or paint them as you desire! Either way they will add a bit of joyful decoration to your home.
Tree Assembly: even a child can do it!
As employees are coming back to the office and settling into a new normal of hybrid work life, a little office refresh is in order. Offices are taking the hybrid staff as an opportunity to renovate and bring new excitement, and thus productivity into their spaces.
We’ve just nailed down the flooring direction, wall colors, and custom furniture pieces for this space. Finish selection has been done and the new flooring is in! And now we are all systems go…… To a bright and bold future!
This company is taking over some additional space to expand their office break room / multi function space. We've been brought in as the interior design renovation team to completely redesign this new interior space as well as update the existing lobby and adjoining conference rooms. Shown here below is a renovation design for the the currently barren space (with bland office carpeting); we’re updating all the finishes. In doing the interior renovation and architectural drawings for the new space we've also designed some custom pieces with hardwood walnut break room tables, bespoke hanging felt fixtures, outdoor tiki bar, custom shelving throughout and a wild bar in the kitchenette.
Currently the construction team we’re working with from Creek Development has been moving walls around, building new ones, installing new flooring and lights and this week... new paint!
Updating the floors, walls and lighting, will be a huge refresh. But once our custom shelving, hanging fixtures and tables go in, this place is going to be a awesome place to connect with fellow staff, or grab a change of scenery from your usual desk.
Throughout the space, wall to wall opening shelving will be used for the coutless decoative and interesting items this company has collected over the years. It is a wonderful thing to surround yourself in the items you love (!!!)
A small kitchenette with a crazy prop / bar will be inside, while a fun outdoor tiki bar grotto hang out space will be right outside the large glass doors.
There is nothing better than updating a space to function as you truly want it to function. Come the new year the staff will be in here enjoying this awesome new space. We’re looking forward to 2023, and getting back to work!
We’ll post more images as the build out progresses….
The Interval at The Longnow now has Parklets!
We designed these nice compact 4 seater parklets to match the aesthetic of the San Francisco, Fort Mason complex where they now live. As an extension of The Bar & Cafe, The Interval, which we designed and built back in 2014, the parklets seating was designed to match booth seating inside The Interval. Perfect to sit with a beverage for a long conversation.
The mobile capacity of the Parklets allows them to be easily moved around for events, evening storage and fire lane access. But also remain sturdily locked in place during use.
Their integrated wind blocks visually invisible in a transparent polycarbonate, but they are well appreciated when the cold sea air comes through and the custom etched designs just barely visible add that little bit of delight.
This beautiful San Francisco, Fort Mason location is a lovely spot to sit outside and enjoy these Parklets for a morning coffee or an evening cocktail from The Interval’s epic and renowned beverage menu.
Here comes COVID again ruining everything…. I’m joking, but also, not really. Earlier this year, and we will most likely see it again, the waves of COVID put a start / stop schedule on in person work gatherings.
COVID be damned, our client’s 30 year anniversary event was happening… regardless! and it needed to be a joyous occasion where all employees could get together in the same physical space and celebrate their years of hard work and passion.
We had been working on the project, designed and built a wonderful celebratory space, set up much like a gallery, filled with interactive elements, fun wayfinding, tactile pieces on display and beautifully designed informational panels. But suddenly more than half the company would not be coming in to see it.
We needed a remote option. We needed to make it work. We needed a hybrid space: both a physical space to gather in person and a digital twin that gave a comparable if not exact as possible experience. Because the event was built like an interactive gallery experience with internal educational facts and stories to enjoy, the staff attending the event, whether in person or remote, needed to have the same takeaways and information from the experience.
So we created a digital twin- in both look and feel, information and (as much as possible) interactivity.
Because we have always heavily leveraged the digital side of designing for our physical projects, we were able to pivot quickly and easily when this request came to us, providing a really enjoyable experience; physical and remote.
Once in use, the internal teams found this space incredibly useful. Not only as a celebration of their achievements over the years, but also as a way to educate their staff from within. Recent hires were able to go into this space, set up much like a museum display, to read about the past history, learning more about the company, the culture, goals and fun facts, all in an interactive display.
We made sure there were comparable interactive elements whether you engaged with the space remotely or in person.
In the current hybrid work environment, we are supporting our clients in new and innovative ways; keeping work moving forward!
The last blog post we did before COVID was at the end of 2019, and we were at an industry conference called Autodesk University. We are happy to be back here again at AU this year! Jeffrey McGrew and I are here this week, enjoying re-connecting with some friends in the industry.
Jeffrey's talk is on Wednesday "Fusion for Architects & Designers" - it is a CAD software conference after all!
If you are here and want to connect - please send us a note
In a way, we are here at the conference to promote and celebrate the dividing and refining of our services at Because We Can, Inc. Our company has always had two rather distinct factions of itself: providing both Architecture & interior design services on one side and fabrication services on the other. For the most part, our fabrication services support our own internal designs, but over the years we have worked with many other design firms to help realize complex digital fabrication projects.
By the end of this year, we will officially launch our fabrication services company;
with lots of fanfare around it!
But for now, we are still doing all the same services, just with a more bold logo!
Regardez: 2022 BWC Architects logo!
We’re taking our design and fabrication experience at both companies and joining the fight against COVID-19!
We’ve developed a flat-pack version of an ‘aerosol box’ as well as helping cut face shields, printing parts for PPE, and looking at developing even more elements to help protect our medical heroes and fight COVID-19.
Check it out at https://model-no.com/covid-19/
And if you’d like to you can read more in depth about it as well here https://model-no.com/blog/2020/04/04/model-no-and-covid-19/
Honored to be included in such an amazing event and share the stage with such incredable people! The video for the Theater Talk I gave at Autodesk University 2019 is now live and you can see it here:
Automation is empowering, and we sure do need more of it in construction, but it's really hard to get right. In this talk I point out the various things that make it hard, both in general and specifically for construction, and propose what solutions have really worked for us at model-no.com and becausewecan.design.
A topic I’m both passionate about and still discovering the truths of I’d love to either talk with you about it or come and give this talk again. So reach out to me I’d love to have a conversation.
Come see all the impressive new things our sister company Model-no.com has been up to at it’s first public open house and new product launch party this Thursday!
All the details here: https://business.facebook.com/events/537618786803493/
Hope to see you there!
Really excited about the products now on sale at our new sister company Model No.
It’s amazing, these products are not only stunningly gorgeous, but since they are made from bio-resins derived from food waste combined with FSC-certified hardwood they are fully sustainable. While you could just compost the whole table when you don’t need it anymore, they also have a recycling program that will take the table back, re-use some parts, and recycle others for you. And I mean real recycling, as in use it to make more tables, and not have it just wind up in a almost-landfill somewhere waiting to be actually recycled (which is sadly the fate of much plastic these days).
Also totally in love with how you can custom configure whatever you’d like. While there are easy to buy preset options, I adore playing around with all the shapes and colors to get just what I’m looking for.
Really proud of what this team has been able to put together, with a lot more awesome stuff on the way as well that I can’t talk about yet!
We are looking for a talented fabricator who’s excited to make new things in new ways and passionate about quality and craft. Responsibilities include running CNC routers, finishing parts, assembling custom fabrications, and maintaining our awesome machines and shop space. Willing to train the right person on the various technologies, but need to have had some exposure to digital fabrication, working online, and/or a quick learner.
Responsibilities:
Running CNC routing jobs, Maintaining CNC routers, and ordering CNC supplies.
Cleaning up parts & assembling completed custom fabrications.
Maintaining a clean and organized work area.
Following shop safety standards and company operations.
Required Skills:
Experience in custom fabrication, construction, millwork, woodworking, or equivalent required.
Demonstrated interest in CNC routing and digital fabrication.
Attention to detail, organized, team player, and self motivated.
Comfortable working with online for scheduling, task management, product info, email, chatting, etc.
Comfortable working in a dynamic, creative, and friendly team environment.
Benefits:
Paid vacation and sick leave.
Medical, vision, and dental insurance.
Bonus Points:
Casual office environment of serious professionals
Team-oriented work space
Group lunch
Please Apply with Resume and work examples to us@becausewecan.org
We'll be opening our doors and raising a glass to new endeavors and all the wonderful people we work with.
Please join us!
We'd love to introduce you to Model No. a new company bringing boundless furniture and accessories for your individual life, just as you need them. An on-demand, additive manufacturing, customizable furniture startup that BWC is helping launch.
In the design office we'll be showcasing some recently completed architecture and design-build projects, our new VR-empowered workflow, and some sneak peeks at Model No. products.
While down in the shop we'll be demonstrating our new (to us) 5-axis CNC router and Model No.'s amazing large-scale 3D printing capabilities.
Kids welcome, but it is a shop and a party. Lots of sharp corners around here. And they might learn some interesting new words!
Friday, December 7th 5PM - 9PM ish
Because We Can + Model No.
2500 Kirkham St
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 545-9275
Click here for the Google Map.
All are invited, so come on by! We'd love to see you.
This downtown Oakland office remodel we've been working on is just about done. It is so fun to see a space become transformed as we put in new the new finishes and furnishings. This is a small project with little to no actual construction, but still..... what a change! We (and the client!) are very please with the final design.
New paint, new lights and soon to come, new flooring, doors and windows.
Here is the space before the remodel began. We're still under construction and it's already an improvement!
We've removed all the doors and windows to put in more modern and insulative ones with aluminum framing.
Since we wanted to change the lights out anyway, it was a good opportunity to do something fun and interesting. The space is small, and we wanted to keep the design clean and open feeling. This nice design on the ceiling is functional and adds a bit of interest when you first enter the space.
The interior offices are all getting a much needed face lift as well. A bit of paint goes a long way. Soon all the furniture and the rest of the finishes and fixtures will be in to completely transform this place.
The living walls we designed, with Planted Design are going up on the walls. These will bring in some much needed lush elements into the office, and will be striking to look at without taking up much space.
Currently, back at the BWC shop we are working away to fabricate all of the custom furniture. Here the conference table is being glued up and Joel is busy making a matching cabinet.