Codes are legal minimum requirements you have to meet the minimum with any design. Building ownership and management, architects, engineers, contractors, and consultants all need to be involved in the planning and design process, and fully understand the issues and concerns of all other parties.Ĭode compliance is the first objective in any design. Harrington, president and founder of Harrington Group Inc., a fire-protection engineering firm in Duluth, GA, notes, the design process should be a holistic one for both new construction and retrofits. “You need to look beyond a systems standpoint and examine, as a whole, how all the components work together,” notes Bruce Fraser, director of industry relations at SimplexGrinnell, Westminster, MA.Īs Jeffrey L. In most cases, the analysis needs to go beyond basic code compliance and the owner’s minimum legal responsibilities for providing protection. Planning for fire protection involves an integrated approach in which system designers need to analyze building components as a total package. Every well-designed system, whether it is being designed for a new building or being installed as part of a renovation or retrofit, must be developed with specific objectives in mind. (The RJA Group), an organization of fire-protection and security consultants based in Chicago. Harper, engineering manager and vice president at Rolf Jensen & Associates Inc. “Fire-protection systems are complicated and sophisticated, and are different for just about every building,” notes Jeffrey E. The design of any fire-protection system is an exact science that takes into account a building’s use, occupancy, footprint, and even its other installed systems.

Fire sprinkler system design near me