This help desk is a free resource intended for discussion purposes only. Neither BOMA, its chapters, affiliates, or Extreme Measures Inc.® are responsible for the information, comments or opinions expressed herein. For complete information, refer to the official publications of the standards themselves.
The Boma 2010 - Method B standard suggests in illustration 12.3 that in a single tenant floor, elevator lobby is a BBC.
If there are also several and distant stair cores in the floor, is their acces also a BBC or a Occupant area ?
If the answer is BBC, does it have to be one BBC that connects all cores ?
Thanks in advance,
Hi Melisa,
Base Building Circulation (BBC) should be the same regardless of single tenant / multi-tenant. The elevator lobby is included in BBC because BBC is the minimum path for access and egress to Occupant Areas, stairs, escalators, elevators and service areas.
The BBC path should provide access to all of these areas, even if there are multiple instances of them, including multiple cores and stairwells (see illustration 4a). If necessary, the BBC path will travel virtually within what would otherwise be Occupant Area. The BBC path should remain as-is for the life of the building once it has been established, regardless of any changes to the floor, including tenant demising wall changes, etc.
Multiple BBC paths are a bit of a grey area in 2010. The document doesn't specifically say that BBC must be a single path, but it does refer to BBC in the singular. However, the new BOMA 2017 Office Standard does specifically permit multiple BBC paths if necessary and we often refer to the latest standard to help us clarify ambiguities found in the previous version of the standard.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
David