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*CONSIDERATIONS

IN
PLANNING/DESIGNING
AN
APARTMENT

*Related Building codes

Residential
APARTMENTS

INTRODUCTION
At the time of this writing, It is anticipated that within the next 15 years in the United States it will be necessary to
construct as many new housing units as have been constructed to date. This need for new housing, considered against a
background of continuing urbanization, clearly indicates that an increasing proportion of an expanding housing market
will be devoted to multifamily types of housing or apartments. The inevitability of this trend contains a challenge to the
architect to do more than merely meet a statistical demand. He must rather address, identify, and solve the problems of
multifamily building types as an attractive alternative to freestanding single family buildings. This article will deal with
multifamily living in general, with some additional attention to the problems of the medium- and high-rise building type
(i .e. building types which require a degree of vertical servicing).

GENERAL
The process of designing an apartment building may be graphically depicted in a general way as in Table 1. This article
will be developed in the same sequence as Table 1. It must be borne in mind that, as with any design development, the
evolution of an apartment building design is not a sequential process but a process of continuing interaction, feedback,
and reevaluation, and that the number and complexity of events will vary according to the program, scope, and funding
sources involved. The sequences shown are labeled as program development, site analysis, building planning, and
building design. Program development is for the most pert evaluation of information over which the architect has
relatively little control but which shapes the project in a basic way. Site analysis involves evaluation of physical data
which must be recognized, identified, and weighed by the architect in making basic design decisions dealing with site
use, allocation, and development.

















PROGRAM
Market Analysis
A market analysis and program formulation
may precede the retention of an architect;
however, to an increasing degree clients
solicit the aid of an architect in these areas.
An investigation of the potential market
should consider existing market conditions
and trends with regard to
1. Type of occupancy
a. Rental
b. Cooperative
c. Condominium
2. Price (rent maintenance, etc.)
3. Amenities
4. Apartment size (area and number of
rooms)
5. Building types
6. Vacancy rates
7. Public facilities (transportation, schools,
shopping, recreation)
Program items to be resolved include
Price range. What segment of the market is
the project to be aimed at?
Amenities. Identified in Table 2 as support
facilities and closely interrelated with price
range .
Scope. How many units?
Distribution. Percentage of each type of unit
.Building type or types .

Funding
in many cases a market analysis will conclude that conventional private financing is not economically feasible and that
some type of public or semipublic assistance is required if a project is to proceed . There are a number of sources of such
assistance at both federal and state levels . The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and PHA (Public Housing
Administration) are well-known
Examples of such agencies. As a rule, an agency which provides assistance also requires conformance to agency
standards, and frequently such an agency will require approval of or participation in program development. While the
client, local authorities, and funding sources will usually institute basic program direction, it nevertheless remains the
responsibility of the architect to catalyze these decisions and formulate the finished program .
Density
Figure 1 compares relative densities of various urban and suburban situations. It is helpful to "have a feel" for the
physical reality of density figures as an aid in visualizing possible solutions and to anticipate implications of decisions
which are made during program formulation .

ZONING AND CODES
General
Zoning and building codes are of basic importance to any project ; and of all types of projects, those which involve
housing tend to be regulated to a greater degree by zoning ordinances and codes .
Appropriate local and regional authorities should be contacted in order to determine the type and extent of limitations
or controls which may be imposed on a project and, further, to gauge the discretionary powers and flexibility of the
governing authorities. To an increasing degree, the philosophy of zoning is changing from one of restrictive limits and
controls to an approach which attempts to lead and influence community growth . Many communities and regional
authorities have guiding master plans which deal with long-range development and evaluation . The conceptual and
planning freedom of the architect is linked with these considerations. Failure to pursue a thorough investigation of these
controls can result in serious problems later on in project development .

Controls
Zoning is concerned principally with questions of
use, bulk, density, and location . Use, bulk, and
density are usually controlled on the basis of
districts which are generally shown on maps and
explained in an accompanying text (Fig . 2) . Uses
may be designated as, for example, residential,
commercial, manufacturing, and,in some cases,
park or recreational . Mixed uses are frequently
allowed, end for large housing projects it is
considered advantageous to incorporate retail
shopping, entertainment,
and dining facilities into a program . Location of
buildings is controlled in order to prevent
oppressive proximity of building masses .
Formulas or diagrams which relate to variables
such as building height and density are applied to
locate buildings with respect to property lines
and/or one another . (See Figs . 3 and 4 .) Density
regulations limit the number of people per site-
area unit. The basis for density
determination will vary from regulation to
regulation . Density may range from a low of ten
or fewer people per acre in low-density districts
to a high of up to 1,500 or more per acre in the
highest-density districts .

Bulk is frequently controlled by floor-area ratio, which limits total buildable floor area as a multiple of the site area. In
contemporary zoning regulations, floor-area ratio for apartment buildings will range from a low of 1 or less to a high in
the range of 14 to 16 in dense metropolitan areas.
Building codes are less regional and vary less than zoning regulations. Many localities adopt national or state building
codes as their standard. Such codes are concerned with health and safety requirements such as light and air, access,
egress, construction standards, minimum dimensional standards, fire detection and protection, and fire equipment
access.
Standards
Similar to zoning and codes and equally important in many cases are governmental agency standards, which apply when
public or semipublic funding sources are involved or mortgage standards if private funding is involved . The need for a
thorough initial investigation and continuing review for conformance with controls imposed by zoning, codes and
agencies cannot be overemphasized

SITE CONSIDERATIONS
Site Characteristics
Physical characteristics of a site may impose limitations on a building program ; therefore an early analysis of site data
and conditions should be undertaken by the architect in order
to ascertain and evaluate such limitations. Borings and samples taken at the site will provide information regarding
location and extent of rock, bearing capacity of the subsurface strata at various levels, and the level of a water table . A
survey indicating boundaries, contours, or spot elevations is necessary and, in the case of difficult sites, such a survey
may indicate terrain and other conditions which will strongly influence design decisions . Limitations imposed by difficult
terrain-in addition
to those imposed by local laws or ordinancesmay limit such items as location of driveways
and parking entrances.
Utilities
Availability, adequacy, and location of site utilities enter into basic decision making. A building or buildings may be
located so as to minimize expensive service runs . Inadequacy or unavailability of certain services may require on-site
generation or disposal facilities .
Large Scale
Large-scale residential developments involve special problems and opportunities . Closing or rerouting of streets wholly
within a project is frequently undertaken and can free up area, eliminate restrictions of a street grid pattern, and
generally change the scale and feeling of a project . When through streets within a project are closed or otherwise
restricted, compensatory widening and improvement of peripheral roads is usually in order not only to offset the effect
of the closings but also to accommodate
the increased traffic flow generated by the project itself. Similarly, shutting down a utility line and adding to demand
generally requires compensatory improvement .

Site Elements
Figure 5 diagrams possible relationships among site
layout elements which normally occur in apartment
development. As suggested by the diagram, it is
desirable to limit cross traffic among circulation
elements such as vehicular access and pedestrian
access and to maintain proximity or easy access among
activity elements such as the dwelling unit, recreation,
and parking. The relationships may be horizontally or
vertically arranged, depending on density or tightness
of a site. Emphasis on the importance of certain
relationships may vary with the program; however, the
basic elements and relationships remain. Figure 6
shows example of different arrangements of the site
elements- arrangements which reflect program density
relative to site area.




Building Access
Figure 7 diagrams various means of building access and internal circulation, each with different advantages and degrees
of suitability to specific design solutions.
Building Orientation
Building orientation may be influenced by a number of factors such as site, view (desirable or undesirable), sun, and
prevailing winds. Closely interrelated to building orientation is the question of internal circulation and floor layout of the
building. Figure 8 indicates how different layouts lend themselves to solutions of site problems.

BUILDING CONFIGURATION
Floor Shape and Size
The shape and size of an apartment building can have significant influence on the cost and consequently the feasibility
of a project. The shape of the repetitive typical floors influences the cost of constructing and enclosing the floors. For
purposes of economy and efficiency, building shape should be such that expensive exterior walls are minimized in ratio
to area enclosed and that breaks and direction changes in the perimeter are minimized. (See Fig . 9 .) Area of a typical
floor may affect costs. For example, pouring of a typical tier in a castin-place concrete building is a continuous process
and requires a full concrete crew throughout . The area of a typical floor or part thereof should be such as to efficiently
utilize the day's productivity of a concrete crew. Similar analysis and considerations should be applied to other building
techniques or systems .

Building Height
The cost of a building may be affected by building height . A building may be of such height that it exceeds prevailing
capacities in terms of available construction equipment and contractor experience . In addition to considerations of
what is possible, there are considerations
of what is practical and efficient from a cost standpoint . Of the various mechanical systems which serve an apartment
building, each has various increments and "stepup" points . For example, there is a situation such that the addition of a
single extra floor could require a substantial increase in elevator
service either through an additional elevator or an expensive increase in elevator speed.Similar situations exist for
heating, cooling, plumbing, and ventilating systems, and opinions
of the various consultants in these areas should be solicited .
Length and Width
Additional costs resulting from an increase of building length or width are generally proportionate to increase in area,
However, as with other such items, there are step-up points at which there are disproportionately large increases in cost
for slight dimensional increases.
Wind Bracing
Wind bracing becomes a structural design consideration in buildings beyond the 10-to 12-
story range, and one must then consider measures which may be introduced to resist the overturning tendency due to
wind loads . Wind bracing may be achieved by introduction of various structural measures . The extent and, therefore,
the expense of these measures may be reduced if the building shape itself contributes to wind bracing. As the diagrams
(Fig. 10) indicate, certain building shapes
obviously have a greater inherent resistance to overturning .

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
Concrete
The most common structural system presently employed for
medium- to high-rise apartment construction is flat-plate cast-in-
place reinforced concrete with randomly placed columns . This
structural approach has certain advantages which make it
particularly adaptable to apartment construction . (See Fig . 11 .)
1 . The horizontal services normally required in apartment
construction may be imbedded reguwithin the concrete slab,
thereby eliminatingthe need for a hung ceiling and allowing the
flat underside of the slab to serve as the finished ceiling of the
space below . This reduces floor-to-floor and overall building
height and eliminates the separate construction of a hung ceiling .
2 . The possibility of placing columns randomly adapts well to the
inherently irregular module generated by a typical apartment floor
layout . Columns may thus be "buried" in convenient locations
within an efficient layout
3 . As a rule, openings for vertical services may be located at will in
this type of structure ; however, large openings near columns
should be handled with care so as to assure continuity of vertical
and horizontal reinforcing .

Steel
Although much less common than cast-in place concrete, steel frame structures are also employed in the construction of
apartment buildings . The advantages of strength and relative simplicity of erection may recommend steel for use in
extremely tall structures or for use in locales where there is limited experience in the use of concrete. Steel structural
frames tend to be laid out in a regular grid pattern, and this in turn regularizes the apartment layout. One should bear in
mind that in this type of structure mechanical and structural lines may not coincide.




Limitations
As a rule of thumb, spacing between concrete columns may economically be in the range of
12- to 18-ft centers and spacing for steel columns may range from 16 to 24 ft.
Figure 12 may serve as a guide for sizing of concrete columns in preliminary layouts. Three common bay sizes or center-
to-center distances have been shown for various building heights. Sizes are for internal columns, expressed in square
inches. Peripheral and corner columns will be smaller. The smallest dimension per side considered acceptable for
concrete columns is 10 in., and 4 ft is the limit which normal concrete framework can easily accommodate. Columns
with Larger dimensions become, in effect, walls and are formed differently. It is significant to note from the chart that an
internal column in a tall building may be on the order of 2 by 3 ft . Such a planning element cannot be overlooked even
for preliminary sketching.

Systems Approach
Any discussion of structural considerations in
conjunction with housing must recognize that the
housing industry appears to be at the beginning of
an era of greatly increased prefabrication, which
is leading towards full systems building and
industrialization of the building process.
Prefabrication and systems building has been
applied widely in European countries for a
number of years, and there have been many
prototypical developments and limited
applications of techniques in this field in the
United States . It is anticipated that, within the
foreseeable future, virtually all European housing
will be the product of some type of system . It
would appear inevitable that progress toward
industrialized construction will likewise continue
in the United States . At what precise point the
utilization of systems building will become a
major consideration in apartment design and
what system or systems will survive to become a
standard of the future is uncertain ; however, it is
a significantly growing field which will be watched
closely by practitioners in the housing field . Of
the number of systems which are presently
available, the following categories may be drawn :
1 . Steel or concrete frame with precast planks,
self-formed concrete deck or metal deck
2 . Poured-in-place concrete tiers utilizing special
reusable forms for transverse walls or columns
3 . Long-span or short-span precast panel/ plank
and bearing wall
4 . Prefabricated floor-size truss or beam systems
with clear span capabilities .
5 . Preassembled modules, prepared off site or on
site, for stacking or insertion in a structural frame
Figure 13 shows a composite structure including
the categories described . Any proposal to use a
building system should be preceded by a
thorough investigation as to availability, code and
market accepta bility, union acceptability,
adaptability to minor variations, and guarantees
regarding erected costs .
VERTICAL SERVICES
Elevators
Figure 14 may serve as a preliminary guide in determining number and type of elevators necessary for an efficient
solution. There are four variables involved in elevator selection :
1 . Travel distance
2 . Elevator speed
3 . Elevator capacity
4 . Building population
Travel distance is represented on the graph as "Number of stories" based on the assumption of normal floor-to-
floor heights .
Possible speeds for buildings of different heights are shown.
Building population is represented on the graph as "population per floor," with curves shown for typical floor
populations . In determining population, two persons per bedroom
are assumed .

Egress and Safety
Except in rare circumstances, relatively little in the realm of egress and safety is left to the discretion of the architect . In
general, the architect may choose only among accepted and approved procedures as set down in codes . In most codes,
two means of egress must be provided within specified distances from each dwelling unit (Fig. 159-c) except in the case
of duplexes, which frequently require an additional means of egress off the corridors, usually by means of an escape
balcony (Fig . 15e) .
Figure 1 5d diagrams a scissor stair which, as shown, is an arrangement which allows for
construction of two stairs in one fire enclosure . This is an efficient and cost-saving solution to
the two egress requirements . Most codes, however, effectively preclude the use of scissor stairs, in many cases by
limiting the allowable length of dead-end corridors . Fire escapes are usually required for construction that is not
fireproof ; and sprinklers, smoke doors, fire detectors, and alarms are additionally required for various classifications of
construction in some codes .
Plumbing
Vertical plumbing risers and waste lines (or "plumbing stacks") are expensive due to both material and labor costs.
Reduction in the number of stacks saves money and it is , therefore, to a greater or lesser extent advantageous and
advisable.
Reduction in the number of plumbing stacks is accomplished by doubling or even tripling up on aech stack at each floor.
Figure 16 shows common bathroom and/or kitchen layouts with order-of-magnitude dimensions as shown.
These dimensions, it should be remembered, are for rough lay out purposes only and should be verified by consultants.
Ventilation
Interior spaces such as bathrooms , interior kitchens, and public halls require mechanical exhausting. Figures 17 and 18
may be used as guides, in making preliminary layouts,to determine the floor area to be allocated to exhaust ducts.
Figure 18 indicates the area of exhaust and Fig. 17 shoes build up of fire proofing and finish around the area of exhaust.
The ratio of dimensions should be as close to square as possible and should not exist a ratio of 3:1.
A mechanical engineer should be consulted to determine final data regarding size and location of ducts.
Heating and Cooling
In most cases, planning and spatial layout are not significantly influenced by heating and/or cooling units and their lines
of supply. The most common exception is the case in which ducts deliver conditioned air from either a central source or
a unit in the apartment. In such a case, ducts maybe of such size as to become a planning factor. Otherwise, heating or
cooling units are served either by hot and/or chilled water pipes or electric conduct conduit. Pipe risers as shoen in Fig.
19 occupy a space of approximately 3 to 4 sq. ft, are licated at an outside wall, and generally,if possible, run out in two
directios to serve two units at each floor. It is desirable to avoid having a common riser between separate apartments.


DETERMINATION OF A TYPICAL
FLOOR
General
In discussing determination of a
typical floor and specific
apartment layouts, the most
common structural type-poured-
in-place flat-plate concrete
construction with repetitive
typical floorsis assumed. The
principles of the pro














(1) It is advisable to back up similar
(kitchen and kitchen, bath and bathl
ducts where possible . This allows one
fan and fireproof enclosure to serve two
ducts but requires measures to avoid
excessive sound transmission between
backed up spaces . Ducts may be
"buried" in closets, kitchen, etc . Kitchen exhausts are best located near the range and close
to the ceiling . Bathroom exhausts should, if possible, be placed away from the door in order to pull as much bathroom
air as possible . Ducts are not necessary in kitchens or baths with windows (however, baths with windows, like topfloor
baths, should be heated).
(2) The structure should be spaced as regularly as practicable and within economical
center-to-center distances . Columns built into closets or kitchens should assume the dimensions of the closet or
cabinet . Column size should be reduced at upper stories of tall buildings . Slab openings along an entire column face
should be avoided .
(3) Plumbing backup is recommended . Dissimilar uses may be backed up, and it is possible to back
up plumbing for more than two spaces .
(4) Depth of rooms is sometimes limited by building codes . In any event, room
depth relative to window size and location and natural light should be considered, and electrical lines and not unusual
for ventilating ducts . If there is substantial advantage to be gained, structural columns may be picked
up and carried on girders concealed by the hung ceiling .
Vertical Circulation Core
For purposes of security and convenience, elevators should be well illuminated and visible from the lobby area . At least
one exit stair should empty directly to the outside (but not necessarily at the lobby level). It should be borne in mind
that the stair layout in the lobby will frequently differ from a typical floor due to a greater first-floor ceiling height .
Mail Room
Mailboxes as well should be highly visible . If boxes are rear-loading, a locked room behind the boxes should be provided
for the mailman's use . Front-loading boxes require no such room . However, in either case, an additional secure area for
packages and deliveries may be advised. Current federal requirements which
govern matters such as maximum and minimum height of boxes and size of mail rooms
should be consulted.
Wheeled Storage and/or Pram Room
Paths of travel from the main entrance to these areas should be short, direct, and without steps . Layout of the rooms
for purposes of security should be such that all parts of the room are visible from the entrance . Lock rails, to which
equipment may be secured, should be supplied . Commercial Shops and service facilities at the ground floor provide
many advantages in terms of activity and convenience . However, much of the advantage to the building may be
diminished if the shops face away from the lobby and provide either no access or poor back-door access from the
apartment building itself . On the other hand, easy circulation between a commercial establishment and the lobby may
cause security problems which must be considered .
Laundry and Community Room
Laundries and community rooms are frequently found
at the first floor for convenient servicing and public
access and in order to utilize the additional story
height . These facilities should be on a short, direct
path from elevators,
with as little cross circulation with other activities as
possible . (See Figs . 26 to 30 .)Laundries may be
located either on typical floors or in a penthouse in
conjunction with the community room . Location of
laundry rooms on typical floors
has the advantage of convenience which, however, is
offset by difficulties of multiple maintenance and
problems of odor and noise .






A
rooftop location for either of these facilities provides an additional level of amenity ;however, it also involves additional
expense . Refuse disposal may be handled in a number of ways . The most widely used methods are by incineration or
preferably, by compaction, with the processed refuse hauled away by truck . Both the incinerator and compactor require
a storage area for waste containers, which should be nearby and should have easy access to the outdoors. The size of
the container storage area will depend upon the type of container employed, frequency of collection, and, in some
cases, agency standards. The area required for the refuse chute at typical floors is relatively small, ranging from 4 by 4 ft
up to any size desired. The area of the compactor room or incinerator room at a lower
level is quite large, and the refuse chute at the typical floor should be located so as to avoid interference problems at
the lower levels .

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