More than 7,000 amendments to the building code are approved.
Taken from TRD
The future of the New York skyline is… wood?
Construction with cross-laminated timber, a type of engineered wood consisting of wood panels glued together, will soon be permitted in all five districts.
On Thursday, the City Council approved sweeping changes to the building code, including allowing specialty wood in projects up to 85 feet tall, or six to seven stories. While some buildings in the city have already used the material, they required extensive and separate approvals.
The change still leaves the city behind others in the US and light years behind other countries in legalizing wood. In Canada, for example, dozens of such towers have already been built
Earlier this year, the International Code Council, an organization whose recommendations are often used as guidelines for localities, approved the use of wood in buildings up to 18 stories. Places with booming lumber industries, including Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Maine, and California, have quickly adopted the recommendations or versions thereof.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is considered more sustainable than steel and concrete, and a way to reduce construction time, given that it is prefabricated. It remains more expensive than traditional building materials, however, due to a lack of standardization and the limited number of manufacturers supplying it.
This week, the City Council approved more than 7,000 revisions to the building code.
Another approved change reduces the minimum ceiling height allowed for basement apartments in two-family homes from two meters to two and a half meters. The amendment comes after a dozen people drowned in basement apartments during an epic downpour, reigniting the debate over whether the city should further legalize basement apartments.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has promoted legalization as a way to create tens of thousands of affordable housing units. But recent deaths have raised doubts about such changes.
The code changes also include accelerated inspection timelines for elevators and periodic inspections of occupied buildings under construction, to ensure that the work complies with tenant protection plans.
