(St. Louis, MO, Mar. 15, 2024) In areas of the country where dangerous tornadoes and severe weather occur more frequently, more universities are incorporating reinforced rooms, or storm shelters, in their residence hall designs to provide an extra layer of protection for students. These tornado-safe rooms are typically small, above- or below-ground structures made of concrete, masonry or steel that are proven to withstand extreme winds, even those produced by EF-4 or EF-5 tornadoes.<\/p>\n
The U.S. averages 1,333 tornadoes per year with more than half of those occurring between April and June when most universities are still in session. The top five states with the highest number of tornadoes annually include Texas, Kansas, Florida, Oklahoma and Nebraska.<\/p>\n
Javier Esteban, Principal at St. Louis-based KWK Architects, suggests that universities work with their architectural firms to determine a reinforced room design that best accommodates their budgets, structures and student population.<\/p>\n
Ideally, reinforced rooms should be designed and constructed based on the standards and codes for tornado and hurricane storm shelters developed by the International Code Council (ICC) 500, in partnership with the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA), said Esteban, but that is not always feasible for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany times the restrictions in terms of ventilation, structure, and exit requirements make designing to these codes cost-prohibitive for universities. In those instances, it is still possible to design for student safety via a compromise where some public areas of the residence hall have strengthened or reinforced structures, doors, and windows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
KWK Architects has designed reinforced rooms for several universities within the country\u2019s Tornado Alley where twisters are more common:<\/p>\n
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A reinforced room should be designed to stand up to high winds on its own, independent of the building structure surrounding it, said Esteban.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is critically important to maintain the structure of the reinforced area so that should a building collapse occur, it does not affect the integrity of the reinforced space, and its occupants remain safe,\u201d said Esteban.<\/p>\n
The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) has outlined the different types of tornado-safe room options available and the materials used to build them:<\/p>\n
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Esteban also suggests that reinforced room designs incorporate emergency lighting, electrical outlets, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, heating and air conditioning, and an AED defibrillator. When not in use, residence hall storm shelters can serve as lounge and study areas for students.<\/p>\n
The post KWK Architects Designs Reinforced Rooms at Residence Halls to Protect Students from Tornadoes, Severe Weather<\/a> first appeared on Informed Infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (St. Louis, MO, Mar. 15, 2024) In areas of the country where dangerous tornadoes and severe weather occur more frequently, more universities are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jxbaixue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}