258 Chapter 11
11.2 BUILDING CODES TODAY.
One of the most confusing aspects of American codes and standards is that, unlike Europe, Canada,
and many other parts of the world, there is a complete absence of uniformity between federal agencies,
states, counties, and municipalities, although in recent years there have been major efforts to unify
codes on the national level.
When dealing with counties and municipalities we are confronted with other issues. For example,
cities such as Houston have large oil refineries that create certain hazards, and cities such as Chicago
and New York require special codes and standards that relate to high-rise buildings and population den-
sity. The state of California has also decided against using the IBC codes and elected to continue using
the 1997 Uniform Building Code T as the basis for the 2001 edition of the California Standards Code.
Figure 11.1 Illustration showing overlapping code structure and complexity of current regulations (source:
Specifications for Commercial Interiors by S.C. Reznikoff).