That fact does, however, provide a reality check regarding our circumstances in comparison to the rest of the world. On Capitol Hill, each of our buildings is at a different level of conformance with contemporary building and fire codes. Building and fire protection codes are frequently misunderstood by those who do not routinely deal with them. Expecting a unique, historic, monumental building to incorporate exactly the same systems and architectural safety features as a just-completed ordinary office building is not reasonable, and codes do not demand this. To state an obvious but routinely overlooked fact in media reports, a building completed decades ago is not automatically required to meet code standards enacted after that date simply because codes change.
Codes are in a state of active evolution much like our buildings themselves.
We are well aware of the proposed NFPA 2002 building code and the movement toward an International Building Code, but we cannot wait for new code initiatives to take effect before we begin to engineer solutions or we will never move forward. The bottom line is simple. Despite some suggestions to the contrary, on the Capitol campus we are implementing a higher safety standard than applies to most existing office buildings. AOC has identified fire safety priorities in all major buildings. We are now creating a fire safety master plan for each.