Safety Modifications to Historic Buildings

A problem arose with the buildings original design which did not exist when it was completed. Each floor had an outside air intake serving the buildings multiple air conditioning systems. The problematic outside air intake was located on the side of the building which today is an alleyway. It is difficult to know what this space was in 1933. It may have been a large open space, but due to expansion of the downtown district, this side of the building has become an alleyway.

Semi-tractor trailer drivers frequently park their trucks in the alleyway while approaching the shipping and receiving areas that share this common alleyway. How does this affect the outside air intake? It is common practice to leave diesel engines idling rather than shut them off and restart them during frequent delivery stops. The outside air intake for the court house was located 14’-2” above the alleyway, the exact height of a smokestack on a diesel engine truck. Fumes exiting the diesel engine trucks were being sucked into the building through the outside air intake. The air intake system that was originally constructed in 1933, and which worked fine for many years, was no longer acceptable. Was the original architect at fault? Absolutely not. The original architect probably had no clue what a diesel engine truck was. Was the truck driver at fault? Absolutely not. There is no way to control what was provided in a downtown area where deliveries needed to be made. So, although it may not be clear as to who caused the problem, there is one rule which must be applied: the rule of change.

Once the problem was identified, it was too dangerous to leave the facility in its current condition while taking the time to determine who was at fault. A situation that leaves people in an area where the potential of carbon monoxide poisoning exists, as was the case here, requires immediate attention. In this case of a building on the National Register of Historic Places, modifications that would affect the outside of the building appearance were not permitted. The solution was to cap the original 6’-0” x 6’-0” outside air intake inside the louver to maintain the overall appearance of the exterior of the building. A new outside air intake was installed on the roof, far away from the alleyway and thereby solving the problem.