FIU SCIENCE CLASSROOM COMPLEX

Issue: Vertical accessibility to all rows of seats in a tiered classroom.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility in a new, 142 seat classroom which is a component of a 136,082 square foot building to be occupied by the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Public Health and Social Work, College of Medicine, Engineering and Computing, and College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The overall project will cost $38,621,221. The five required wheelchair seating locations are at both the front and rear of the classroom; however, not all seats are provided with an adjacent companion seat. According to the applicant, it would be technically infeasible to make each level of the classroom accessible.

Project Progress:

The project is under design.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to all rows of seats, as required by Section 553.509, Florida Statutes.

553.509 Vertical accessibility. Nothing in Sections 553.501-553.513 or the guidelines shall be construed to relieve the owner of any building, structure or facility governed by those sections from the duty to provide vertical accessibility to all levels above and below the occupiable grade level regardless of whether the guidelines require an elevator to be installed in such building, structure or facility, except for:

(1) Elevator pits, elevator penthouses, mechanical rooms, piping or equipment catwalks and automobile lubrication and maintenance pits and platforms;

(2) Unoccupiable spaces, such as rooms, enclosed spaces and storage spaces that are not designed for human occupancy, for public accommodations or for work areas; and

(3) Occupiable spaces and rooms that are not open to the public and that house no more than five persons, including, but not limited to equipment control rooms and projection booths.

Waiver Criteria: There is no specific guidance for a waiver of this requirement in the code. The Commission’s current rule, authorized in Section 553.512, Florida Statutes, provides criteria for granting waivers and allows consideration of unnecessary or extreme hardship to the applicant if the specific requirements were imposed.