Philadelphia Facade 2010 Cover

Philadelphia Enacts Facade Inspection Legislation

Date March 2010

Category Industry Bulletins

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Philadelphia enacted its first facade inspection ordinance earlier this year, requiring owners of buildings six or more stories tall to file an inspection report every five years. With the first deadline coming up in 2011, building owners and managers need to start preparing now by making necessary repairs and scheduling inspections.

In brief, the law requires owners to retain an engineer or architect “knowledgeable in the design, construction, and inspection of building facades” to evaluate conditions and classify the building as “safe,” “unsafe,” or “safe with a repair and maintenance program” (Property Maintenance Code, section PM-304.10). The design professional would then file a report with the Department of Licenses & Inspections, and the owner would be responsible for prompt repair of any unsafe conditions.

To help owners and managers navigate this process, Hoffmann Architects has prepared this overview of the new legislation.

Philadelphia Facade 2010 Cover

On 17 February, Mayor Michael Nutter signed into law Philadelphia’s first facade inspection ordinance. A spate of incidents involving falling masonry prompted the bill’s introduction, most recently this past August, when a Center City man fell through a fire tower railing to his death.

The incident brought to mind the 1997 death of Judge Berel Caesar, who was crushed by five tons of falling debris and a 500-pound sign on South Broad Street. It wasn’t until a series of near-misses in 2009, however, that legislators finally took action. Just a week before the August fatality, a pair of masonry panels fell from the sixth floor of a Chestnut Street building. The month before, a parapet wall collapsed near 16th and Chestnut Streets, raining debris down into traffic below. In June, marble facade panels plunged 80 feet from The Broadcast Building onto Walnut Street. These four incidents came on the heels of still others in 2008, involving falling terra cotta at 23rd and Walnut and collapsing brick at the Bellevue on South Broad Street, both in 2008.

In response to public outcry and critical media reports (“Some cities require owners to have periodic structural inspections of older buildings. But not here,” lamented John Rawlins of ABC Action News in Philadelphia last August), the City Council introduced an amendment to the building code requiring periodic inspections.

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Excerpt from Reading Eagle, 6 Oct 1997

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What Building Owners Need to Do Now

Determine Your Filing Deadline.

Modeled after the New York City code, the legislation aims to improve public safety by setting a schedule and standards for evaluating facade conditions. All buildings with six or more stories, or those with appurtenances, such as steeples or turrets, greater than 60 feet tall, must submit inspection reports to the Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) every five years. Filing deadlines are staggered, not by block number as in New York, but by building age:

Facade Inspection Reporting Schedule
Construction Date First Report Completion Deadline
1950 and earlier 30 June 2011
1951-1970 30 June 2012
1971-1980 30 June 2013
1981-1990 30 June 2014
1991-2005 30 June 2015
2005 and later Within 10 years of certificate of occupancy issuance

Following the initial inspection, a new report is due every five years, based on this original schedule.

What if your building is older, but you’ve just restored the facade? Apply for a waiver. Restoration within five years of the inspection deadline can qualify you for a deferral, provided work was substantial enough to assure stability.

Retain a Licensed Professional.

Only a Pennsylvania licensed Professional Engineer experienced in structural engineering or a Registered Architect knowledgeable in the design, construction, and inspection of building facades may conduct the inspection and complete the report. Since the passage of New York City’s first facade inspection ordinance in 1980, Hoffmann Architects has helped hundreds of building owners meet inspection, repair, and reporting requirements. We are experienced in applying the provisions and mandates of Local Law 10 of 1980 / Local Law 11 of 1998 in New York, Municipal Code section 9-9.12 in Boston, and the Property Maintenance Code in Pittsburgh, all of which are similar to the regulations now adopted in Philadelphia.

Hoffmann Architects has provided architectural and engineering services related to facade inspection and remediation for a number of buildings in Philadelphia, including the Philadelphia Inquirer Building, Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel, the Aramark Building, the Hyatt at the Bellevue, Lewis Tower, and the Pennwalt Building at Three Parkway.

Be Aware of Hidden Costs.

Building owners should be prepared to pay for scaffolding or lifts, as physical inspection from an elevated platform is required for a representative sample of the exterior wall. Other expenses might include testing to determine the extent and probable cause of observed distress, as well as photographic documentation, research, and historical document review.

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Understand the Rating System.

Reports must include an assessment of all facade conditions, including observed deterioration, movement, and water-tightness. Each facade element is then classified individually, as follows:

  • Safe. Most areas of a well-maintained building will likely earn a “safe” rating. However, only a building with zero “unsafe” or “safe with a repair and maintenance program” conditions can be classified, overall, as “safe.
  • Safe with a repair and maintenance program. These are conditions that, while not immediately unsafe, can become hazardous in the near future if steps are not taken toward remediation. For example, moderately worn sealant joints might not pose an imminent threat of falling stone, but if allowed to deteriorate further, they might.
  • Unsafe. An exterior wall, window, air conditioner, planting box, flagpole, sign, parapet, coping, guard rail, exterior light fixture, or other element that is part of or attached to the building facade is considered “unsafe” if it is dangerous to people or to property. While identifying some types of unsafe conditions can be intuitive (a bowed and cracking parapet that is leaning toward the street, say), some can remain quite hidden to the untrained eye—right up until the point of collapse.
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Plan Ahead.

Just one “unsafe” condition means that the entire building must be reported as such. An owner then has just 24 hours to take emergency action to protect public safety. Fences, sidewalk bridging, and netting can be expensive to install on short notice, and owners have only three days to submit permit applications. Corrective work must begin within ten days, with a new report due to the L&I two weeks after repairs are complete.

Even a building classified as “safe with a repair and maintenance program” has more leeway than an “unsafe” one, with corrective action to be completed within whatever time frame the inspector proscribes in the report.

Particularly for older buildings, the deadline is already fast approaching. Advance planning will enable you to budget resources and to minimize disruption to building use.

What the Inspection Law Means for Your Building

Every structure is different. Although the city aims to standardize maintenance and repair practices, there is room in the new law to accommodate diverse situations. A number of provisions were added to the original bill to provide for extensions and appeals, such that owners have some recourse if an inspection report is inaccurate or if circumstances make the stipulated repair timeline unreasonable. Work with your design professional to determine how best to achieve compliance with the new regulations while working within scheduling, budgetary, and logistical demands.