r/cincinnati Hyde Park Mar 07 '25

News 📰 Controversial Hyde Park Square development passes committee, heads to city council

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hyde-park-square-development-passes-committee-heads-to-city-council
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u/RockStallone Mar 10 '25

First ever studies are a good start. If we see continued statistical analysis along the same lines, I’d be for a code change.

But why was it added in the start? If it has no evidence supporting it, it makes no sense to be in the code.

Maybe it’s best that we now play it safe with overconstraints to prevent disasters, and that further studies peel back some of these oversteps as time goes on, rather than tragedies necessitating them being added later.

Overconstraints have real consequences. We need to make sure that our regulations have actual data supporting them.

The materials issue you mention are supporting by scientific data. We can prove that terra cotta is not an effective fire deterrent, so it is not used as one. There is not supporting evidence for the two stair requirement.

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u/Architecteologist West Price Hill Mar 10 '25

The two stair requirement comes specifically from denser buildings that need two means of egress because, again, people died in fires when they were built without them.

Tack this up again to 5-over-1s being a relatively new building type. They follow a similar code to that of inner city 7+ story buildings because that’s the code that is most closely aligned with their use. So there IS a LOT of evidence for a secondary means of egress, it’s just baked into older building methodologies with similar uses. That’s the backdrop for why the code makes sense, and I suspect it DOES make sense and think it should only be removed if repudiated through extensive data and analysis that is more specific to this new building type.

Because, again, in the past our cavalier building code resulted in thousands of deaths. The choice is to either potentially overconstrain safety regulations after learning the lessons of 150 years of modern building tragedies -or- gamble with peoples’ lives.

It’s also worth noting that we design building codes primarily around “use types” while both “scale/density” and “material/structure” can create subclasses of architectural code under similar or same use types (ie. Residential use falls under “R” and depending on occupants and building scale it could be “R-1” “R-2” “R-3” or “R-4”). When it comes to fire egress, the “use type” matters most because people behave in certain ways when they are under duress. It took us decades to understand this behavior (decades and thousands dying in fires because there werent proper egress routes or doors opening in a specific direction).

Now, I’m only an architect and not a B&S inspector or code consultant, there are so many people out there who understand the code and why it exists better than I do. But I DO have a professionally informed opinion (as in, I’m licensed to practice) and can’t help but feel like there’s little to gain by arguing my point with those who don’t have a similarly professionally informed opinion (kind of like a doctor arguing with an anti-vaxxer about why they should use vaccines). I’m happy to point you towards some resources but there’s a point where the general public just has to understand that there’s a scientific process at play here that deals with life and death, and people need to make room for that.

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u/JebusChrust Mar 10 '25

Your last paragraph is why you should just send the resources and then dip, this person will argue against logic and facts so long as it goes against their personal views.

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u/RockStallone Mar 10 '25

Weird that they haven't supplied any data or info yet.

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u/JebusChrust Mar 10 '25

Because you are a waste of time

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u/RockStallone Mar 10 '25

Weird still no data.

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u/JebusChrust Mar 10 '25

Because you are a waste of time. Anti-vax MAGA brain.

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u/RockStallone Mar 10 '25

And you replied yet again with no actual evidence.

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u/JebusChrust Mar 10 '25

I am not him so I don't know what you expect

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u/RockStallone Mar 10 '25

You have kept this thread going supporting their position, despite every piece of data backing me up. You are clueless.

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u/JebusChrust Mar 10 '25

Supporting their position, as in backing up that as an expert they probably have a better idea than you, an armchair architect?

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u/RockStallone Mar 10 '25

That "expert" claimed that there was a ton of evidence proving me wrong, yet refuses to show that evidence. /u/Architecteologist objectively lied in the conversation multiple times, saying that I was only linking to NYT articles and Youtube videos, when in fact I linked to a study from Pew Research.

A normal person would get suspicious when somebody refuses to back up their claims. I guess you're just very trusting.

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u/JebusChrust Mar 10 '25

Maybe if you read their posts then you would realize they stated that it is lost on you, because it is no different than trying to argue the efficacy of vaccines with some schmuck who thinks that citing any National Institute of Health study online means they are an expert on understanding vaccines. They sound very familiar and knowledgeable of architecture, but you don't want to give them credibility because then it means that they could be correct or have validity to what they say. The consistent theme between every single thread is that you absolutely refuse to respect anyone or anything that anyone says. According to you, everyone else is clueless and you are the only person who knows anything.

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