PCNA Group provided Fire Protection Engineering, Code Consulting, Egress Design, and ADA/Accessibility Analysis for Freeman’s newly constructed 400,000 SF, 3-story warehouse, factory, office, distribution facility, located in Las Vegas, Nevada. This facility houses one of Freeman’s largest operational centers in the United States, and includes approx. 100,000 SF of office space, plus 300,000 SF of manufacturing/warehouse space to support their extensive convention and trade show exhibit operations.
The PCNA Group scope of work included the preparation and submittal of a comprehensive Fire Protection Report, VALUE ENGINEERING code analysis, egress design, accessibility analysis, and a complete review of the Architectural Design Submittal package for code compliance. The VALUE ENGINEERING code analysis included coordination with the Clark County Building Department to apply the unlimited area provisions; by classifying the structure as a 2-story building with a 3rd level mezzanine. This allowed all of the exposed structural steel framing throughout the building to remain unprotected; thus reducing the overall construction budget by more than $1 million.
A Fire Protection Report was required due to the large number of varied and extensive operations that were intended to occur within the facility. These included; high-piled storage, paint-spray operations, hazardous materials storage, woodworking/dust-producing operations, light-manufacturing, and cabinet-making. All of which needed to occur directly adjacent to three levels of corporate offices within the same facility. The report outlined all of these uses, a complete list of all required active and passive fire protection features, and demonstration that sufficient egress capacities and routes were provided throughout the entire facility. To assure that proper consideration was given to not only the proposed operations for this facility, but also how Freeman actually intended to conducted them, a complete on-site analysis of Freeman’s (then) existing facility was also conducted. This analysis allowed us to anticipate special considerations for these systems, so they could be designed at the onset, thus saving both time and money rather than having to retrofit the building at a later date. Overall, this also resulted in simplifying the Operational Fire Department Permit approval process, which allowed Freeman to more quickly occupy the facility upon the completion of construction.
