The Fireproof Building
by Ed Buch, CSI, CCS, AIA

The Fireproof Building, Technology and Public Safety in the 19th Century American City, by Sara E. Wermiel, (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London, 2000, 301 pages including some excellent period drawings), is a detailed history of the evolution in structural building materials from the late 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. During this period non-combustible structural and floor framing materials gradually replaced timber construction.

The book also chronicles the development of municipal building codes. At first these codes addressed only the “fireproofing” of structural members in buildings. In the early years of the 20th century, following the great loss of life in several notorious fires, such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in New York City, the codes began to address the need for emergency exits in buildings. The requirements developed during this period, (many of them by the newly established National Fire Protection Association), are the foundation on which the building codes we use today are based.

Another important theme in the book, although it wasn’t emphasized, was the significant contribution to the development of structural building materials carried out by the companies involved in their manufacture. Many of the advances in structural building materials resulted from research and development undertaken in the iron industry, by the companies making structural clay tile, and by the cement industry. Significant research in these areas funded by government agencies and at universities wouldn’t come until later in the 20th century.

The need to develop methods of fireproof construction was a fundamental factor in the development of American commercial buildings. In spite of the rare, but spectacular, fires that occur today, in the 19th century fires were all to frequent resulting in significant losses of property and life. And not just sing le buildings burned. Early attempts at fireproofing were aimed at the spread of fire from one building to another as well as with limiting damage to the building in which a fire originated. Conflagrations in Chicago in 1871, Boston in 1889, Baltimore in 1904, and San Francisco in 1906 are examples of cities where fire spread across large portions of downtown areas with literally many hundreds of buildings lost. Advertising a building as “fireproof”, in particular hotels, took place well into the first half of the 20th century as many of us recall when driving through small towns or the older parts of our cities and seeing “Fireproof Rooms” advertised boldly on building facades.

The introduction of iron structural members in buildings followed their development in England in the early 1800s. The limited amount of iron available in the US was expensive, compared with the timber materials in use at the time, since much of it was imported from England. By the middle of the century the Federal government, in particular the Treasury Department with its program of building US Customs Houses, was a strong advocate for the use of iron in building construction. This was partially to promote the development of the domestic iron industry, but also for the fire proofing advantages it was thought to provide.
In addition to the cost advantages of timber construction, there was a significant body of opinion, including many fire department officials, that thought iron wasn’t as safe as its advocates advertised. They favored the continued use of timber construction in combination with exterior masonry bearing walls, particularly in New England textile mills, describing it as “Slow Burning” construction. This evolved into Type IV, Heavy Timber construction, as defined in our current building codes.

In 1892, the performance of fireproofing steel with hollow clay tiles was validated in a fire at the Chicago Athletic Club. This success lead to a significant number of new buildings, especially high rises, constructed using this type of fireproofing. The increasing use of iron and steel coincided with development of the domestic foundry industry following the Civil War and with the rise of the Bessemer Converter in the 1870s for production of steel. Timber, for use as a structural material, was on the decline by the turn of the 20th century.

During this same period, The American Institute of Architects became an advocate for fireproof construction. Fireproofing techniques, including the use of fire sprinklers, were topics at several national AIA conventions late in the century. The AIA also produced numerous practical guides for the use of steel and fireproofing materials.

This book is a thorough presentation of the origins of current building codes and the development of building materials in the 19th Century. It is an excellent resource for anyone interested in an important aspect of our history that isn’t frequently covered in standard architectural histories of the period.

Ed Buch is an architect in the Los Angeles office of Leo A Daly. A Nebraska native, he has worked in Los Angeles since 1988. Prior to that, he worked in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, and 5 years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has been member since 1981, and is currently an Institute director from the West Region, CSI.