Designing a Modern Highrise Office Floorplan

[DaltonSpence]

To provide myself with some inspiration, I recently purchased some Modern Floorplans from the e23 online store. While they are cheap and quite useful as is, there is fortunately some room for improvement. In particular, when I analysed the floorplan of the Average High-Rise Building I noticed that there were too many washrooms of insufficient size and no on-floor utilities access or janitor closet. The attached image shows the common elements I believe should be present on each floor. I still need some advice though.[list=1][*]Washrooms - Are they big enough? Should the restaurant level have additional facilities for its patrons? [*]Emergency Exits - Should they be inside the entry level stairwell or next to it?[*]Fire Extinguishers/Hoses - Where should they be placed?[*]The Great Divide - I've put glass doors and windows in the dividing wall between the elevator and main sections of each floor. Is this a good idea?[*]Other Levels - Downtown highrises are becoming more multifunctional to maximize profits. Should I add

1. basement and/or garage level(s)?
2. a second office level floorplan for small independant renters (doctors, detectives, lawyers, etc.)? The current design assumes a single major corporate tenant.
3. a mezzanine level to the restaurant?
4. a shopping mezzanine above the entry level?
5. hotel rooms or apartments?
6. a rooftop helipad?

[/list:b2212a6529]Any advice (and leads to good graphics) would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Modified attachment to show support pillars and some colour.

EDIT 2: Moved windows to make room for 8 more outside pillars. Added bitmap textures for flooring. Moved doors of utility/storage rooms to face north. Realigned grid.

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Dalton "who likes gilding other people's lilys" Spence

[Robbie]

It looks like you're on the right track. Although being used to seeing everything in d20 being maximized map wise to 5 foot squares, the bathrooms feel a little cramped to me, but they may be accurate. I know when I go to best buy and climb in the stall I can touch both elbows to the stall dividers on either side of me, while the handicap restroom is almost a separate room altogether with its own separate sink.

Which reminds me, one thing you'll need to keep in mind for modern buildings is accessibility requirements for handicap patrons. Your current bathrooms obviously do not meet those requirements, so you'd have to either make room, or add a handicap accessible bathroom separately...or since this may be a fantasy/alternate reality modern campaign, you could just say that all handicap people are shot on sight? (That was insensitive of me)

Which leads to another point....I don't know if the book you are using covers this, but you might want to look up some building codes. You'd be surprised how many standards there are. Door width and height, handrail heights, fire extinguisher placement/height, door opening direction requirements, etc. Those building codes and standards would probably be quite helpful in creating realistic modern floor plans.

Everything else looks good...I do like the glass wall/doors...I'm pretty much indifferent about the rest of your optionals. I would say go for what suits your campaign.

[DaltonSpence]

The accessibilty requirements were very much on my mind when I redesigned the washrooms. A while back I purchased a copy of the PDSyms DXF v2.0 Architectural/Interiors Symbols Library by PenDean Inc. which I've recently converted (well, mostly) to FSC catalogs. One of the folders in the library was dedicated to ADA standard templates for washrooms, toilet stalls, urinals, drinking fountains, etc., as well as a set of posters outlining accessibility standards for corridors, doorways, ramps, parking spaces and the like. I specifically made sure that both washrooms were accessible by these standards, with a 5 foot turning diameter for wheelchars in both washrooms and approach corridors and toilet stalls of the approved width. The library also contains symbols for common furniture, fixtures, appliances, stairs, doorways, etc. (both plan and elevation) used in standard architectural drawings. It is all very detailed and useful.

Which leads to another point....do you have any online sources for the building codes you mentioned? I would prefer federal regulations (either US or Canadian) or international standards to local ordinances since the latter can vary widely. I'm not sure where to start looking.

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Dalton "who is too lazy right now to think up a clever tagline" Spence

[Robbie]

I think this is where you probably want to start looking...OSHA pretty much handles teh standards and stuff.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owas...rt_number=1910

[DaltonSpence]

I think this is where you probably want to start looking...OSHA pretty much handles teh standards and stuff.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owas...rt_number=1910

Thank you. I now know that the two washrooms are sufficient for the normal staffing of an office level (30 employees). Unfortunately, the guests of the restaurant are not employees, so the standards of the OSHA do not apply. Also, there would be a significant difference between recommended and legal minimum facilities, one that could seriously effect the restaurant's reputation and financial health. Are there any standard reference sites for the hospitality industry?

EDIT: Added attachments showing the Office and Restaurant levels to date. I'm not happy with the Entry level yet.

EDIT 2: Removed attachments at the request of the publisher and authors of the "Modern Floorplans: Average High-Rise Building" which I based my plans on. See below for the reduced resolution versions of my modifications that they suggested.

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Dalton "who wants information, even if he isn't the new Number 2" Spence

[RPMiller]

Interesting... Firefox is not showing any of the PNGs. IE displays them fine though. Are you exporting these directly from CC? You may want to resave them from another graphic application to make them viewable. There is a current bug in CC that isn't rendering PNGs properly.

[Robbie]

They're showing up now.

Floorplans look pretty good to me! My only concern is the placement of the kitchen in the restaurant level...Kitchens for restaurants are usually outfitted with quite a bit more wiring and plumbing, which would require that back kitchen wall to be a bit more "centralized" I think. That of course depends on whats above and below the restaurant level and how much space is between floors...something to think about at least...I'm not saying the placement is impossible or bad...it just kinda jumped out at me.

The office level looks good...I assume the office levels are going to be basically clones of this particular level, at least in wall structure. If thats the case, you may need some support columns in the middle where the cubicles are, because all those floors from multiple office levels will get heavy in the middle. I may be wrong here too though...I've never seen a high-rise skeleton before.

[RPMiller]

I'm still not seeing them so maybe you are getting cached content?

[Robbie]

I think you're right actually...it works at work on firefox, but not at home on firefox...I think the work firefox is newer but I can't be sure.

[DaltonSpence]

They're showing up now.

Floorplans look pretty good to me! My only concern is the placement of the kitchen in the restaurant level...Kitchens for restaurants are usually outfitted with quite a bit more wiring and plumbing, which would require that back kitchen wall to be a bit more "centralized" I think. That of course depends on whats above and below the restaurant level and how much space is between floors...something to think about at least...I'm not saying the placement is impossible or bad...it just kinda jumped out at me.

According to the source book, the restaurant was originally designed to be on the penthouse level, but there is no reason it couldn't be elsewhere. One reason I bracketed that section with the utility room and janitor closet on every level was to provide a plausible alternate vertical path for plumbing and wiring trunks to the building "spine" behind the elevators.

The office level looks good...I assume the office levels are going to be basically clones of this particular level, at least in wall structure. If thats the case, you may need some support columns in the middle where the cubicles are, because all those floors from multiple office levels will get heavy in the middle. I may be wrong here too though...I've never seen a high-rise skeleton before.

Good idea. I've added twelve 1 foot square hollow steel pillars with rounded corners; six on the outer frame (in corners and halfway down the right and left sides) and six internal approximately 24 feet from the building edges and each other. You may note that I've shifted the restaurant booths a bit so that the pillars are in the center of each triad. I made similar adjustments to the seating area around the entry level fountain to put them through the back of the benches. (See below and my previous post.) I'm thinking of adding carpeting to the office and restaurant levels (but not the security office; tile makes it easier to mop up the blood :wink: ) so do you know of some good carpet .png textures that are the appropriate style and colour for each?

EDIT: Replaced attachment at the request of the publisher and authors of the "Modern Floorplans: Average High-Rise Building" which I based my plans on. See below for the reduced resolution versions of my modifications to all three levels that they suggested.

EDIT 2: See first post in thread.

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Dalton "who's almost ready to create some brand new levels" Spence