Hunter Cullen

[This is confusing to me because if the proposals are focused on reducing ambiguity, how could they reduce life safety? Seems like an excuse, a flimsy one at that.]

A nerdy ICC thread! On Monday, I sat in on the report of the BIRC committee, which is the ICC's sponsored study of how the IRC can be made cheaper to build without impacting life safety (www.iccsafe.org/committees/b...). How did they do? Is it substantive? Find out!

This thread is a pretty sobering look into how the building code sausage gets made in the US. We really need the public sector to impose some actual rigor and cost benefit analysis on this process.

Still waiting on Indiana to unseal the public comment rulemaking docket for the fire code, building code, and NFPA standards. No wonder why they are transferring all authority to the IDHS and General Assembly in July 2027. It takes forever! 😡 Yes, the number of public comments will be lit!

"The proponents for single stairs have it mapped out that it costs $200k for another stair. I have no way to verify that. I find it hard to believe that it would be that expensive."

Maddening to hear because they assigned me the task of researching this in California. I did all of the work and documented it in far more detail than you ever find in code development. I got three independent estimates, one of which came from the federal government! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

YIMBYism is working, it’s just obscured in the topline numbers by the single-family collapse. The California Building Industry Association went all-in on sprawl and insurers had to step in as the adults in the room and say no more wildfire risk, leaving YIMBYs to fix things with no help from CBIA.

These are nice buildings and I don’t think this density is inappropriate anywhere in NYC, but the fact that they’re in one of the farthest corners of Brooklyn with some of the least resources just goes to show that all planning is nowadays is trying to avoid NIMBYism newyorkyimby.com/2026/10/inno...

For example:

It'll be a few years till most places are on the 2027 code. If you you want to build one of these now, this is a decent justification for making an Alternative Means and Methods Request to do it early. Reach out to your code official and ask how it would be received! Let me know how it goes.

The 2027 IBC has been officially published, and it allows single-stair apartment buildings up to four stories! See the new section 1006.3.3.2 codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2...

This isn’t what I expected from complete Republican control of all 3 branches of the federal government: “Global fossil-fuel emissions are set to decline ever so slightly this year, per a new Carbon Brief analysis — mainly because soaring oil prices are putting a damper on consumption of the fuel.”

Yikes...the National Fire Sprinkler Association published a blog post in 2025 about Maryland’s 2024 Fire Fatality Report that appears to have been written with ChatGPT and, as far as I can tell, hallucinated some major findings nfsa.org/2025/07/29/m...

One day people are tweeting about how YIMBYism has no answers for the Rust Belt and single-stair kills. The next, a firefighter moonlighting in construction and a nurse (total household income: $175k-$200k?) can’t afford to buy in a good Kansas City school district. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Trump is preparing to declare a state of emergency followed by martial law in order to delay the 2028 presidential election and remain in power. He desperately needs a Republican victory in the midterms to accomplish this. Vote like your life depends on it.

Cocchiarella: You said that you do support a moratorium on data centers, but if there were to be one that had to be built, Mar-a-Lago seemed as good a place as any. Nixon: They have a huge golf course that it can be dropped onto.

Fact check: true!

I agree. For US building codes, “heightened scrutiny is long overdue.” Nicholas Erickson, Executive Director of Housing Affordability Institute, writes, “Regardless of the level, broadly speaking, there isn’t sufficient scrutiny of code changes.“

Extreme home rule is a huge part of this problem. (and it's probably the only reason why these cities exist in the first place.) Make Dillon's Rule great again.

“You cannot plant right directly in front of someone's home” is a recipe for not having any trees in the neighborhood. EVERYWHERE is right in front of someone’s home when lots are this narrow. And tons of feng shui principles are sacrificed in a city this dense, like the orientational preferences.

Please be serious

If you live outside of the US and Canada and would like to help me with an elevator census I'm doing, please DM me – I want to send you something! Would just involve noting a few items about elevators you encounter in the wild.

An executive order is not a law. An executive order is not a law. An executive order is not a law. An executive order is not a law. An executive order is not a law. An executive order is not a law.

The ICC is certified by the American National Standards Institute, and it follow a real consensus process, more or less, for its *standards* but not for its *model codes*

Something funny about the ICC is that everybody’s personal relationship to apartment buildings or cities runs through their kids. “For example, my son lives in an apartment building, and the facility has 10-ft. ceilings…” (almost a direct quote from today).

Current status

The president of the United States is a mentally deranged con man and a pathological liar.

If you reduce the barriers to entry for building, more local, small developers would invest in architecture for personal, subjective reasons and there would be fewer mediocre hot takes on design. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

We're working with @metroabundance.bsky.social to collect cost drivers in California building codes and standards above and beyond national model codes/standards. See here for more – please circulate among architects, engineers, etc. in the state! admin.centerforbuilding.org/wp-content/u...

That turnaround with direct eye contact 😂😂😂 IG: @renjung.family

Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%.  In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we've put $104 million back in delivery workers' pockets.  This is only the beginning.

On the death of second floor residences in Main Street USA, or live/work units. dirtamericana.com/2023/02/uppe...

The American mind cannot comprehend the efficiencies of the Swiss single stack.

Remember America. The reason it is being reported that Trump has decided not to "obliterate" Iran for the 117th time is because the oil markets open in 8 hours. We know the trades are being set up by his people & traders to short & buy the bounce that will happen during the week. War by profiteering

San Mateo’s first SB 79 project. I’m sorry but this is too much lot coverage. Even NYC’s tenement house act of 1879 did not allow 91% lot coverage. The building should be 50 ft. deep at most. You should not pack an FAR of 4.5 into five stories, this is terrible design and will lead to a backlash.

As alway, our cartoonists nail it. #USDemocracy

My painting DARK STORM

Emergent discovery of @chittimarco.bsky.social's research on bidirectional lanes. Could enhance and formalize this with various other measures in the toolbox: tpa.transitcosts.com/atlas/toolbo...

This is Winnie. He got so excited that he briefly forgot how to be a dog. You can laugh, but he'd like to point out you look this ridiculous all the time. 13/10 (TT: brisbreaks)

He said don’t worry I won’t sleep in your bed. I’ll sleep in mine. 👍 IG: doggvids

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was murdered by ICE. His three sons called him “El mundo entero” — the whole world. They watched as their whole world died in a video posted on Facebook. Lorenzo was our neighbor and fellow Texan. He deserves justice.

Politicians decided to give curb parking away for free. Off-street garages charge fees. So at peak hours, curb parking is jampacked, garages are mostly empty, and customers complain. #Seattle has a parking MANAGEMENT problem, not a parking supply problem. It's politicians can and should fix it!

Good rundown of how single-stair reform in Connecticut was killed by the fire service: "The protracted set of approvals and reviews that single-stair reform was subjected to presented several points of potential failure, some of which lacked transparency." rpa.org/news/lab/sin...