U.S. Smoke & Fire, A Division of CYSA Development, has installed automatic smoke draft curtains around a central convenience stair on two floors at a new H&M store opening soon in Washington, DC. The store is located at 5337 Wisconsin Avenue NW in the Friendship Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC.
The automatic smoke draft curtains were used in place of the traditional 18” deep static glass baffles required under IBC 2006 707.2, which typically surround open staircases and escalators in order to reservoir smoke and prevent smoke spread to upper floors.
Many architects and owners, particularly when dealing with high end office fit-outs or when working on retail projects, are interested in automatic smoke baffle systems in place of static glass as they are effectively invisible. Automatic smoke draft curtains are typically fully retracted within the soffit, and only deploy in the event of a fire by means of a weighted bottom bar.
Streetsense, located in nearby Bethesda, Maryland, designed the core and shell for the space on behalf of the building owner in anticipation of the worldwide retailer’s move-in. HITT Contracting Incorporated acted as the construction manager and general contractor for the core and shell build out.
H&M first opened its doors in Sweden in 1947. H&M is currently operating in 43 countries and has more than 2,500 stores. H&M is the second largest clothing chain in the world.
About:
U.S. Smoke & Fire, A Division of CYSA Development is a value-added distributor of fire protective gravity fail-safe smoke curtain technologies. Other services include full-service CAD-enabled design development, construction document review, shop drawings, verified in-field shop drawings, full-service curtain system installation, commissioning, and acceptance testing as well as coordination with architecture, fire protection and mechanical engineering companies.
