Guides addressing fenestration anchorage updated

The Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) has updated two documents addressing fenestration anchorage.

This is the first update to both documents: AAMA 2501-20, “Voluntary Guide for Engineering Analysis of Anchorage Systems for Fenestration Products” and AAMA TIR-A14-20, “Fenestration Anchorage Guidelines.” The former was originally written in 2006; the latter was created in 2010.

“These documents are companions, and both provide guidance on what needs to be considered to determine appropriate anchorage of fenestration products,” said Sarah Erickson (Wausau Window and Wall Systems), chair of the FGIA Fenestration Anchorage Systems Task Group in a news release. “AAMA 2501 establishes the information that a design professional will require to be able to analyze an anchorage detail. AAMA TIR-A14 outlines several types of analysis that a design professional will perform on the most common anchorage details for fenestration products.”

AAMA 2501 establishes the minimum requirements for a fenestration anchorage system for load resistance with an appropriate safety factor that is equal to or greater than the project-specific design pressure requirements. AAMA TIR-A14 offers engineering rules and guidelines in the designs of fasteners used in the connection of fenestration to the surrounding building conditions.

Both documents were revised to align more closely with one another, including updates to reference material and the addition of details pertaining to significance of use. Small, but crucial, equation revisions were also included in the 2020 version of AAMA TIR-A14, the release says.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.