McKeon Door of DC, led by Michael Escribano, recently completed an installation at The Robert S. Strauss Building, located in Washington, DC. The DC team collaborated with FOX Architects, Grunley Construction Company, and The Meridian Group on this challenging but rewarding project.
The Robert S. Strauss Building is a twelve-story mixed-use building built in 1978 that underwent a major renovation completed in 2021. The bi-parting accordion fire door Model AC8700-G was installed to provide the required occupancy separation and a third exit due to large occupant loads while still allowing building occupants to navigate onto the penthouse suite with unobstructed views of the Washington, DC skyline.
To satisfy the code requirements within the horizontal exit, two complying swing egress doors were needed, which usually necessitates a floor track within a horizontally sliding assembly. However, McKeon Door of DC came up with a solution to eliminate the need for a floor track. The egress doors were repositioned to the back edges of a bi-parted fire door and provide enough rigidity in the frame for building occupants to freely egress out of the space.
One of the challenges faced during this installation was getting the fire doors inside the building. To achieve this New Hampshire Avenue had to be shut down while the units were rigged up to the penthouse floor balcony so they could be brought into the penthouse. The fire door system then had to be broken down completely by hand and brought up a flight of stairs piece by piece to the opening where it was installed!