Building High-Rise Buildings in Any

¶ … building high-rise buildings in any area and many times the appropriateness of such projects are questionable to say the least. If a developer were to request permission to build a high-rise building in my community I would have to strongly urge the city government to deny such a request.

One reason why I would urge such a denial would be due to the water problem currently being experienced throughout the country and especially in my community. That problem, of course, is the lack of water, and a dwindling water supply.

High-rise building fire water supply system (HFWS) is the basic element of fire protection system of high-rise buildings. Its features are high water consumption, higher water pressure and self-relief ability" (Qi, 2002, p. 71). Since buildings of the stature of a high-rise depend on high water consumption and even higher water pressure, it would be my suggestion that such water supply and pressure would come at the expense of other consumers. Other consumers would either have to pay higher prices for the water they are consuming, or have less access to that water. More and more cities and communities are requiring more stringent guidelines in regards to fire protection systems in high-rise buildings including Houston, where city planners recently changed the building codes. "In November 2005, the Houston City Council passed an ordinance requiring that owners of existing high-rises equip their structures with fire sprinklers in the next 12 years" (Monikowski, Woodcock, 2007, p. 30)

Houston is not the only city that is worried about the risk of fire in high-rise buildings. "With the passage of this ordinance, Houston joined the list of cities putting new requirements in place for the installation of fire-sprinkler systems in high-rise buildings" (Monikowski, Woodcock, 2007, p. 30).

Actions such as the ones taken by Houston city planners are understandable considering the state of the world today, and the fact that high-rise buildings can become targets for terrorist actions, actions that can cause huge fires and all the issues that go along with a fire in a high-rise building. In Monikowski's (et al.) article, he goes on to state that, "Fire-sprinkler protection in high-rise buildings is challenging; there are many issues and considerations to be addressed" (p.30) and that one of the main challenges to be considered from the start would be the availability of a nearby water supply.

Having to supply water to the building would drain the resources that the community already holds dear.

Another concern in developing a high-rise building in the community would be that it would take away the line of sight currently enjoyed by all the citizens of the community. A high-rise building would block the wonderful view of the various topography and abundant botany currently found throughout the community. Esthetic views of the local landscape would no longer be viewable and would likely lead to a lower morale for those individuals in the community that enjoy such sights.

Our community has bloomed into a beautiful and creative environment in which to raise a family and it would be a shame to lose that identity.

Of an even bigger concern however would be the safety issue of a high-rise building during the numerous times when the local community suffers from exposure to high winds. A recent study showed that "A large and/or violent tornado crossing a densely populated area such as Chicago could cause widespread damage and mortality -- with thousands of deaths in some modeled scenarios" (Wurman, Alexander, Robinson, Richardson, 2007, p. 31). Hurricanes and tornadoes can occur at almost anytime or any place and if there were to be a high-rise building constructed in the community the dangers for the individuals who lived and worked in the building could be very high.

In the United States over 1,000 tornadoes occur annually (Grazulis 1993), but they are difficult to predict, and average warning lead times are only 10-15 minutes, meaning that, unlike with hurricanes, many people are unable to leave their homes in the tornado paths"(Simmons and Sutter 2005). Just think, if the homes of these poor people were in the 20th floor of a high-rise building it would likely take them more than the fifteen to twenty minutes warning time just to traverse the stairs in their building. Such a scenario would put many individuals in undue precarious situations with no rescue in sight, and it would not necessarily only affect those people who lived in the building, but would affect those that were attempting to rescue those individuals as well. This type of situation would be inherently dangerous to the firemen and policemen, much like the televised horror experienced by millions of Americans when hijacked planes were flown by terrorists into the walls of the twin towers in New York.

Will, and can, Americans ever forget such disaster and the ensuing chaos, death and terror that such an act precipitated? What if such a disaster took place in our community, would it not affect our citizenry the same as it affected New Yorkers? The question then becomes, why should we allow the possibility of such events taking place in our community? The above study showed that thousands of people could die. With a scenario such as this one, would it make much sense to assume that type of risk, a risk that could cause much angst and despair within our beloved community?