Glossary Term Defined

Major Vertical Penetrations have a functional purpose, such as allowing passage of building services (HVAC ducts, flues, chutes, dumb-waiters, plumbing or electrical, etc.), or building access and egress,(stairs, escalators, and elevators, etc.) whereas voids only accommodate the need for certain spaces to be higher than adjacent floors.

A floor opening in excess of 1 square foot (0.1square meter) that serves vertical building systems or vertical occupant circulation functions.

Stairs, elevator shafts, flues, pipe shafts, vertical ducts, and the like, and their enclosing walls, which 3) serve more than one floor of the building, but shall not include stairs, dumbwaiters, lifts, and the like, exclusively serving a tenant occupying offices on more than one floor.