This is a question for those with a planning/building background...

I know for a long time that the building codes required anything taller than 6 stories to have a full sprinkler system, which of course adds a lot of cost. For this reason, many projects in the 70's and 80's stopped right at 6 levels.

Does this requirement still exist? And if not, what is the explanation for the tremendous amount of 4-, 5- and 6-story new and newer construction?


In this post about the 5 going on 6 new hotels at Meridian and the Oklahoma River, all are 5 or 6 stories. There has been no new residential built or proposed downtown taller than 6 stories; most stop at 4. Chesapeake has built over 20 structures on their campus, all 6 levels or less.

If you add up all the projects in the last decade and then add in what is proposed, there are probably 50 projects between 3 and 6 stories and a precious few that go taller than that.


There has to be a reason why 6 seems to be the magic number.