While San Francisco has its fair share of iconic buildings—Transamerica Pyramid and Triple 5 are synonymous with the city—one high-rise has garnered a rabid and well-deserved cult following. That building is 130 Bush, the super-slender structure in the Financial District.

It’s easy to miss this downtown gem. Blocked from a clear view on Market Street by 1 Bush, a spectacular midcentury behemoth, passersby must veer up the start of Bush Street in order to see and appreciate it in all its trim glory.

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Fire doors are necessary but cumbersome item. They are required in a great deal of situations, however they are by nature heavy and restrictive to movement, difficult for small children and the elderly or disabled to open and awkward if carrying bags, pushing prams or operating wheelchairs.

It is therefore commonplace to see these vital parts of a buildings fire strategy wedged open, breaching all compartmentation requirements. A fire curtain can be specified as an alternative offering the same levels of integrity and, if required, additional smoke sealing.

The fire curtain can be recessed within the ceiling and walls, or face fixed depending on customer requirements. It will then remain there hidden, always ready to deploy in a fire situation due to its gravity fail-to-safe method of operation, even when all forms of consumable power are unavailable.

Automatic fire rated smoke curtains installed in discreet areas, and deploy automatically during a fire can help block heat and are excellent at blocking smoke from entering the building’s rooms. Due to the natural chimney effect that elevator shafts cause during a fire, automatic fire rated smoke curtains in front of elevators are highly recommended, due to elevator shafts often acting as chimneys, drawing smoke to other floors not currently affected by the fire.

A elevator smoke curtain combined with an elevator door will create the impenetrable assembly required by building codes. Similarly, smoke & fire curtains that block smoke from drifting up or down staircases are also highly effective for similar reasons; such as if the doors can be sealed, less smoke is likely to travel to other areas of the building.

Automatic fire rated curtains and elevator shaft curtains are a must for any building and can greatly reduce smoke inhalation.

Conventional doors only account for about one and a half percent of construction dollars. But they are responsible for a full 20 percent of owner problems. This is because conventional doors contain parts from as many as 15 different manufacturers. Each part is sourced separately, then put together in the field. The Syntégra™ Door system offers a better way.

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A slightly soggy red carpet greeted city bigwigs and developers Thursday, as a morning shovel ceremony finally kicked off construction on what will eventually be San Francisco’s second tallest building.

Mayor Ed Lee promised that rain means good luck on auspicious occasions as he talked the project up as a community benefit and a way to foster closer ties abroad.

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