2-Hour HSW Continuing Education Course

Course Description

Every architect works with life safety requirements. However, on many projects, egress and fire protection get treated as a code-checking exercise late in design rather than a design driver from the start. This course rebuilds the working foundation: why life safety is the architect’s oldest and most direct health, safety, and welfare obligation, and how the major systems such as occupancy classification, means of egress, fire-resistance-rated construction, opening protection, and detection/suppression fit together as one integrated strategy rather than a list of disconnected rules.

Across ten lessons, you’ll work through the three-part means of egress system, occupant load and egress capacity logic, the four distinct types of rated wall assemblies and why they are not interchangeable, what actually maintains a rating at penetrations and openings, accessible means of egress, and how detection and suppression systems interact with the passive design decisions you control. The course closes with a plan-review case study and a practical checklist you can run against your own drawing sets.

The content draws on public and standards-based sources, including the IBC, NFPA 101, NFPA 13 and 72, UL listing frameworks, and U.S. Access Board guidance. It addresses project planning and design, and project development and documentation — topic areas consistent with AIA’s published HSW criteria. Confirm credit eligibility with your state board and AIA/CES provider status before claiming credit.