1948 San Francisco Building Code
In 2016, AVELAR senior partner Lonnie Haughton published a seminal 2-part history of the City and County of San Francisco’s Bureau of Building Inspection, predecessor to the modern-era Department of Building Inspection:
An Abridged History of San Francisco’s Bureau of Building Inspection: 1944 to 1992
Abridged History of San Francisco’s Bureau of Building Inspection: Part 2 (1993 to 1994)
All through World War II, construction in San Francisco was controlled by the “1934 Building Laws of San Francisco” modeled on the “San Francisco Building Laws” adopted by the Board of Supervisors on December 22, 1909 via Ordinance No. 1008 – New Series.
Proposals to modernize these “1934 Building Laws” were defeated in part by builders’ arguments that stricter construction requirements would slow economic recovery from the Great Depression and then would impede the wartime economy – thereby putting our soldiers and sailors at even greater risk.
Upon the War’s end, an updated “1946 San Francisco Building Code” (still modeled on the broadly obsolete “1910 San Francisco Building Laws”) was quickly adopted while the Bureau of Building Inspection (working under the Department of Public Works) began the arduous process of completely rewriting and modernizing the City and County of San Francisco’s Building, Electrical, Fire, and Plumbing & Heating Codes.
AVELAR is now releasing from its library a series (from 1946 to 1990) of San Francisco’s construction codes. Our initial release was the “1946 San Francisco Building Code”. We now release the Bureau of Building Inspection’s fully rewritten “1948 San Francisco Building Code”. (Our next release will be the “1948 San Francisco Electrical Code”.)
By making these documents accessible, we aim to support architects, engineers, and accessibility professionals in their work while preserving the rich history of California’s building standards.
