Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School planned major fire protection and fire alarm system upgrades for its existing school facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The approximately 90,000-square-foot building includes classrooms, gymnasium/auditorium areas, cafeteria, locker rooms, offices, corridors, stairs, and support spaces across multiple levels.

Engineering Fire Protection, LLC provided fire protection and voice evacuation fire alarm system design services to support the project from field survey through permitting and construction. EFP conducted extensive site survey work to document existing field conditions and develop a coordinated design that could support not only permit approval, but also practical installation and fabrication. EFP prepared both Tier 1 and Tier 2 fire sprinkler design documents, including hydraulic calculations, fabrication drawings, and fabrication lists, allowing the contractor to fabricate piping based on EFP’s coordinated design and helping reduce field labor, rework, and installation conflicts.

For the fire alarm system, EFP designed a site-wide voice evacuation fire alarm system, including battery calculations, voltage-drop calculations, and intelligibility analysis using EASE Evac software. The design accounted for acoustic performance and speech intelligibility so that emergency voice messages could be clearly delivered throughout the school. EFP also supported construction administration, site observation, acceptance testing, and final construction control documentation, helping the project move efficiently from design through installation and final approval.