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The purpose of the Standard Method For Measuring
Floor Area in Office Buildings is to permit communication and computation on a
clear and understandable basis. The BOMA Standard has been the generally
accepted method for measuring office space for many years. It should be noted
that this standard can and should be used in measuring office space in old as
well as new buildings. It is applicable to any architectural design or type of
construction.
Usable Area
This method measures the actual occipital area of a
floor or an office suite and is of prime interest to a tenant in evaluating the
space offered by a landlord and in allocating the space required to house
personnel and furniture. The amount of Usable Area on a multi-tenant floor can
vary over the life of a building as corridors expand and contract and as floors
are remodeled. Usable Area can be converted to Rentable Area by the use of a
conversion factor. The Usable Area of an office shall be computed by measuring
to the finished surface side of the office side of corridor and other permanent
walls, to the center of the partitions that separate the office from adjoining
Usable Areas, and to the inside finished surface of the dominant portions of the
permanent outer building walls. No deduction shall be made for columns and
projections necessary to the building.
The Usable Area of a floor shall be equal to the sum
of all Usable Areas on that floor.
Rentable Area
This method measures the tenant's pro-rata portion of
the entire office floor, excluding elements of the building that penetrate
through the floor to areas below. The Rentable Area of a building is fixed for
the life of a building and is not affected by changes in corridor sizes and
configuration. This method is therefore recommended for measuring the total
income producing area of a building and for use in computing the tenant's
pro-rata share of a building for purposes of rent escalation. The Rentable Area
of floor area shall be computed by measuring to the inside finished surface of
the dominant portions of the permanent outer building walls, excluding any major
vertical penetrations of the floor.
No deduction shall be made for columns and
projections necessary to the building. The Rentable Area of an office on the
floor shall be computed by multiplying the Usable Area of that office by the
quotient of the division of the Rentable Area of the floor by the Usable Area of
the floor resulting in the R/U Ratio.
Load Factor
The Load Factor is the percentage of space on a floor
that is not usable, expressed asa percent of Usable Area. It is also known as
the Common Area Factor or the Loss Factor.
Rentable Area ÷ Usable Area = R/U Ratio
Conversion Formulas
| Load Factor (Load) |
R/U Ratio - 1 |
| Usable Area x R/U Ratio |
Rentable Area |
| Rentable Area ÷ R/U Ratio |
Usable Area |
| Usable Area x (1 + Load) |
Rentable
Area |
Definitions
| Finished Surface: |
A wall, ceiling, or floor surface, including glass,
as prepared for tenant use, excluding the thickness of any special surfacing
materials such as paneling, furring strips and carpet. |
| Dominant Portion: |
That portion of the inside finished surface of the
permanent outer building wall which is 50% or more of the vertical floor to
ceiling dimension measured at the dominant portions. If there is no dominant
portion, or if the dominant portion is not vertical, the measurement for area
shall be to the inside finished surface of the permanent outer building wall
where it intersects the finished floor. |
| Major Vertical Penetrations: |
Stairs, elevator shafts, flues, pipe shafts,
vertical ducts, and the like, and their enclosing walls, which serve more than
one floor of the building, but shall not include stairs, dumb-waiters, lifts,
and the like, exclusively serving a tenant occupying offices on more than one
floor. |
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