This 90-year old prep school in Pittsburgh, PA recently made some life safety upgrades to the campus buildings to bring them up to code. One challenge was to protect a four-level communicating stair while maintaining a path of egress in the basement cafeteria. Designers accomplished this by using three vertical fire-rated curtains between columns.

The use of vertical curtains to partition the elevator banks from the galleries enabled designers to provide a code-compliant space-saving solution during a recent renovation at the Nebraska History Museum.

In the 14-story ICON building in Los Angeles, Gensler created a sweeping renovation for tenant Netflix – including a massive 12-floor communicating staircase in the heart of the building. Designers worked with local building and fire officials to employ fire-rated perimeter curtains surrounding all 12 landings to protect against vertical smoke migration while maintaining an open concept throughout the space.

Deployable draft curtains used to satisfy code on a grand staircase.

This B Occupancy is an 11-story office building that is the new home to the Tommy Bahama brand in downtown Seattle. Three M3000 horizontal curtains were used to separate the ground floor from four-story light wells above. As you can see, it is a very modern industrial look which exposes the entire horizontal curtain, even the control boxes become part of the décor.

When the University of Nebraska contracted RDG to design the new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory on the Lincoln campus they utilized flexible fire-rated curtains to satisfy code and maintain long atrium space. Here a perimeter curtain partitions a communicating stair.

Revamping an existing structure always has challenges. While puzzling through the new Facebook offices in Playa Vista, CA architects at Gensler recently provided deployable fire + smoke protection around a two-story atrium by specifying a four-sided (36' w x 32' w x 12' h) M4000 Perimeter curtain. Check out this great looking installation!

Horizontal fire-rated curtain deploys to protect opening in two-story atrium.

Our Smoke Guard M2100 vertical curtains are used to provide smoke protection second floor openings to an atrium space during testing of fire alarms.

See Smoke Guard's M4000 smoke control system in a two-story communicating stair application at the Spanx Corporate Office in Atlanta, Georgia.

Smoke Guard’s state-of-the-art "Super Sensor™" is a unique advancement in the fire and smoke curtain industry. Concealed in the M4000 perimeter system, the patent-pending Smoke Guard Super Sensor™ uses advanced technology to alert the system to an obstruction. Detection of an obstruction halts the deployment of the system in time to avoid entrapment and prevent damage to the system which could result in costly repairs.

Designers of a senior living apartment in Irvine, CA utilized three fire-rated curtains to protect lobby and atrium space

Providing fire and smoke protection for an atrium can become a difficult task, especially when aspiring for an open design. In the past, traditional options also tend to cause unwanted separation, but now there is a new solution provided by Smoke Guard’s M4000 Fire Curtain. With the M4000 perimeter curtain, a large tech company was offered a solution that allowed the most flexibility with open design. Traditionally, the approach to eliminate the need for smoke control would require enclosing the atrium with glass or breaking it up with columns, walls, and vertical coiling steel fire doors. For this space, that was not the desired outcome. The M4000 perimeter curtain's low profile comes from its ability to easily fit within the ceiling and to make turns, allowing the M4000 to encapsulate the atrium without the need of side guides or any exposed structure. When the M4000 is in its stored position, only its outline can be seen and it is flush with the ceiling.

Horizontally deploying fire and smoke curtains provide a unique tool for fire protection engineers who work with architects to design interesting and functional interiors spaces that adhere to modern fire codes. Designed for use in atria, the M3000 integrates with the floor deck and can provide smoke containment that reduces or eliminates the need to mechanical smoke evacuation systems.

Case Study: Smoke Guard systems deploy in Tokyo, Japan during an apartment fire preventing vertical smoke migration throughout the building.

A brief overview of our company – you'll get some history about where we started. Today, a few of the titles have changed, but many of the faces remain the same.