KATARA HOTEL Doha, Qatar CHALLENGE Find a solution for a noncompliant safety aspect for a building already under construction I n early 2017, I was assigned to review a multi-use building in Doha to rectify a number of items that were not code compliant. Among the challenges was the fact that the foundation of the building had already been laid, even though the project design was still undergoing many changes. The distinctive design of the Katara Hotel was inspired by the symbol of Qatar, with the two crossing " blades " of the structure creating a pair of luxurious hotels. The hotels sat atop a huge podium, with the entire structure rising to a height of 709 feet (216 meters), with nearly 29 feet (9 meters) below grade. The area of the discharge level was very large, and most of the exit stairs were not located close enough to the external elevation to create a direct exit discharge in line with NFPA 101. The structure included 31 exit stairs with no possibility to change most of the stair locations or their width. For the building to be approved, we would need to ensure it complied with NFPA 101, Section 7.7 ( " Discharge from NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 45 GETTY IMAGEShttps://www.nfpa.org/journal