Building Types and Exempt Building Types in Oklahoma

Per 59 OS 46.21b, the following building types require an Architect or are exempt from needing an Architect to design and seal all architectural plans, based upon the building's Code Use Group:
(All codes used in Oklahoma are adopted from the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission. For a complete list of codes, please visit their website.)

 

Examples of Common Buildings for Each Code Use Group

Common I Buildings: Assisted living facilities, group homes, social rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, nursing homes, foster care facilities, detoxification facilities, psychiatric hospitals, detention centers, jails, adult day care centers, child day care centers

Common A-1 Buildings: Movie theaters, symphony and concert halls, television and radio studios with space for an audience, theaters

Common A-4 Buildings: Arenas, skating rinks, swimming pools, tennis courts

Common A-5 Buildings: Amusement park structures, bleachers, grandstands, stadiums

Common A-2 and A-3 Buildings: Banquet halls, casinos, nightclubs, restaurants, cafeterias, taverns, bars, arcades, art galleries, bowling alleys, community halls, courtrooms, funeral parlors, gymnasiums (without spectator seating), lecture halls, libraries, museums, places of religious worship, pool and billiard halls, waiting areas in transportation terminals

Common E Buildings: Schools and all related buildings, religious educational rooms and auditoriums

Common R-1 Buildings: hotels, motels, boarding houses (transient)

Common B Buildings: Ambulatory care facilities, animal hospitals, kennels, and pounds, banks, barber and beauty shops, car wash, civic administration, outpatient clinics, dry cleaning and laundries, educational occupancies for students above 12th grade, post offices, print shops, professional services offices (architects, attorneys, dentists, physicians, engineers, etc.), training and skills development not in a school (tutoring centers, gymnastics, martial arts studios, etc.)

Common M Buildings: Medical marijuana center, store, or dispensary, department stores, drug stores, markets, retail or wholesale stores, sales rooms

Common U Buildings: Agricultural buildings, aircraft hangars, barns, carports, fences more than 6ft in height, grain silos, greenhouses, livestock shelters, private garages, sheds, stables, tanks, towers

Common F Buildings: Marijuana grow facilities, marijuana oil extraction operations, marijuana-infused product kitchens/bakeries, factories manufacturing low-hazard items (for a full list of what is considered "low hazard," click here) 

Common H Buildings: Buildings in which high hazard products are manufactured (for a full list of what is considered "high hazard," click here)

Common S Buildings: A space primarily used for storage of moderate- or low-hazardous materials or products

Common R-2 Buildings: Apartment houses, boarding houses (with more than 16 occupants), congregate living facilities (with more than 16 occupants)

Common R-3 and R-4 Buildings: Boarding houses, congregate living facilities, lodging houses

    

*If you have any questions about which types of buildings require an Architect that are not answered by the 59 Oklahoma State Architectural and Registered Commercial Interior Designers Act Section 46.21b, please call the OBA office at (405) 949-2383 or email lauren.vaughan@boardofarch.ok.gov.