I’m often struck by buildings with safety measures that have clearly been added on later, e.g., railings, fences, etc. Like this view from a proposed observation deck on the Chrysler building: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19989364/Screen_Shot_2020_05_20_at_11.07.25_AM.png (from https://ny.curbed.com/2020/5/20/21264740/chrysler-building-new-observation-deck)
Even the original railing itself looks like it was an afterthought. Why would the original designer think that a knee-height wall was a sufficient safety measure for a terrace?
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Safety culture changed a lot over the years. A knee-height wall is perfectly fine 99.99% of the time, and the existing railing is probably fine in 99.9999% of cases. If you think about it, when was the last time you accidentally fell over a knee-height wall?
But today’s approach to safety is more rigorous, and less dependent on the user being conscious of the dangers. You want to make it extremely hard to even intentionally cause an accident.
It’s all cultural. I live in a mountainous country, and there are lots of pretty popular trails that have 100+ meter drops to their sides, secured by nothing, or at the very best a rope anchored to the side of the rock to hold onto. The fact that ~100 people die from hiking and mountain climbing accidents every year is just an accepted risk. One that building planners don’t want to take (anymore).
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