Controlled Exit Devices
Help Keep Visitors Out In The Open At New JCPenney
Headquarters In Texas
Plano, Texas
Controlled exit devices on stairwell
doors at the new 2.1 million sq. ft. home office
of the JCPenney Company, Inc. near Dallas are helping
to maintain security as well as providing life safety
protection. As part of the security system at the
three-story, eight-building complex, Von
Duprin Chexit devices are tied into a card access
system to provide controlled access with event recording
when needed, while still allowing emergency egress.
The company's headquarters is a busy place, with
a large volume of vendors and other visitors coming
and going throughout the business day. Two well-equipped
Visitor Centers provide some security control in
the high-tech, people-oriented complex. It has a
deliberately open atrium design that encourages
idea interchange and synergism between Penney employees,
known as associates. To keep unauthorized people
out of fire stairwells and similarly restricted
areas, exit devices on doors leading to these locations
are tied to the building's computerized security
system and require a magnetic card to operate, particularly
outside of normal office hours. Doors providing
egress into the stairwells and from the stairwells
to each of the floors are controlled. In these cases,
there are card readers on both sides of the door.
The original plan was to require card access at
all times, but traffic patterns developed among
the associates that precluded this arrangement,
and the stairwells are now secured primarily after
the offices close, to prevent unauthorized use.
Now, during hours when the system is fully operational,
an associate needs to use his or her magnetic card
to enter the stairwell. Software makes it possible
for the system to keep a record of card access incidents,
a capability that is now used primarily in sensitive
areas and after hours for tighter security control.
 Controlled
exit devices restrict access from within stairwells
to office floors as well as to truck docks and outside
areas, allowing tighter security control during
non-office hours or as needed.
On a typical stairwell, the card
reader signal unlocks the lever trim or unblocks
the pushpad on the Chexit device, allowing normal
operation once the card is swiped but relocking
after use. Doors leading to other floors, as well
as to outside entrances or truck docks, whether
from stairwells or other locations, are also protected.
To allow emergency egress at any time, however,
the Chexit device will sound an alarm for 15 seconds
and then allow the door to be opened. This delay,
and a signal activated in the building's command
center, provide an opportunity for company security
personnel to respond. In case of a fire or similar
emergency, the system would go into a failsafe
mode, unlocking the exit devices to permit immediate
egress.
The Chexit device is a self-contained delayed
exit system designed to meet combined life safety
and security needs. All controls, including auxiliary
locking, local alarm and remote signalling output,
are located in one easy-to-install and simple-to-operate
exit device. The Chexit device carries a UL listing
as a Controlled Exit Panic Device for fire doors.
It can be armed and disarmed with a key cylinder
located on front surface of the device, and an
LED indicator shows its status under all lighting
conditions. While a small number of vertical rod
devices are used in the building service areas,
most are single-door mortise lock applications.
Approximately 100 of the controlled exit devices
are used in the offices, as well as matching conventional
98 Series Von Duprin
devices on non-secured doors. All doors are
48 inches wide and about 7 feet high, and most
are two-hour fire doors of solid wood core construction.
Power supplies for the electrified devices are
either above the high ceiling or in a remote electrical
closet on the floor, to prevent tampering, as
well as for wiring efficiency.
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