A professional organization that promotes building safety and works to advance the understanding and enforcement of the state building code has honored a New Canaan municipal employee with a prestigious award.
New Canaan Chief Building Official Brian Platz this summer received the Clifton Clark Award from the Connecticut Building Officials Association. Credit: Michael Dinan
Chief Building Official Brian Platz, in the important position here for nearly 12 years, has received the Clifton Clark Award from the Connecticut Building Officials Association.
“What makes this special is that it is my peers, and the best of my peers, are the ones that actually vote on that,” Platz said on a recent morning from his office at Town Hall, a plaque for the award on his desk.
“It’s a panel. It’s not one person. It’s not a popularity contest. And there are no specific criteria. It’s basically contributions to our profession—to code adoption process, to the Connecticut Building Officials Association, of which I am a past president. I served on the executive board for CBOA for almost 10 years.”
The Clifton Clark Award from the Connecticut Building Officials Association went to New Canaan Chief Building Official Brian Platz.
Dated June 15, the inscription on the plaque reads: “In recognition of an exceptional contribution to building safety in Connecticut.”
A Queens, N.Y. native who served as an infantryman for four years with the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating high school in 1980, Platz had worked as a carpenter for the city of Danbury for 17 years prior to working as the assistant building official in Ridgefield.
Platz was there for about four years and has been in New Canaan for 11.5 years, he said.
First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said he heard about the award from human resources in town and went to congratulate Platz in person.
“I am pleased to have an employee get that kind of respect from his peers,” Mallozzi said.
Asked about what he’s seen as New Canaan’s building official, Platz said that “in the code world, one of the things I have seen—and I’m not happy to report this—is that the code is becoming more and more product driven.”
“I’m not especially happy about that. We are seeing products written into and mandated by the code. For example, there was a big push for sprinkler systems in single-family dwellings.”
Part of what’s “disheartening” about the trend, Platz said, is that “I am still a believer in a man’s home being his castle.”
“And it’s very easy to get caught up with the enforcement of codes and statutes, but there’s a little-known document called the U.S. Constitution and somewhere in there it says a man’s home is his castle.”
The award from CBOA is a high honor, Platz said.
“In my world, in the building inspector world, that’s the Oscar,” he said. “That’s big in my world.”