Application and Use 

This standard is intended exclusively for Office Buildings and their associated structures. It is applicable to all

types of Office Buildings, regardless of the nature of the businesses they house; including but not limited to,

various commercial, medical, institutional, and life science uses. It can be used for single tenant, multi-tenant,

or multi-building configurations, and is suitable for measuring new, existing, and proposed Office Buildings.

This standard does not include the measurement of public sidewalks, surface parking, landscaping, drainage

structures, or other site improvements. The primary purpose of this standard is to calculate Rentable Area, a

crucial metric in office leasing. Nevertheless, it also provides area figures useful for space utilization analysis,

valuation, benchmarking, and allocating building expenses across different cost centers.

As of March 2024, BOMA publishes six distinct building measurement standards, each of them targeting

different building types and/or applications. The correct standard to apply is generally determined by a

building's architectural features, and its occupancy type. In most cases, a building whose occupancy comprises

50% or more of a particular use (e.g. Office, Industrial, Retail, or Multi-Family and Hospitality), should use

the corresponding single-use standard; however, any Building with "typical" office building features and

architecture should use this Office Standard.

It is preferable to apply a BOMA single-use standard whenever possible, however the BOMA Mixed-Use

Standard is appropriate for buildings that do not have an easily identifiable “primary use," or where the

provisions of a governing document (such as a lease, cost sharing or easement agreement, condominium

declaration, etc.) constitute an overriding direction with respect to floor measurement. Readers are encouraged

to refer to the latest BOMA Mixed-Use Properties Standard (ANSI/BOMA Z65.6) for more information.

This standard is primarily designed to generate leasing figures based on Rentable Areas according to the

provisions herein. It may also be used for Buildings leased to a single tenant without any other special

considerations; however, for Buildings leased to a single tenant on a gross area basis, the latest BOMA Gross

Areas of a Building Standard should be applied.