The International Code Council (ICC) is an American nonprofit standards organization sponsored by the building trades, which was founded in 1994 through the merger of three regional model code organizations in the American construction industry. Since 2023, ICC's headquarters has been based at Capitol Crossing in Washington, D.C. The organization creates what it calls the International Building Code (IBC) and International Residential Code (IRC), two model building codes, which have been adopted for use as a base code standard by most jurisdictions within the United States. The ICC's model codes have been criticized for inflating housing costs and reducing housing supply in the United States through arbitrary and stringent standards that do little for safety and are out of sync with best practices in other countries. The IBC has contributed to the spread of 5-over-1 type of buildings across the US and contributed to a lack of medium-density housing (so-called "missing middle housing"). Despite its name, the International Code Council is not an international organization, its codes are rarely used outside the United States, and its regulations do not consistently follow international best practices. According to the ICC, the IBC is intended to protect public health and safety while avoiding both unnecessary costs and preferential treatment of specific materials or methods of construction. According to the American Libertarian think tank Cato Institute, "Building code rules can add significantly to the cost of constructing new housing. Codes have ballooned in length and complexity", additionally, "...building code changes adopted just since 2012 account for 11 percent of the cost of building new apartments..." According to Open Secrets, expenditures on lobbying for the ICC in 2024 was $712,500.
ICC Model Codes International Building Code (IBC) International Residential Code (IRC) International Fire Code (IFC) International Plumbing Code (IPC) International Mechanical Code (IMC) International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) ICC Performance Code (ICCPC) International Wildland Urban Interface Code (IWUIC) International Existing Building Code (IEBC) International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) International Private Sewage Disposal Code (IPSDC) International Zoning Code (IZC) International Green Construction Code (IgCC) International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC)
History Since the early twentieth century, the system of building regulations in the United States has been based on model building codes developed by three regional model code groups and adopted in a piecemeal fashion by local and state governments. The National Codes developed by the Building Officials Code Administrators International (BOCA) were used on the East Coast and throughout the Midwest of the United States. The Standard Codes from the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) were used in the Southeast. The Uniform Codes published by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) were used primarily throughout the West Coast and across a large swath of the middle of the country to most of the Midwest. In 1972, BOCA, SBCCI, and ICBO created the Council of American Building Officials (CABO) to prepare a national building code for residential construction. CABO's One and Two Family Dwelling Code was adopted by only a handful of U.S. jurisdictions; the rest preferred to stick with the regional building codes. In 1994, BOCA, SBCCI, and ICBO merged to form the International Code Council (ICC) in order to develop a comprehensive set of building codes that would have no regional limitations: the International Codes (or I-Codes). There were several free trade developments that led to the founding of ICC: the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the formation of the European Union, and the EU's efforts to unify standards for building design, construction, and materials across the European Single Market (the Eurocodes). All these developments caused American construction professionals and manufacturers to push for a nationwide building code in the United States, so that they could waste less time and money complying with different provisions of the regional codes and could instead focus on compliance with other countries' building codes in order to compete internationally for construction projects. After three years of extensive research and development, the first edition of the International Building Code was published in 2000. A new code edition has since been released every three years thereafter. The code was patterned on the three legacy codes previously developed by the organizations that had formed ICC. By the year 2000, ICC had completed the International Codes series and ceased development of the legacy codes in favor of their national successors. The word "International" in the names of the ICC and all three of its predecessors, as well as the IBC and other ICC products, despite all 18 of the company's board members being residents of the United States, reflects the fact that a number of other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America had already begun to rely on model building codes developed in the United States rather than developing their own. Bermuda was using codes by BOCA and Western Samoa was using ICBO codes. ICC was thus aware that it was writing model codes for an international audience. "Calling it 'international' keeps it from being called the 'U.S. Building Code,'" explains Bill Tangye, SBCCI Chief Executive Officer.
Legacy codes BOCA National Building Code (BOCA/NBC) by the Building Officials Code Administrators International (BOCA) Uniform Building Code (UBC) by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) Standard Building Code (SBC) by the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI)
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