The major change introduced in 1996 is that the Standard is now a building-wide method of measurement, as opposed to previous versions which were more of a floor-by-floor method. Now, spaces that clearly benefit all building occupants can be measured and allocated to all, no matter what floor they occupy, on a pro-rata basis.

Surveys undertaken by BOMA International in 1992 indicated that though the BOMA 1980 Standard was commonly used as a means of measuring office space, it was not being universally applied on a floor-by-floor basis. Buildings built in the 1980's began including such areas as spacious ground-floor lobbies, health clubs and exercise facilitites, daycare centres, conference rooms, as well as service areas such as refuse areas, loading docks, and main electrical rooms. Often, these areas were not being included in a building's total rentable area, and most certainly were not being allocated fairly to building occupants who used these facilities.

Additionally, it was felt many of the diagrams and explanations in the 1980 version needed to be clarified and expanded upon, as there were many unanswered questions pertaining to the old Standard.

In order to meet its goals of clarification, as well as implementation of the concept of a building-wide method of measurement, the 1996 Standard introduces a variety of new definitions, such as Floor Usable Area, Floor Rentable Area, Floor Common Area, and Building Common Area. As well, a format was laid out for the Global Summary of Areas, which lends itself well to a spreadsheet implementation for the many intermediate calculations now required to calculate final Rentable areas of a building.

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