While this restraint goes beyond the requirements of the Building Code, owners such as the Boeing Company have included these anchors in many of their new and existing buildings to improve the performance of their facilities in the event of an earthquake. The users and operators of emergency response centers, data storage centers, and medical facilities must have structures that are operational during and immediately after an earthquake. Structural engineers have several methods to achieve this higher level of performance. One solution uses base isolation to dramatically reduce the damage to these facilities. The University of Southern California Teaching Hospital, the first base-isolated hospital in the world, was operational immediately after the Northridge earthquake, while portions of St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica were closed for six months after the earthquake.
Structural engineers learn more about building performance after every earthquake.
Building owners and agency leaders are also learning that a building designed to conform with the Building Code may not be functional after an earthquake. By working together, engineers and owners can determine an appropriate criteria to drastically reduce the impact of the next earthquake. Craig Olson, P.E. and Greg Varney, P.E. are both structural engineers with KPFF Consulting Engineers in Seattle.