Patent ID: 6935077

Claim:
An earthquake-immune exterior wall system for use with a multi-story building structure, the wall system comprising: a plurality of exterior wall panels; a plurality of structural connectors, each attached to respective for structurally coupling one of the respective exterior wall panels to the building structure for a single story of the multi-story building structure so that a plurality of the exterior wall panels are structurally coupled to each of multiple adjacent stories of the multi-story building structure; and a plurality of elongate seismic decoupler joints each comprising the sole connection between the exterior wall panels on any one story to the exterior wall panels on an adjacent story of the multi-story building structure, each seismic decoupler joint being of one piece and spanning an entire width of the any one story and being mechanically interlocked to the exterior wall panels, the decoupler joints permitting free in-plane, out-of-plane, and vertical interstory movement of the exterior wall panels on any one story relative to the exterior wall panels on an adjacent story of the multi-story building structure so that loads are not transferred between the exterior wall panels on any one story to the exterior wall panels on an adjacent story of the multi-story building structure if the building structure undergoes swaying motion.