A small investment in engineering will potentially save on overall project construction costs.
New Method of evaluating and strengthening of Soft Story Buildings
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=409
El Cerrito Now Requires Mandatory Retrofit
Inside the Bay Area reported that El Cerrito has adopted a mandatory retrofit ordinance twenty years after the Loma Prieta earthquake. This program had supporters including an earthquake geologist who expressed that URM’s are a definitive factor on who survives in the event of an earthquake. He also stated that in April a moderate earthquake […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=388
LA To Inspect 29,000 buildings built before 1978.
The Los Angeles Times reported that city housing officials have provided addresses to 29,000 apartment buildings in Los Angeles built before 1978 to city inspectors. City inspectors will have to access which are soft-story and vulnerable to collapse in the event of a major earthquake. This will most likely require building officials to visit to […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=382
San Francisco Soft Story Screening Forms Are Being Mailed This Week
A licensed architect or civil or structural engineer would need to visit the building and complete your screening form as it requires a better understanding of ordinance, scope, code language, and construction type, than is typically possessed by a building owner or a contractor.
Enginious Structures, Inc. can assist you in the screening of your building and completing the form for you. This will clarify whether or not you are exempt from any further action. The form requires a design professional to answer the following questions.
• Is the building wood-frame construction?
• Was the building permitted prior to January 1, 1978?
• Is the building three or more stories, or two stories over a basement or under floor area that extends above the grade? (Please, keep in mind that the definition of “stories” that the Department of Building Inspection utilizes may not be what you are familiar with.)
• Does the building contain five or more dwelling units?
If we find that the answer is yes to any of the department questions but you still believe your building is exempt you can file the optional evaluation form as discussed above. We can assist you in this process as well.
Our fee for the site visit and filling out the screening form is $250- $500 depending on the building size. However, if the building needs further evaluation and you hire us to do this evaluation and design a retrofit if necessary we will deduct the evaluation cost from our design fee; so the cost of the screening is essentially zero.
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=351
New Research on Soft-Story Retrofitting
A team of researches at Colorado State University have found that earthquake retrofitting significantly lessens the probability of a soft-story building’s collapse. While the stronger earthquakes that were tested caused some damage to the model buildings, the structures remained safe for occupancy, unlike the models that had not been strengthened prior to testing. To read […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=328
Public Meeting to Discuss Proposed Required Retrofit of Soft Story Buildings in Berkeley
There will be a public meeting on Thursday, July 25, 2013 at 7 PM in the North Berkeley Senior Center (1901 Hearst Avenue). This meeting will introduce and discuss a proposed ordinance that requires residential buildings with five or more units to be seismically retrofitted if the building is constructed with soft, weak, or open […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=309
Mandatory Retrofitting of SF’s Soft Story Buildings
Last week, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors and City Officials signed the Mandatory Seismic Retrofit Program for Soft Story Wood Frame Buildings. This measure will strengthen thousands of San Francisco’s buildings and assure a faster recovery from future earthquakes. Over 55,000 San Franciscans live in wood-frame buildings built before 1978, […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=183
D/B or not D/B, that is the question
The term “soft story” building describes a building with a level or story that is significantly more flexible than stories above it, such as an open parking area or a commercial space, which can be hazardous in the event of an earthquake. The Bay Area has thousands of these building. Damage to soft story buildings […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=153
What did we learn from the SF voluntary soft story ordinance – Voluntary programs don’t work!
Voluntary programs don’t work!
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=134
San Francisco Soft-Story Ordinance
On March 16, 2010, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a voluntary soft-story retrofit program, which will take effect on April 19, 2010. This program benefits soft-story building owners who voluntary retrofit their buildings by: Waiving building department plan review fees, which can amount to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per project. Expediting […]
http://enginious-structures.com/softstoryblog/?p=55