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New Method of evaluating and strengthening of Soft Story Buildings

A small investment in engineering will potentially save on overall project construction costs.

Public Meeting Held To Discuss Berkeley Proposed Ordinance

Last month on October 10th, the City of Berkeley co-sponsored with the ASUC (Associated Students of University of California) Office of the External Affairs VP held a public meeting and requested building owners, and all people interested in improving the safety of housing in Berkeley, to come. The meeting was to discuss an ordinance that […]

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 […]

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 […]

Why Retrofit?

Although current soft-story ordinances do not require a mandatory retrofit of your building, you must retrofit your building to have it removed from the soft-story inventory list.  To encourage owners to complete voluntary retrofits, the City of Alameda will waive all plan review and inspection fees for soft-story retrofit projects if they are submitted within […]

Soft-Story Buildings: An Overview

What is a soft-story building? The term “soft-story building” describes a building with a level or story that is significantly more flexible than the stories above it, which can be hazardous in the event of an earthquake. In multi-unit wood-frame buildings, weakness at the ground level stems from large openings in perimeter walls or insufficient […]