“If you own a soft-story building, it may be advantageous for you to take voluntary measures that will save you a considerable amount of money in the end. Owners of pre-1973 soft story buildings can sign up for voluntary retrofitting and get their building permit expedited and fees waived. Being pro-active may also help you […]

Our hearts and minds are with the Japanese people as they continue to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. We are in awe of the resilience they have shown and wish them a better and brighter future.

It is important to ensure that our homes or apartment buildings are structurally sound in the event of an earthquake.  Follow the link to a quiz to help you determine your building’s seismic vulnerabilities: http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/fixit/quiz/index.html If you have any further questions or if you would like to evaluate your building by the seismic design professional, feel free […]

The City of Alameda was awarded by the Northern California Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) for its  soft story ordinance.  The city has  already to notified owners of  75 soft story buildings so far.  For more information see this article in the Alameda Sun. http://alamedasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7949&Itemid=10

A plan to spend $46 million to seismically retrofit buildings with affordable-housing units was defeated by voters in the election earlier this month. The proposition needed a two-thirds vote to pass, but it fell just shy the votes it needed. For more information follow the link to the SF Gate:      http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/03/MNNS1G69CV.DTL&type=politics Scroll down to Measure […]

Earthquake vulnerabilities in San Francisco Estimated losses in the event of a big earthquake: Deaths: Up to 1,000 Housing units lost: 85,000 Cost to repair building damage: $17 billion to $54 billion Business losses: $5 billion to $15 billion Source: San Francisco’s Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety project, Oct. 7 presentation Read more at […]

This week, at the invitation of the City of Oakland, I participated in a follow up meeting for the Level 1 Screening trained inspectors for the City’s Soft Story Program. The City was interested in feedback from inspectors who have submitted Level 1 Screenings. Inspectors suggested improvements to the Level 1 forms and for clarification […]

According to a recent article in Daily Cal, the following are most recent statistics of the Berkeley Soft Story Ordinance compliance Current number of building subject to the ordinance requirements 270 Building owners not in compliance with notification and warning pasting requirements 50% Building owners not in compliance of filing of the engineering reports 13% […]

Check out this article discussing one of our seismic retrofit projects in Petaluma: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100816/ARTICLES/100819601/1349?Title=Work-starts-on-eyesore- The project involves a seismic retrofit, renovations and addition to the turn of the last century prominent brick building in downtown Petaluma.  Steel braced frames along the longitudinal walls and shop welded, field bolted steel moment frames in transverse direction were […]

Proposition A is a bond measure that gives loans for seismic retrofit of “soft-story” buildings with affordable units. Mayor Newsom, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, David Chiu, City Administrator Ed Lee and Gabe Metcalf of SPUR wrote the official “yes” argument – with the question: “remember Hurricane Katrina?” Paid arguments by the Chamber of Commerce, DBI […]