Los Angeles has a new seismic safety plan that gives owners of soft-story wood framed buildings 5 years to retrofit their property. Many of the estimated 16,000 soft-story buildings in Los Angeles are apartments.

“These new programs will improve the earthquake performance of some of Los Angeles’s more vulnerable buildings that could collapse during a major earthquake. Los Angeles during the last year has undertaken the tremendous task of understanding the earthquake collapse risks associated with Soft-Story Wood Framed Buildings and Non-Ductile Concrete Buildings.”  said Michael Cochran, President of the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) who partnered with the Los Angeles City Department of Building and Safety to draft the new seismic resiliency recommendations.

The Los Angeles Resilience by Design Program has the potential to save thousands of lives and billions of dollars when the next big quake hits the San Andreas Fault, which has long been a concern for scientists and the city.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about soft-story retrofitting or your building, feel free to give me a call at (510) 272-9999 or e-mail me at info@test.enginious-structures.com.