It only takes a glance at the news to see what earthquakes can do to buildings unprepared for strong shaking. The cracks, crumbling and total collapses of walls, floors, ceilings and facades can kill hundreds of people, leave thousands homeless, and disrupt critical infrastructure for months or longer. Many earthquake-damaged […]
Earthquakes are a part of life in Southern California. “The Big One” can hit anytime. Buildings with a “soft-story” are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. Soft-story buildings usually have a large, open ground floor space like a parking area, with one or more stories above it. Without shear walls and other […]
In recent decades, engineers and architects have learned a lot about how to make structures more impervious to earthquakes. New materials and designs have been introduced to make buildings better equipped for future earthquakes to come.
However, there are delays in building authorities adopting these newly developed materials due to inertia […]
Though engineering standards and their relationship to seismic activity have been a concern for well over a century, significant strides have been made in recent decades about understanding the forces of earthquakes on buildings. This increased knowledge has allowed us to not only design structures that are more earthquake resistant, […]
Five years after the City of Los Angeles enacted what was at the time the nation’s most sweeping earthquake retrofit law, progress toward resilience has taken a resounding leap forward.
A “safety revolution” is spreading along our streets and back alleys, with steel frames and strong walls fortifying buildings that were […]
If you’ve ever driven down the 405 freeway in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, you have passed by the sprawling 95-acre Anheuser-Busch brewery where, since 1954, some of the world’s most famous beer brands such as Budweiser, Bud Light and Michelob, and more recent labels like Bud Ice, Kirin Ichiban and […]
