The March 2011 earthquake in Japan was over 100 times stronger than the earthquake that leveled entire cities in Haiti in 2010. In Japan there was minimal damage to structures due to the ground shaking (the 30’ tsunami is another matter). The difference is in a word …. Design. The science of building structures to resist earthquake forces has grown significantly in recent years. Additionally our understanding of regional earthquake vulnerabilities has also changed dramatically. Changes to the building codes in the past decade have had minimal impacts on areas of the country such as California, where the importance of design for earthquake forces has long been recognized and accepted. In the Midwest , however, we’ve seen dramatic increases in the seismic forces that the Building Codes mandate. In addition, the relevant sections of the Building Code have increased about tenfold in volume. These code changes have led to much confusion and, in many cases, buildings are designed which do not conform to the requirements of the building code.
We understand the complexities and vagaries of the Code requirements (so that you don’t have to) and how to design safe code compliant structures. In our careers we have provided engineering on projects on each of the coasts and most states in between. This experience allows us to understand the requirements of the code and how to apply it to each unique situation. We hope to help you understand the basic requirements so that we can work together to avoid making things more complicated than necessary. This may take the form of working with architects/owners on our projects or working as a third party consultant to provide peer reviews or even schematic level system design on projects in high seismic areas or on seismic retrofit projects.