This is a post-event investigation project to learn engineering lessons from the Loma Prieta earthquake (October 1989). The design criteria and instrumented response of three San Francisco Bay Area structures will be studied in this project. Located in San Francisco, Emeryville, and San Jose, California, respectively, each of the three buildings was designed for lateral forces greater than those required by the governing codes. Furthermore, none of the three structures incurred significant damage during the earthquake. The design criteria for all three buildings was developed by URS/John A. Blume & Associates, Engineers of San Francisco. The objective of the research is two-fold. First, to assess the adequacy of code lateral force provisions for the design of buildings in regions of high seismicity and to determine the advantages of using more rigorously developed design criteria. The second is to construct computer models of the three predicted with measured response. Through this study the use of complex finite element codes for the purpose of dynamic structural analysis will be verified and the opportunity for system identification studies of the three subject structures will be presented. The research will provide a rational assessment of the effectiveness of rigorous design requirements through a comparison of demand and capacity resulting from code level forces, specified design forces, and the actual forces developed in the earthquake.
