FEMA 273 Evaluation of the U.S. Courthouse, Seattle
Publication: Structures 2001: A Structural Engineering Odyssey
Abstract
The U.S. Courthouse Building in Seattle was evaluated using the procedures described in the publication NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings FEMA 273. A parallel evaluation using "prevailing local practice" was also carried out. For the Seattle area in 1998, prevailing local practice consists of identifying life safety deficiencies using procedures described in the publication NEHRP Handbook for the Seismic Evaluation of Existing Buildings FEMA 178, then designing rehabilitation measures that mitigate these deficiencies. In general, it was found that the FEMA 273 evaluation was much more complicated to perform than the prevailing practice evaluation, and that the resulting retrofit scheme was more extensive and more costly. Based on our experience with other concrete shear wall buildings, and based on the parallel prevailing practice evaluation for this building, it is our opinion that the retrofit scheme resulting from the FEMA 273 evaluation is conservative. We recommend that further effort be devoted to simplifying and calibrating the FEMA 273 procedures.
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© 2001 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Apr 26, 2012
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Buildings
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction methods
- Earthquake engineering
- Earthquakes
- Engineering fundamentals
- Facilities (by type)
- Federal government
- Geohazards
- Geotechnical engineering
- Government
- Government buildings
- Information management
- Organizations
- Practice and Profession
- Public buildings
- Publications
- Rehabilitation
- Seismic design
- Seismic effects
- Seismic tests
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Tests (by type)
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