Building Code Evolution Due to Extreme Events

This paper will discuss some benchmark, well documented extreme cases relating to earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, winds, floods, and terrorist attacks, and the impact they have had in modifying design standards. The authors will share their experience with responding to events including 9-11, Hurricane Sandy, and recent earthquakes that steered their focus on observing resilient structural performance, instead of failures, as is usually done. The new generation of design standards will incorporate performance targets as they relate to multi-hazard exposure, associated risks, and life cycle parameters. To this end, observation of successful cases despite them experiencing loads higher than their design is invaluable. The complexity of learning from the past and predicting and designing for the next extreme hazard, with its often counter-active character of other associated multi-hazards, in an overall resilience framework will be discussed.