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During
the Loma
Prieta Earthquake, the shear core of this
building was extensively damaged even though the ground motion was
slight. What made this unusual was that all of the upper
floors were suspended from by steel straps over the top of the shear
core; they
were designed to remain stationary in space while an earthquake moved
the shear
core; the core was lightly reinforced because it was independent of the
inertia
from the floors. We were hired to
investigate the cause of this damage and design a repair.
During
our investigation, we discovered that
the floors were attached to the shear core during original
construction. We also discovered that the building would
fail its foundation and tip over during a maximum credible
earthquake. We designed a new steel framed building that
would surround the old building and double its floor space while
modernizing
its design.
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