As prime consultant, Degenkolb designed the seismic upgrade of a 15-story, 600,000 square-foot office building in downtown Oakland. The building has a lateral force resisting system consisting of steel moment resisting frames similar to those that were heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Design method combines connection retrofits with the addition of viscous damping elements. Nonlinear time history analyses of the retrofitted building model was used to verify that the design met the State of California’s design requirements. The innovative project is a 2010 ACEC California Merit Award Winner, 2011 ATC-SEI Top Seismic Project Awards, and 2011 SEAONC Engineering Excellence- Merit Award.

Features:

• 15-story office tower
• 750,000 square feet
• Seismic retrofit incorporated combination of viscous dampers and connection retrofits
• 2010 ACEC California Merit Award Winner; 2011 ATC-SEI Top Seismic Project Awards; 2011 SEAONC Engineering Excellence- Merit Award.
• Structural System: Lateral force resisting system consisting of steel moment resisting frames.

Benefits:

• Designed for improved performance and post-earthquake functionality
• Acted as Prime Design Professional
• Construction work performed in occupied building per full phasing plan prepared by Design Team to minimize disruption to building occupants.