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Soft-Story Retrofits for Building Resiliency

Creating Awareness, Education and Solutions for Soft-Story Retrofits Against Earthquakes

Soft-story structures, popular on the West Coast, are typically multi-story residential buildings built above a ground-level garage, tuck-under parking garage or a storefront. Their mixed use design often means wider openings and fewer partition walls on the first story than on the upper stories, leaving soft-story buildings structurally vulnerable in the event of a major earthquake. During the 1971 San Fernando, 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, soft-story buildings sustained major damage or collapsed entirely.

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For years, cities on the West Coast have recommended soft-story retrofits for thousands of residential structures to increase building resiliency. Cities such as San Francisco, Berkeley and Los Angeles have already passed laws that require a mandatory retrofit for certain soft-story residential buildings, and many other cities are following suit.

The soft-story retrofitting process may seem complicated, but we have provided information for each step along the way. Whether you are a building owner, engineer, architect, contractor or inspector, we have useful information to help you navigate your soft-story retrofit from the beginning stage of receiving a mandate letter to the latter stage of implementing a soft-story retrofit solution.

SF Ordinance and Retrofit Solutions

San Francisco

Understanding the San Francisco Ordinance and Retrofit Solutions -  The Strong Frame® special moment frame: an ideal, safe and cost-effective solution

LA Ordinance and Retrofit Solutions

Los Angeles

Understanding the Los Angeles Ordinance and Retrofit Solutions - The Strong Frame® special moment frame: an ideal, safe and cost-effective solution

Navigate your soft-story retrofit project, from beginning to end, whatever your role

Soft-Story Retrofit Articles and News

With mandates and ordinances passed in a number of West Coast cities, soft-story retrofit headlines are more frequently seen in the news. Below are select articles on the topic that may be of interest.

The owners of nearly 500 "soft story" buildings missed a city deadline Friday to apply for permits to do seismic retrofitting work, a San Francisco building department official said today. Read full article.

Bay City News Service | S.F. Gate | 9/18/2017