Glendale, CA

Glendale High School Administration Building

Scope/Solutions

Constructed in 1969, this two-story building houses administrative offices and the school library. As part of a campus modernization project, Glendale High School wanted to mitigate the seismic deficiencies resulting from a soft-story irregularity. SGH evaluated the existing concrete structure and developed a seismic retrofit program.

SGH performed nonlinear static pushover analysis following ASCE 41 guidelines. We established performance objectives to provide Life Safety in a 500-year earthquake and Collapse Prevention in a 2500-year earthquake.  Highlights of our retrofit design include the following:

  • Reduced the high drift demand of the soft-story structure by adding eight diagonal braces
  • Used friction dampers in the braces to limit the force transferred into the existing structure and reduce the demands on brace connections to the existing structure
  • Improved the building’s tolerance to drift by jacketing concrete columns with steel shells, increasing the ductility

 

Our approach necessitated a more intensive structural analysis, but allowed us to develop a more cost-effective and constructible solution than could be achieved with code-based procedures and elastic analyses. SGH performed the analysis, design, and production of construction documents for the alternative solution on a expedited schedule to meet the scheduled design completion date.

Project Summary

completion-date

2011

Completion Date
Solutions
Repair & Rehabilitation
Services
Structures
Markets
Education
Client(s)
gkkworks
Specialized Capabilities
Seismic Engineering

Key team members

Ronald Hamburger
Ronald Hamburger
Consulting Principal