San Francisco, CA
Applied Technology Council, ATC-58 Project
Scope/Solutions
In the mid-1990s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supported a joint effort of the Applied Technology Council (ATC), American Society of Civil Engineers, and Building Seismic Safety Council to develop seismic retrofit design guidelines, providing the first true performance-based seismic design criteria. This design approach quickly gained popularity and the industry looked to apply it to new building design. In 2001, FEMA contracted with the ATC to develop Next-Generation Performance-Based Seismic Design Criteria for New and Existing Buildings. Ronald O. Hamburger, Senior Principal at SGH, served as Project Technical Director for the ATC-58 projects throughout the sixteen-year duration. SGH engineers participated in several technical tasks, including developing nonstructural fragilities, performing example evaluations of buildings, and conducting training seminars.
The FEMA P-58/ATC58 projects produced a series of products under the Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings (FEMA P-58) publication series, including guidelines describing a probabilistic methodology to evaluate building performance in future earthquakes using a Monte Carlo simulation approach, software enabling implementation of the methodology, design guidelines, and stakeholder guides. The main products are summarized as follows:
- FEMA P-58-1 Report: Methodology
- FEMA P-58-2 Report: Implementation Guide
- FEMA P-58-3 Report: Supporting Electronic Materials and Background Documentation
- FEMA P-58-4 Report: Methodology for Assessing Environmental Impacts
- Performance Assessment Calculation Tool (PACT) Software
Project Summary
2017
Key team members
