Femap 774

Unreinforced Masonry
Buildings and Earthquakes

Developing Successful Risk
Reduction Programs
FEMA P-774 / October 2009
FEMA
The cover photos show significant damage to unreinforced masonry
buildings that resulted from earthquakes occurring over the last century,
across the country.
Front Cover Photo Credits (clockwise from top left):
1886, Charleston, South Carolina: J. K. Hillers, U.S. Geological Survey
2003, San Simeon, California: Josh Marrow, Earthquake Engineering

Research Institute Reconnaissance Team
2001, Nisqually, Washington: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral

Industries
1935, Helena, Montana: L. H. Jorud, courtesy of Montana Historical Society

and Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology
1993, Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral

Industries
2008, Wells, Nevada: Craig dePolo, Wells Earthquake Portal, www.nbmg.unr.

edu/WellsEQ/.
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings
and Earthquakes
Developing Successful Risk Reduction Programs
FEMA P-774/October 2009
Prepared for:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Cathleen Carlisle, Project Monitor
Washington, D.C.
Prepared by:
Applied Technology Council (ATC)
201 Redwood Shores Parkway, Suite 240
Redwood City, California
Principal Author
Robert Reitherman
Contributing Author
Sue C. Perry
Project Manager
Thomas R. McLane
Project Review Panel

Ronald P. Gallagher
Jon A. Heintz
William T. Holmes
Ugo Morelli
Lawrence D. Reaveley
Christopher Rojahn
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recom-
mendations expressed in this publication do not
necessarily reflect the views of FEMA. Additionally,
neither FEMA or any of its employees makes any
warrantee, expressed or implied, or assumes any
legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy,
completeness, or usefulness of any information,
product, or process included in this publication.
Users of information from this publication assume
all liability arising from such use.
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes: Where in the
United States are the Risks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Types of Earthquake Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings . . . . . . . 7

What is Unreinforced Masonry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Examples and Statistics from Past U.S. Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 Developing a Strategy for Implementing a URM Building Risk

Reduction Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Occupancy and Ownership Factors: The People Who Own and Use the Buildings . 16
Historic and Architectural Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Cost Issues Related to Seismic Retrofits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
City Planning Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4 Examples of Successful Risk Reduction Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Compiling an Inventory of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Successful Programs Require Sustained Support and Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Utah: Engineering Inspections Triggered by Re-roofing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Utah: Statewide Inventory of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
State of California Unreinforced Masonry Building Law: Measuring
the Problem and the Progress Toward Addressing It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Seattle, Washington: Saving Historic Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Seattle, Washington: Combining Modernization with Seismic Retrofitting . . . . . 23
Oregon: A Statewide Inventory and Funding Approach for Schools and
Essential Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Berkeley and Other California Cities: Financial Incentives for Retrofitting . . . . . 24
Public Schools in California: A Statewide Approach to a Special Kind of Facility . . 25
Long Beach, California: A Pioneering Accomplishment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Los Angeles, California: Evidence of the Effectiveness of Retrofits . . . . . . . . . . 26
San Luis Obispo, California: Making the Effort to Communicate with
Building Owners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5 Additional Technical Background on Unreinforced Masonry
Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
How Do Unreinforced Masonry Buildings Behave in Earthquakes?. . . . . . . . . . 31
How Are Unreinforced Masonry Buildings Seismically Retrofitted? . . . . . . . . . 34
6 Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Publications for the General Public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Historic Buildings and Seismic Retrofits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Building Inventories and Evaluation of Existing Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Building Codes, Standards, Guidelines, and Laws Applicable to Existing Buildings. 41
Costs of Seismic Retrofits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7 End Notes and Cited References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

8 Project Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1 Introduction
T his document provides guidance on how to develop programs to reduce the

earthquake risks of existing unreinforced masonry buildings. As the fol-
lowing chapters will show, this building type is typically the most seismically
vulnerable category of construction in a community, and it is by far the most
common type of building to be singled out for voluntary or mandatory seismic
risk reduction programs in the United States.
While the information presented here is based on extensive earthquake engineer-

ing knowledge, this guide has been written for use by a non-technical audience,
including government officials, building owners, and the general public. It also
contains relevant information for building officials, consulting structural engi-
neers and building contractors.
The typical unreinforced masonry building in

U nreinforced masonry walls
do not have a grid of steel
reinforcing bars embedded
the United States has brick walls with no
steel reinforcing bars embedded within them.
A more precise definition of unreinforced
within them. See Chapters 2 masonry buildings or “URMs,” as they are
and 5 for further description. known in many places, is contained in
Chapter 2, “Earthquake Perfomance of
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings.” Additional details about their construction are
included in Chapter 5. The reader does not need to study all of this terminology,
but he or she should clearly understand the basic differences between unreinforced
and reinforced masonry.
Chapter 3, “Developing a Strategy for Implementing a URM Risk Reduction

Program,” describes how a number of factors unrelated to construction are
involved in any efforts to reduce unreinforced masonry seismic risks. Those factors
include retrofit costs and the economic viability of older existing buildings, the
number of occupants and type of use of the buildings, and the historic or architec-
tural character of the buildings. Each of these considerations involves an impor-
tant segment of the community that should be included in active consideration of
any risk reduction program.
This guide does not presume to prescribe a rigidly uniform sequence of steps that
must be taken in order to reduce risk. As Chapter 4, “Examples of Successful Risk
Reduction Programs,” clearly documents, a wide variety of approaches has been
developed across the country.
FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 1

Chapter 5, “Additional Technical Background on Unreinforced Masonry Buildings,”
provides simple explanations of some key earthquake engineering terminology
and concepts for the non-engineer audience. This information is intended to help
facilitate conversations between the non-technical audience, such as city officials
and the general public, and the technical community that includes building inspec-
tors, engineers, and architects.
Chapter 6, “Sources of Information,” provides a number of annotated references

for both technical (engineering-oriented) and non-technical audiences.
Chapter 7, “End Notes and Cited References,” provides notes and cites references to
document all of the information presented in this guide. Almost all of the Sources
of Information and the Cited References are accessible on the internet free of
charge.
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes:

Where in the United States are the Risks?
Current U.S. building codes (described further
I f the current building
code in a locale does not
allow unreinforced masonry
in Chapter 2) allow unreinforced masonry
walls in new building construction only in
those areas where the probability or chance of
construction, then existing strong earthquake shaking is very low. In past
buildings of that type can decades, however, many thousands of unrein-
be considered a significant forced masonry buildings were constructed in
earthquake risk that should all areas of the country, even in regions subject
be investigated further. to the most frequent strong earthquakes. In
the light of today’s knowledge, we recognize
that this existing URM building stock presents a problem with respect to earth-
quake risk.
The URM problem in jurisdictions that are now effectively enforcing the current
building code (essentially the latest edition of the International Building Code, the
IBC) is due to those buildings that were built before recent model code seismic pro-
visions were adopted and enforced. The jurisdiction’s building department can pro-
vide the benchmark date, when the locally enforced building code began to include
seismic provisions that cover unreinforced masonry. Unreinforced masonry build-
ings can be found in every state. Because of its durability, fire resistance, and archi-
tectural character, unreinforced masonry has often been the construction material
of choice for schools, city halls, central business district buildings, factories, and
apartment buildings. However, the probability of strong earthquake shaking is
not equally distributed across the states, which raises the question: Where in the
United States are unreinforced masonry buildings of concern?
Figure 1 provides a general view of those areas of the U.S. where unreinforced
masonry is not permitted for current construction.1 This Figure serves as an initial
guide to where some level of concern is warranted regarding the earthquake risks
posed by these buildings. A local building department or a consulting structural
engineer can provide more detailed guidance as to whether current seismic code
provisions allow unreinforced masonry for a precise location, type of soil, and
occupancy or use of a building. Even in regions where unreinforced masonry is cur-
rently allowed, older unreinforced masonry buildings may exist in a deteriorated
2 Introduction
 Figure 1. Approximate mapping of the areas of the United States where current building code regulations do
not allow new construction with unreinforced masonry.
state much weaker than that required by code today. Assessing the earthquake
vulnerabilities of older unreinforced masonry buildings appropriately in areas
that still allow URM construction might take the form of requiring inspection of
exterior materials, especially masonry materials like bricks or terra cotta, in order
to ensure they are still attached firmly enough to prevent falling. Chicago, for
example, has passed a local building condition assessment ordinance that requires
periodic inspection of building facades, although the city is located in an area
where the current International Building Code allows unreinforced masonry.
Types of Earthquake Risks

Poor building performance poses three basic types of risk in an earthquake: the
risk of injury, property damage, and loss of use. Spending the time and effort, and
imposing the new regulations and costs on building owners, to implement a risk
reduction program for unreinforced masonry buildings makes sense when it is
clearly based on reducing one or more of these types of risk.
INJURY: Promoting safety is the prime rationale for building code

regulations in general, whether applied to earthquakes, fires, or other
hazards. Damage to unreinforced masonry buildings is dangerous.
When masonry debris falls, it is potentially lethal. A single brick
weighs from 6 to 12 pounds (2½ to 5 kg), and just one square foot of a typical wall
weighs 120 pounds or more (over 50 kg). Unreinforced masonry buildings are
dangerous not only to their occupants but also to those in adjacent buildings and
to pedestrians. Figure 2 illustrates the danger of falling masonry debris, even if
the entire building does not collapse. Parapets, which are the short walls that often
extend around the perimeter of a roof (as in the two buildings pictured in Figure
2), are particularly vulnerable, as are chimneys and cornices (the decorative ledges
that run around the top of the building). Figure 3 illustrates the level of danger
posed by complete collapse of a URM building.

 Figure 2. Diagram illustrating the dangers of unre-  Figure 3. Complete collapse of an unreinforced
inforced masonry. brick building.
When unreinforced masonry buildings begin to come The most severe level of damage, with the greatest
apart in earthquakes, heavy debris can fall on adjacent likelihood of fatalities, is complete collapse. After a
buildings or onto the exterior where pedestrians are few seconds of ground shaking in the 1933 Long Beach
located. This diagram illustrates the failure of parapets, earthquake, the brick walls holding up the second
one of the most common types of unreinforced masonry floor and roof of this building broke apart. That not
building damage. This level of damage can occur even only caused the fall of hazardous brick debris—it also
in relatively light earthquake shaking. —Rutherford & immediately led to complete collapse. —Los Angeles
Chekene Public Library
PROPERTY DAMAGE: Experience from past earthquakes has shown

that expensive repairs will be needed to an unreinforced masonry
building, after an earthquake. More than for any other kind of dam-
aged building, there is often no way to “put Humpty Dumpty back
together again” for a URM building. This results in the demolition of the building.
Some of the most architecturally prominent and historically valued buildings in
the United States are made of unreinforced masonry. See Figure 4. Protecting
these architectural and historic assets may be an important goal of risk reduction
programs, in addition to preventing costly damage. The damage to the Pacific
Avenue Historic District in the city of Santa Cruz that resulted from the 1989
Loma Prieta earthquake was so extensive that the downtown area was removed
from the National Register of Historic Places (see Figure 5). In that Historic
District, 52% of the old brick buildings were so badly damaged that they were
quickly demolished, and another 16% were “red-tagged” (closed because they were
unsafe to enter2).
LOSS OF USE: Even minor earthquake damage can require the closure
of an unreinforced masonry building, until repairs are made. More
often than for other kinds of construction, a damaged unreinforced
masonry building may need to be upgraded to a higher level of safety
than it possessed in its pre-earthquake state, before it can reopen. Closure of a
building, while permits are obtained and a major re-construction project is carried
out, often lasts for several years. The kind of damage shown in Figure 6, which
causes the building to be “red tagged” as unsafe to enter, can present so many
problems in bringing the building back into use that long-term vacancy or demoli-
tion of the building may result.
4 Introduction
 Figure 4. The Salt Lake City and County Building,  Figure 5. Destruction of a historic building.
an architectural and historic community asset that Complete collapse of one of the historic buildings in
could be lost, if damaged. the former Pacific Avenue Historic District of the City of
The Salt Lake City and County Building was extensively Santa Cruz, California. —James R. Blacklock, NISEE, U.C.
seismically retrofitted, not only to make it safer but Berkeley
also to provide long-term protection for a valued his-
toric building. —U.S. Geological Survey
 Figure 6. Damaged URM wall in a red-tagged building, fated to be torn down or to undergo a multi-year clo-
sure for repairs and upgrading.
Pre-earthquake retrofitting usually looks quite modest, compared to the comprehensive upgrading that building codes
will require to repair a damaged, non-code-conforming building after an earthquake. —Robert Reitherman

All three kinds of risk—injury, property damage, and loss of use—are usually
greater for unreinforced masonry buildings than for the other buildings in a city or
region. While some communities, university systems, owners, and others have cho-
sen to deal with the risks of other kinds of existing buildings or to upgrade utility
and transportation systems,3 addressing unreinforced masonry building problems
is usually the top priority in any serious effort to provide seismic protection.
Dealing with the earthquake risks of unreinforced masonry buildings is a challeng-

ing and difficult undertaking. However, many communities have developed success-
ful risk reduction strategies. A number of examples are presented in Chapter 4.
6 Introduction
2 Earthquake Performance of
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings
T his chapter provides brief descriptions and illustrations of unreinforced

masonry, along with explanations of why unreinforced masonry buildings
are so susceptible to earthquake damage. When subjected to strong earth-
quake shaking in past U.S. earthquakes, five out of six URM buildings have
been damaged to the extent that potentially lethal amounts of brickwork fell.
One-fifth of those buildings either partially or completely collapsed.4
What is Unreinforced Masonry?

Unreinforced masonry can be defined generally as masonry that contains no rein-
forcing in it. The terms “unreinforced” and “masonry” are both more precisely
described in this chapter. A shared understanding of these facts and definitions will
be helpful to conversations between engineers and non-engineers, when discussing
a risk reduction program.
Masonry is made of earthen materials and includes the sub-types listed below.
The most common unreinforced masonry materials used for the walls of buildings
are the first two listed, brick and hollow concrete block, which are illustrated in
Figure 7, Figure 8, and Figure 9.
• Brick: clay that is fired to a hard consistency.
• Hollow concrete block: “concrete masonry unit” in the terminology of building

codes, commonly known as “cinder block.”
• Hollow clay tile: similar to concrete block in shape, having hollow cells, but
brick-colored.
• Stone: can be “dressed” or cut into rectangular blocks, or used in its natural
shape.
• Adobe: mud poured into the form of walls or made into sun-dried bricks.

Header bricks extend into the
wall, indicating that there is no
cavity where reinforcing could
have been placed.
Wythe (2-wythe-thick wall

shown)
Unreinforced concrete block

walls do not have reinforcing
steel bars placed vertically in
the hollow cells or horizontally
between the courses.
 Figure 7. Components of unreinforced brick (left) and unreinforced concrete block (right) walls.
 Figure 8. “Header” versus “stretcher” courses.  Figure 9. Complete collapse of an unrein-

The presence of header courses is usually the easiest forced concrete block building, 1971 San Fernando
way to tell if a brick wall is unreinforced. earthquake. —Karl Steinbrugge, NISEE, U.C. Berkeley
The most common type of unreinforced masonry

B earing walls perform
the essential job of
resisting gravity and
building in the United States is constructed of brick
walls, with wood-frame floors and roof, as shown in
Figure 10 and Figure 11. From the outside, one can
holding a building up.
observe that the spans over windows are short, and
Destruction of bearing
the walls are thick. The masonry walls around the
walls leads to collapse.
exterior, and sometimes similar walls in the inte-
rior, bear up under the weight that is delivered to
them by floor or roof beams. For this reason, they are called bearing walls. When
the masonry is built into the rectangular openings or bays of a concrete or steel
frame, with the frame holding up the masonry, then they are called infill walls. That
kind of building requires its own special analysis and is not in the subject of this
booklet.
8 Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

 Figure 11. Components of a URM building.
 Figure 10. Typical appearance of a multistory Many larger unreinforced brick buildings have heavy
unreinforced brick building. timber columns and beams in the interior. The wooden
When buildings are much taller than this, there is often posts and beams do not provide significant horizontal
also a steel or concrete frame, making an infill struc- (earthquake) force resistance. —FEMA 154, Rapid Visual
ture. —Rutherford and Chekene Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards: A
Handbook
Masonry veneer is usually composed of one layer of ordinary brick or of thinner

brick that is applied to a supporting wall behind it, as shown in Figure 12. Veneer
is typically about four inches (100 mm) or less in thickness. It may also consist of
stone facing. The veneer is adhered to and literally hangs onto a wall behind it for
vertical and horizontal support. Terra cotta, a ceramic material similar to brick
 Figure 12. Workers installing brick veneer.

The individual pieces of veneer are being adhered to the reinforced concrete wall behind
them. The result looks like a brick wall. —Robert Reitherman

that has a smooth finish and is made in various forms and colors, was often used
in older buildings for both decorations and veneer. Current code provisions in
areas of seismic activity include requirements to prevent veneer from falling off in
an earthquake. Older buildings with thick (one-brick thick) veneer that does not
meet current seismic safety requirements can experience the veneer peeling off,
when the building is shaken. Masonry veneer on houses is typically more of a prop-
erty damage risk than a significant safety risk. However, veneer on taller walls in
public settings adjacent to areas where pedestrians may be presents a significant
risk that an unreinforced masonry risk reduction program should consider.
Further information on unreinforced masonry construction is provided in Chapter 5.
Examples and Statistics from Past U.S. Earthquakes

A number of earthquakes in the United States would have resulted in some prop-
erty loss but no real disaster, if damage to unreinforced masonry buildings had not
occurred. The following brief survey provides evidence in support of this conclu-
sion. Magnitude (M) numbers are included for each earthquake below. While one
may often hear references to the “Richter scale,” in many cases today, seismologists
measure the overall size of an earthquake using one of the other magnitude scales
that were developed after Charles Richter developed his in 1935. The differences in
magnitude scales are not particularly relevant here. The symbol M below stands for
generic earthquake magnitude.
1886 Charleston Earthquake, South Carolina, M 7.7: Eighty-two percent of

the brick buildings suffered more than minor damage, and 7% collapsed or were
demolished.5 See Figure 13, illustrating the debris from collapsing second story
masonry walls, which extends beyond the middle of the street.
 Figure 13. Debris result-

ing from the 1886 Charleston,
South Carolina earthquake.
—NISEE, U.C. Berkeley

1925 Santa Barbara Earthquake, Southern California, M 6.2: The most
severe damage from this earthquake occurred among unreinforced brick com-
mercial and residential construction and was a primary motivation for engineers
in California to adapt seismic design ideas from Japan into the Uniform Building
Code. Forty percent of the unreinforced masonry buildings were severely damaged
or collapsed.6 See Figure 14, the Hotel Californian, in which extensive wood-frame
and plaster partitions barely managed to hold the building up, after exterior brick
walls failed.
 Figure 14. Heavily damaged Hotel

Californian, 1925 Santa Barbara,
California earthquake. —NISEE, U.C.
Berkeley
1933 Long Beach Earthquake, Southern California, M 6.3: In the City of

Long Beach (adjacent to the City of Los Angeles), 54% of the unreinforced masonry
buildings ended up with damage that ranged from significant wall destruction
to complete collapse. In 20% of the cases, damage fell in the categories of either
damage to more than half the wall area, partial collapse, or complete collapse.7 See
Figure 15, showing parapet (the short walls that often extend around the perim-
eter of a roof) and top story failure and the effect of the falling masonry debris.
 Figure 15. URM building damage,

1933 Long Beach, California earth-
quake. —Los Angeles County Public Library

1983 Coalinga Earthquake, Central California, M 6.2: Out of 37 unrein-
forced masonry buildings—the core of the Coalinga business district—only one
escaped damage. Sixty percent were damaged to the extent of having more than
half of their walls ruined, up to complete collapse.8 The entire downtown area was
cordoned off, until badly damaged buildings could be demolished and the debris
removed. See Figure 16, which illustrates a common form of damage, in which the
gable (peaked roof) end wall falls.
 Figure 16. URM building

with end-wall failure, 1983
Coalinga, California earth-
quake. Robert Reitherman
—NISEE, U.C. Berkeley
1983 Borah Peak Earthquake, Idaho, M 7.3: In the town of Challis, Idaho, the
only earthquake-related fatalities occurred when an unreinforced masonry wall fell
on two children on their way to school. In Mackay, the town’s main street build-
ings, built of unreinforced brick, concrete block, or stone, were all damaged, Eight
required demolition. In relative terms, when compared to the size of the town (see
Figure 17), this amount of damage constituted a large disaster.
 Figure 17. Aerial

view of heavily dam-
aged Mackay, Idaho.
The unreinforced
masonry buildings on
the main commercial
street of the small town
were badly damaged in
the 1983 Borah Peak,
Idaho earthquake.
—NISEE, U.C.Berkeley

1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, Northern California, M 7.1: In this earth-
quake, 374 (16%) of the 2,400 unreinforced masonry buildings in the region expe-
rienced damage severe enough to require that they be vacated.9 The earthquake
was centered 60 miles south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the majority of
these buildings were subjected to only light to moderate shaking. Figure 18 illus-
trates an upper-story failure of brickwork, which fell onto the sidewalk and cars
below, killing five people.
 Figure 18. Upper story wall collapse, with

resulting fatalities.
Five people were killed when the brick wall in the
fourth story fell on top of cars and the sidewalk in
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. —James Blacklock,
NISEE, U.C. Berkeley
2001 Nisqually Earthquake, Puget Sound Region, Washington, M 6.8:

“URM buildings built before 1950 exhibited the poorest behavior. The most com-
mon damage included shedding of brick from parapets and chimneys. Other URM
buildings exhibited diagonal ‘stair-step’ cracking in walls and piers, damage to
walls in the upper stories, vertical cracking in walls, damage to masonry arches,
and damage to walls as a result of pounding. In many cases, fallen brick resulted
in damage to objects, such as cars and canopies, outside the building.”10 See Figure
19.
 Figure 19. URM building damage, 2001 Nisqually, Washington earthquake.

At left, hollow clay tile debris from a collapsed wall; at right, diagonal “stair-step” crack-
ing of a brick wall (the crack following mortar horizontal bed joint and vertical head joint
lines), a sign of the wall’s inability to resist shear stress from in-plane forces. —André
Filiatraut

2003 San Simeon Earthquake, Central California, M 6.5: Of 53 unreinforced
masonry buildings in Paso Robles, the nearest affected city, none of the nine that
had been retrofitted experienced major damage. Many of the others were damaged
so extensively that they were subsequently demolished. “During earthquakes unre-
inforced masonry buildings that have not been retrofitted continue to be the most
dangerous buildings in California.” One building owner commented afterward:
“I’m confident the building would have come down in the quake if we hadn’t done
the retrofitting. There were times when we were bleeding so badly in paying for it,
we wondered what in the heck we were doing. Now we know.”11 See Figure 20. The
two fatalities in the town were due to the collapse of an unretrofitted, unreinforced
brick building.
 Figure 20. Retrofitted

URM building, 2003
San Simeon, California
earthquake.
Retrofitted prior to the
earthquake, this unre-
inforced brick building
experienced no damage.
—Janise E. Rodgers, NISEE,
U.C. Berkeley.
Putting together the statistics on 4,457 unreinforced masonry buildings from sev-
eral U.S. earthquakes4, we see the following profi le of how unreinforced masonry
buildings perform, when strong earthquake shaking occurs:
• Five out of six are damaged enough for brickwork to fall;
• One-fifth are damaged to the point of partial or complete collapse.

3 Developing a Strategy for
Implementing a URM Building Risk
Reduction Program
A number of considerations should be taken into account when developing a

strategy for implementing an unreinforced masonry building risk reduction
program. Each consideration involves key individuals and groups who will formu-
late, carry out, and be affected by the program. For that reason, it is important
to involve them as early in the process as possible.
Many considerations must be taken into account when developing a program to

reduce the earthquake risks of unreinforced masonry buildings. Each consideration
involves key individuals and groups, who should become involved at an early stage in
the development process. For example, a planning department maintains informa-
tion on the inhabitants and people who use the buildings in a community. The local
building department is the agency that maintains data on the construction char-
acteristics of buildings. This department is centrally involved in enforcing building
code ordinances or voluntary construction standards and in issuing permits for any
retrofit construction projects. Economic factors in a risk reduction program obvi-
ously affect building owners (and retrofit costs often “flow down” to tenants); in
addition, financial and real estate institutions may have relevant insights and inter-
ests regarding the program. Agencies or non-profit organizations with architectural
or historical preservation interests have a stake in how buildings of that character
may be changed by any seismic retrofits. Finally, when unreinforced masonry build-
ings are clustered together, as they often are in older central business districts, then
risk reduction programs raise city planning issues with regard to zoning, parking,
redevelopment efforts, and other city concerns.
The principal means of reducing the seismic risks of

R etrofitting is
the process of
adding earthquake
unreinforced masonry buildings is retrofitting, although
changing a building’s use in order to reduce its occupant
load (number of occupants) also reduces risk.
resistance to an Retrofitting an unreinforced masonry building can take
existing building. It several different forms (see Chapter 5), but it must be
is generally synony- kept in mind that a retrofit is a significant construction
mous with the terms project, which may affect owners, occupants, and the
‘seismic strength- community at large.
ening’ or ‘seismic
rehabilitation.’

Occupancy and Ownership Factors:
The People Who Own and Use the Buildings
The usage or occupancy of a building is an important consideration, when planning
a risk reduction program. Occupancies are defined by building codes in terms of the
number of people who occupy a building and what the building’s functions are. More
intensive uses, which bring more people to a building, increase risk exposure to
earthquake-caused injuries. Current building code regulations require that essen-
tial facilities such as fire stations be designed to higher earthquake safety standards
than ordinary buildings. This suggests that existing buildings with many occupants
or essential facilities should have a higher priority for retrofits. Ownership patterns
are also important. Twenty buildings on a school or college campus have one owner
and ultimately, one decision-making process (for example, the setting of policies
by a school board). Twenty buildings along a commercial street may be owned by
twenty different owners, with twenty distinct sets of decision-making variables
involved, leading to greater variety of outcomes.
A retrofit project in an apartment building that displaces residents for weeks or

months presents the problem of where those residents will find temporary housing.
Are apartment buildings providing low-rent housing, so that passing along retrofit
costs to tenants in the form of higher rents will be a major economic burden? Are
unreinforced masonry buildings located where few residents speak English? Such
demographic factors must be taken into account, when planning how to craft a risk
reduction program and how to involve the public. In San Francisco, a study was con-
ducted to lay the groundwork for San Francisco’s unreinforced masonry building
retrofit program that specifically estimated what kinds of retrofits would be needed
for residential buildings.
Historic and Architectural Character

Protecting people from the earthquake dangers of unreinforced masonry buildings
must be a community’s highest priority. However, protecting the property value of
buildings by preventing damage is also important. In addition, some buildings have
historic or architectural significance, which is itself a value to be preserved. Because
masonry is a durable material and was often the first choice for important build-
ings constructed in the past, many communities’ most historic and architecturally
valued buildings are of this structural type, as in the case illustrated in Figure 21.
Retrofitting these buildings to increase their earthquake resistance is necessary in

order to prevent irreparable damage from occurring to the buildings in an earth-
quake. Yet the retrofit itself can alter the building’s appearance and change its his-
toric materials in an undesirable way, if not carried out sensitively. Fortunately,
today’s earthquake engineering methods provide options for dealing with the earth-
quake vulnerabilities of a building, while leaving its appearance largely unchanged.
As Chapter 5 discusses, the technique of seismic isolation has been used for some
monumental public buildings with extensive unreinforced masonry components.
These isolators can reduce the seismic forces on the building to only one third of
what they would otherwise be, and the isolators are usually installed unobtrusively
at the foundation or basement level.
16 Developing a Strategy for Implementing a URM Building Risk Reduction Program

 Figure 21. Pioneer Square
Arena Historic District, Seattle,
Washington.
The historic buildings in this
city district are unreinforced
masonry buildings. This is often
the case.
Cost Issues Related to Seismic Retrofits

Groups like a downtown business owners association or chamber of commerce, an
apartment owners or renters association, or a historic preservation league, may
have concerns about retrofit costs. Structurally strengthening an unreinforced
masonry building is not an inexpensive remodeling project, and the cost implica-
tions must be considered. As part of developing a risk reduction plan, it is impor-
tant to collect information on the economic viability of the unreinforced masonry
buildings at issue. Are the buildings high in value, generating strong income
streams, because they form the heart of the “old town” tourist district that is com-
mon in many cities? Or are they in a declining area that used to be the central busi-
ness district but which has been supplanted by shopping centers and office parks
located elsewhere? Do the properties provide enough collateral for their owners to
obtain construction loans to finance the upgrading work?
FEMA provides an on-line retrofit cost estimating feature on its website,12 and
FEMA documents provide further information.13 Costs can vary greatly, however,
so locally-based estimates should be carried out prior to instituting a risk reduc-
tion program.
City Planning Factors

An inventory of unreinforced masonry buildings can be presented in table format, to
display the buildings’ square footage and number of stories, construction dates, and
occupancy. Building location is also significant. Are buildings dispersed throughout
an area, or are they clustered? How are they located with respect to current zoning
districts? The community may have a long-range plan for streets, parking, plazas
and pedestrian areas. Any economic redevelopment plans should include a list of the
locations of unreinforced masonry buildings. Aside from an individual building’s
architectural or historic merits, it is important to consider the collective effect for a
town or city of having a number of well-preserved, economically vital, older build-
ings that define the overall community character. There may also be environmental

impact reporting requirements that a retrofit program would trigger; city planning
departments should be familiar with any such requirements. Figure 22 illustrates
how an inventory of unreinforced masonry buildings can be overlaid with political
and economic (building value) data.
As the examples in Chapter 4 make clear, a variety of risk reduction approaches that
address these factors have been successfully adopted. Developing these successful
approaches has almost always required involving the key individuals and groups
associated with each consideration in the planning and decision-making process.
 Figure 22. The distribu-

tion of unreinforced masonry
buildings in the greater New
York City region.
Maps such as this one,
published by the New York
City Area Consortium for
Earthquake Loss Mitigation,
relate seismic information to
geographic and land use plan-
ning data.
18 Developing a Strategy for Implementing a URM Building Risk Reduction Program

4 Examples of Successful Risk
Reduction Programs
A large number of unreinforced masonry building risk reduction programs have

been implemented across the United States. A sample of representative pro-
grams is included here, to illustrate the variety of possible approaches.
“If the shoe doesn’t fit, then don’t wear it” is a good caveat to add, when giving
advice. While one of the following programs may provide an ideal model for a
given community, it is likely that a new risk reduction program will require some
unique features based on the particular situation in that community. The examples
presented in this chapter illustrate key components of risk reduction programs,
which communities can then synthesize in a variety of ways, in order to suit their
particular circumstances.
Compiling an Inventory of Unreinforced Masonry

Buildings
Most programs to reduce unreinforced masonry seismic risks share certain charac-
teristics. First, they all need to include an inventory of buildings, which should be
carried out early in the planning process. Conducting an inventory is not difficult,
because unreinforced masonry buildings are among the easiest of construction
types to identify. Building department, insurance industry, and tax assessor fi les
can sometimes provide useful information. “Sidewalk surveys” that observe build-
ings from the outside are often sufficient. The FEMA 154 Handbook provides a
“rapid visual screening” method that is applicable to a wide variety of buildings14
(see Figure 23). Section E.13 of Appendix E of the FEMA 154 Handbook provides
Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards

FEMA-154 Data Collection Form
FEMA HIGH Seismicity
Address: __________________________________________________
_________________________________Zip _______________
Other Identifiers _____________________________________________
No. Stories ________________________________ Year Built ________
Screener _____________________________ Date _________________
Total Floor Area (sq. ft.) _______________________________________
Building Name ______________________________________________
Use _______________________________________________________
PHOTOGRAPH
 Figure 23. FEMA 154, a technical
resource containing forms and standard-
OCCUPANCY SOIL TYPE FALLING HAZARDS
ized guidance on compiling an inven-
Assembly
Assemb Govt. Office Number of Persons A B C D E F
tory. —FEMA 154, Rapid Visual Screening

Commercial
Comme Historic Residential 0 – 10 11 – 100 Hard Avg. Dense Stiff Soft Poor Unreinforced Parapets Cladding Other:
Services
Emer. S Industrial School 101-1000 1000+ Rock Rock Soil Soil Soil Soil Chimneys _____________
BASIC SCORE, MODIFIERS, AND FINAL SCORE, S
BUILDING TYPE
BUI W1 W2 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 C1 C2 C3 PC1 PC2 RM1 RM2 URM
(MRF) (BR) (LM) (RC SW) (URM INF) (MRF) (SW) (URM INF) (TU) (FD) (RD)
Basic Sc
Score
Mid Rise (4 to 7 stories)
High Rise
Ris (> 7 stories)
Vertical Irregularity
4.4
N/A
N/A
-2.5
3.8
N/A
N/A
-2.0
2.8
+0.2
+0.6
-1.0
3.0
+0.4
+0.8
-1.5
3.2
N/A
N/A
N/A
2.8
+0.4
+0.8
-1.0
2.0
+0.4
+0.8
-1.0
2.5
+0.4
+0.6
-1.5
2.8
+0.4
+0.8
-1.0
1.6
+0.2
+0.3
-1.0
2.6
N/A
N/A
N/A
2.4
+0.2
+0.4
-1.0
2.8
+0.4
N/A
-1.0
2.8
+0.4
+0.6
-1.0
1.8
0.0
N/A
-1.0
of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards: A
Plan Irre
Irregularity -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5
Pre-Code
Pre Cod
Post-Benchmark
Soil Type C
Soil Type D
0.0
+2.4
0.0
0.0
-1.0
+2.4
-0.4
-0.8
-1.0
+1.4
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
+1.4
-0.4
-0.6
-0.6
N/A
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
+1.6
-0.4
-0.6
-0.2
N/A
-0.4
-0.4
-1.2
+1.4
-0.4
-0.6
-1.0
+2.4
-0.4
-0.6
-0.2
N/A
-0.4
-0.4
-0.8
+2.4
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
N/A
-0.4
-0.6
-1.0
+2.8
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
+2.6
-0.4
-0.6
-0.2
N/A
-0.4
-0.6
Handbook
Soil Type E 0.0 -0.8 -1.2 -1.2 -1.0 -1.2 -0.8 -1.2 -0.8 -0.8 -0.4 -1.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8
FINAL SCORE, S
COMMENTS
Detailed
Evaluation
Required
YES NO
* = Estimated, subjective, or unreliable data BR = Braced frame MRF = Moment-resisting frame SW = Shear wall
DNK = Do Not Know FD = Flexible diaphragm RC = Reinforced concrete TU = Tilt up
LM = Light metal RD = Rigid diaphragm URM INF = Unreinforced masonry infill

relevant information for a screening program restricted to unreinforced masonry
buildings. Any inventory needs to include not only the overall quantity of unrein-
forced masonry buildings, but also their locations, ownership and physical charac-
teristics, as well as social or city planning factors. Typically, a building department
and planning department of the jurisdiction are key actors in carrying out that
inventory. Local structural engineers and architects can also be a valuable source
of expertise and knowledge.
Successful Programs Require Sustained Support

and Leadership
More broadly, successful programs share another trait: they benefit from the sus-
tained support and efforts of individuals and organizations that recognize the value
of earthquake protection and are willing to work for it. The following conclusion,
from a review of successful seismic safety programs in the United States,15 out-
lines concisely some of the challenges that arise when addressing the unreinforced
masonry building problem (Note: interested readers can find more information on
social aspects of seismic safety efforts in the references cited in the passage below):
Promoting seismic safety is difficult. Earthquakes are not high on the

political agenda because they occur infrequently and are overshadowed
by more immediate, visible issues. Even where citizens are aware of
seismic risks, taking action to improve seismic safety is difficult because
costs are immediate and benefits uncertain, public safety is not visible,
benefits may not occur during the tenure of current elected officials, and
seismic safety lacks a significant public constituency (Olshansky and
Kartez, 1998; Lambright, 1984; May, 1991; Drabek et al., 1983; Rossi
et al., 1982; Wyner and Mann, 1986; Alesch and Petak, 1986; Berke and
Beatley, 1992). Many factors are critical to the successful advancement of
seismic safety at local and state levels. These include public advancement
of the problem; persistent, skillful, and credible advocates; repeated
interaction and communication among participants; availability of staff
resources; linkage to other issues; occurrence of a disaster that leads to a
‘‘window of opportunity’’ for change; community wealth and resources;
assistance from higher levels of government; and previous experience
with hazards (Berke and Beatley, 1992; Olshansky and Kartez, 1998). Of
these, advocacy stands out because it represents a way that individuals
can make a difference. 15
Utah: Engineering Inspections

Triggered by Re-roofing Projects
The Utah Uniform Building Standard Act Rules
T his program, implemented
in a variety of ways by
local governments across
have been amended to add a way to upgrade
the earthquake resistance and general struc-
tural safety of buildings, especially unrein-
Utah, has the virtue of
forced masonry ones, incrementally. When
setting a deadline almost
embarking on a re-roofing project, the building
automatically.
owner must retain an engineer to inspect the
20 Examples of Successful Risk Reduction Programs

adequacy of the building’s roof-to-wall connections and the ability of its parapet
walls and cornices to withstand horizontal earthquake forces. The logic behind this
incremental approach is that the removal of old roofing presents an opportune
time for an engineer to inspect these conditions, and that any strengthening
measures would be carried out prior to re-roofing, as part of that construction
project. Section R156-56-801, Statewide Amendments to the IBC (International
Building Code), Section 58, requires that these appendages be able to withstand
75% of the force levels that are stipulated for new buildings. Portions of the
building that don’t perform up to that standard must be either reinforced or
removed. Buildings built after 1975, when codes for new buildings began to
address this seismic vulnerability in Utah, are exempt.16
Roofing materials will typically need to be replaced within a time period of twenty
to forty years, and that replacement work will then trigger this retroactive seismic
requirement. It is common for building codes to require retroactive upgrading of
safety features, if a building is to be significantly remodeled. The reasoning is that
the remodel will extend the life of the building and that in the context of a major
renovation project, the safety improvements will represent only a minor cost.
Utah: Statewide Inventory

of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings
In 2008, the Utah legislature passed a resolu-
T he evolving Utah program
demonstrates the need
to conduct an inventory of
tion urging “the Utah Seismic Safety
Commission to compile an inventory of
unreinforced masonry buildings so that the
buildings as a first step in quantity and extent of the problem in Utah
evaluating their seismic risks can be determined. Be it further resolved that
and the costs and methods the Legislature urges the Utah Seismic Safety
that could best be used to Commission to recommend priorities to
retrofit them. address the problem in a manner that will
most effectively protect the lives, property,
and economy of the state.”17 Similar in some respects to the California case
described below, the strategy here is first, to identify the location and size of the
problem and then, to devise appropriate solutions. Utah is unique among the most
highly seismic states of the United States, in that it has many single-family
dwellings of unreinforced masonry construction. These smaller buildings present
different (usually lesser) risks of collapse or injury, but they also could have a very
high impact on the population after an earthquake, if many such housing units
were unsafe to occupy, and if homeowners’ investments in their homes were wiped
out. In the Salt Lake Valley alone, there are over 185,000 unreinforced masonry
buildings, many of them single-family residences, typically built with hollow walls
that do not comply with model codes and retrofit provisions such as the Uniform
Code for Building Conservation.18

State of California Unreinforced Masonry Building
Law: Measuring the Problem and the Progress
Toward Addressing It
In 1986, California passed a state law requir-
T he California program
provides one example of a
state government imposing
ing all local governments situated in the
highest seismicity zone of the currently
enforced building code to inventory their
a basic requirement on local unreinforced masonry buildings, to establish a
governments to identify their risk reduction program, and to report results
unreinforced masonry build- to the state. At that time, that highest zone of
ings, while leaving open a seismicity was Zone 4 of the Uniform Building
range of ways in which they Code, which was used in the West and
can deal with that risk. Midwest, until the nationwide International
Building Code took effect in 2000. The geo-
graphic scope of Zone 4 in California encompasses a population of approximately
28 million people. The state sought to balance its compelling interest in seismic
safety against the cost of retrofitting buildings by leaving its criteria for these new
risk reduction programs loosely defined: a program could consist of as little as
publishing a list of the unreinforced masonry buildings in a local jurisdiction and
encouraging owners to renovate them, while posting warning signs at unretrofit-
ted buildings. Thus, a recent review of the law concluded, “On the surface, the level
of compliance with this law has been quite high with over 98 percent of the 25,900
URM buildings now in loss reduction programs. But so far, only about 70 percent
of the owners have reduced earthquake risk by retrofitting in accordance with a
recognized building code or by other means. Significant progress has occurred, yet
many URM programs are ineffective in reducing future earthquake losses.”19
Relatively few of the 25,945 URM buildings addressed by the loss reduction
programs were demolished. While demolition is sometimes desirable in order to
renew the building stock, it is generally wise to minimize it to avoid abruptly
changing the architectural and socio-economic fabric of a city.
The local programs with the strictest requirements require actual retrofitting or
demolition of the hazardous buildings. Next strictest are those programs that
require owners to retain an engineer to produce an evaluation report, with actual
retrofitting remaining voluntary, perhaps encouraged by incentives. The California
Seismic Safety Commission has found that voluntary strengthening programs
have not been effective. One can conclude either that the incentives in voluntary
programs have not been great enough, or that the absence of the “stick” to go along
with the “carrot” is the weakness. The lowest level of compliance with the state law,
and the least effective at reducing risks, is when local governments send a letter to
the building owners informing them that the local building inventory conducted
under state law found their building to be of unreinforced masonry construction.
These simple notices do not impose any requirement to have the building either
evaluated by an engineer or upgraded. The Commission’s 2006 survey of local gov-
ernments found that 52% had mandatory programs, 15% voluntary, 18% notifica-
tion of owner only, with another 15% in a miscellaneous category. The Commission
provides a suggested model ordinance. Once a local government makes that deci-
sion and sets time tables, the actual engineering measures required are already set
in model code provisions for existing buildings.20

Seattle, Washington: Saving Historic Buildings
In the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, two-thirds of
T his case illustrates the
valuable support that an
organization knowledgeable
the 31 buildings that were posted as unsafe for
occupancy (“red tagged”) were built of unrein-
forced masonry, and many were a century old.
about grants and loans can “Historic” and “unreinforced masonry” are often
provide to retrofit programs, synonymous. After that earthquake, Historic
by making funds available to Seattle, a non-profit advocacy organization,
bridge any funding gaps. quickly launched a program of grants of approxi-
mately $10,000 each to historic building owners:
the grants provided financial support for initial engineering studies, with the goal
being to have owners investigate repair and upgrading alternatives in lieu of
demolition. While this initiative was a reaction to an earthquake rather than a
preventive program in place prior to the earthquake, it still had the effect of
promoting retrofit measures to reduce earthquake risks from future earthquakes.
In this case, those risks include both the risk of injury to occupants or pedestrians
and the risk of irreparable damage to the buildings. Any Seattle resident who
appreciates historic architecture will recognize many of the buildings that Historic
Seattle helped through that program: Steil Building, McCoy’s Firehouse, Slugger
Sports, Compass Center, Bread of Life Mission, Milwaukee Hotel and Alps Hotel,
Hong Kong Building, Hip Sing Building, Panama Hotel, Bush Hotel, Bing Kung
Building, Seattle Hebrew Academy, Trinity Parish Episcopal Church, Assay Office,
Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church, and the Cadillac Hotel.21
Seattle, Washington: Combining Modernization

with Seismic Retrofitting
Thirty-two fire stations in Seattle were identified
T he voters who were
asked to fund seismic
retrofits were supportive
as needing modernization work that included
energy conservation measures, general remodeling
and in some cases, seismic upgrading. A ballot
partly because the money measure to approve a tax for that purpose was
was to be applied to passed by a 69% majority of voters in 2003. The
essential facilities. measure was introduced only two years after the
Nisqually earthquake, when memories of damage
from that earthquake were fresh in the voters’ minds. Known as the Fire Facilities
and Emergency Response Levy, the program integrates seismic retrofits with
historic preservation requirements and with upgrading the stations to modern fire
safety and other standards. The $197 million in taxes average out to about $73 a
year in additional property tax for the owner of a median-value house.22
This program provides more than one possible lesson for other local programs.
Selecting an obviously high priority public safety category of facilities likely
increased voter support, as did the recency of an earthquake (although a non-
earthquake disaster might also be an impetus for multi-hazard upgrades). Rather
than first imposing requirements on private property owners, the local govern-
ment also provided leadership by example, by dealing with vulnerabilities in its
own buildings. And in packaging a variety of renovation measures along with
seismic retrofitting, more cost-effective construction projects resulted.

Oregon: A Statewide Inventory and Funding
Approach for Schools and Essential Facilities
In 2002, Oregon voters approved two seismic
T his example illustrates
the value of assembling
a committee or task force
safety measures. One allowed the use of general
obligation bonds to finance seismic upgrades of
educational facilities owned by the State govern-
comprised of a variety ment (including State universities and community
of important community colleges) and local governments (local public
organizations. school districts). A companion measure applied to
fire, police, and hospital buildings. The educa-
tional measure followed up on a state law passed by the legislature in 2001 that
required seismic evaluations of schools, using a standardized method published by
FEMA.23 While these laws launched Oregon on the path toward reducing seismic
risks from existing buildings—URM buildings being prominent among them—no
funding was provided to implement the initiatives. The Oregon Seismic Safety
Policy Advisory Committee and the Division of Geology and Mineral Industries
subsequently worked to obtain funding to conduct a statewide seismic evaluation
of educational and emergency services buildings, and to put bonds on the ballot as
needed to correct the seismic deficiencies found.24
Berkeley and Other California Cities:

Financial Incentives for Retrofitting
Because the City of Berkeley levies a tax of 1.5%
A “carrot and stick”
approach can be more
effective than using an
of the selling price of real estate, it has the
leverage to refund a portion of that tax, if the
new owner carries out seismic retrofit work. The
incentive or penalty alone. City will refund retrofit expenses up to one-third
of that tax amount (up to 1/2% of the property
value transferred) for qualifying residential
properties, when the new owner completes seismic retrofit work within one year of
purchase, up to a maximum refund of $2,000. While most of the properties
included in the program have been wood-frame dwellings, unreinforced masonry
buildings also qualify.25 In its first decade of implementation, 12,000 properties
were retrofitted and rebates were issued totaling $6 million.
A number of other California cities offer incentives, and their programs are sum-
marized by the Association of Bay Area Governments.26 These programs include
tax breaks, as in the Berkeley case; waiving of building permit fees for seismic
upgrades; conferring zoning benefits such as an increase in density or exemption
from non-conforming parking or other conditions; low-interest or no-interest
financing from publicly issued bonds or redevelopment district revenue, and;
acquiring federal grant money for subsidizing retrofits. The Association of Bay
Area Governments report includes information specific to unreinforced masonry
buildings. A number of cities are included in that survey: Arroyo Grande, Berkeley,
Fullerton, Inglewood, La Verne, Long Beach, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Jose, San
Mateo, Sonoma, Torrance, Upland, Vacaville, and West Hollywood. The report also
includes sample ordinances, state legislation, and other reference material.

One possible lesson to be drawn from the examples of these cities is the value
of offering both a carrot and a stick, both incentives and requirements. As the
California Seismic Safety Commission report19 noted, incentives by themselves
have not led to significant retrofitting.
Public Schools in California: A Statewide Approach

to a Special Kind of Facility
The Long Beach earthquake in Southern
C alifornia legislation singled
out schools as a high-priority
type of facility. The legislation
California occurred at 5:54 p.m. on Friday,
March 10, 1933. The fact that it barely
missed occurring while children were in
set long-term but definitive dead- school and that the public saw numerous
lines for retrofitting buildings or scenes of unreinforced masonry rubble on
taking them out of service. school campuses supplied graphic proof
that new earthquake regulations in the
building code were needed. Prior to this time, there were no statewide earthquake
regulations in the United States, and only a handful of California cities, such as
Santa Barbara, which had gone through its own earthquake disaster in 1925, had
any such provisions. Precisely one month after the Long Beach earthquake, the
California legislature passed the Field Act, which effectively made the State into
the building department for every school constructed by local governments (local
school districts). The act prevented construction of new unreinforced masonry
buildings and in 1939, the Garrison Act required school districts to inventory and
to design a program for reducing the hazards of all pre-Field Act buildings. These
were essentially the unreinforced masonry buildings remaining on their campuses.
However, this legislation did not lead to immediate retrofit efforts, and the law
gave school board members immunity from liability, if they made an effort to
secure funds for retrofit efforts via bond elections. One key reason for the lack of
action was that there was no deadline in the Garrison Act. In 1967 and 1968, the
legislature passed the Greene Acts. This action “put teeth” in the retroactive
seismic safety requirements for schools by setting a 1970 deadline for producing
structural evaluations of pre-1933 buildings and by prohibiting their use by
students, as of 1975.27
Possible lessons for unreinforced masonry seismic safety programs include the
singling out of a key public concern, such as safe schools, and the need to consider
the possibility that deadlines and compliance may slip over time.
Long Beach, California:

A Pioneering Accomplishment
Long Beach, California, where the 1933 earth-
T he persistent and skillful
efforts of just one person
can have a lasting effect.
quake had been centered, was the first city to
enforce retroactive requirements to seismically
upgrade unreinforced masonry buildings. In
1959, Edward O’Connor was the chief building
official of the city, and he took upon himself the duty to identify the most hazard-
ous of these buildings, including high-occupancy buildings like theaters, and to
deliver the notice personally to the owners that they must either structurally

strengthen them or tear them down. This case-by-case approach withstood
resistance, based on a California Supreme Court case that justified retroactive fire
safety requirements when high risk to public safety was present (retroactive
“hazard abatement”). It later developed into a long-term, systematic law and
program enacted and updated by the Long Beach City Council.28 Over time, as
engineering developments occurred, technical details of the program evolved, but
the essence of what one person began endured. By 1989, the unreinforced masonry
buildings that had been rated as being in the most dangerous and intermediate
dangerous categories had all been retrofitted or demolished, although there
remained 560 buildings in the third category of hazard.
In addition to the mandatory regulation, the city introduced an incentive by

establishing an assessment district composed of the affected properties. The estab-
lishment of the assessment district enabled the city to issue bonds, the proceeds
of which would provide loans to the property owners and cover the city’s cost of
implementing the financial program and the building department’s monitoring
of the retrofit work. The repayment of the bonds came from assessments on the
owners in the district. While owners paid the going rate for the loans, they would
otherwise have been largely unavailable. Owners who defaulted on their loans
could have their property foreclosed, with the city verifying in advance that there
was enough value in the property to cover the loan value.29
Edward O’Connor had to go it alone, without other models of mandatory programs

to refer to and without adopted engineering standards for the evaluation and ret-
rofit of unreinforced masonry buildings. Today, those resources are available. Still
applicable as a lesson of this story, however, is the need for a dedicated lead indi-
vidual to push steadily for the goal of seismic safety. It is also true that the local
building department will usually be the key agency implementing such efforts.
Los Angeles, California: Evidence of the

Effectiveness of Retrofits
The City of Los Angeles, adjacent to the City
S uccessful local programs
vary in their sources of
support, but three kinds are
of Long Beach and with a population over
three million, launched the largest manda-
tory local government retroactive seismic
usually essential: a state or safety program in the United States, when
local structural engineer- the City Council passed an ordinance in
ing association or supportive 1981. The law required structural upgrading,
individual engineers, the local or demolition, of 14,000 unreinforced
building department, and key masonry buildings, excepting residential
local government officials and buildings that had four or fewer dwelling
legislators. units.30 The 1985 Mexico City earthquake
that caused over 10,000 deaths motivated
the Los Angeles City Council to accelerate the time table for compliance, and by the
time of the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, most URM buildings
subject to the ordinance had been retrofitted.
The 1994 earthquake caused strong ground motion over Los Angeles and other
cities of the region and “provided one of the first major tests of the performance of
retrofitted unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, and once again pointed out the
vulnerability of URMs that have not been strengthened…. As would be expected,

unretrofitted URM buildings performed worse, in general, than both reinforced
masonry buildings and retrofitted URM buildings. As observed in previous earth-
quakes, many of these buildings suffered significant structural damage and posed
serious risks to life safety.”31 These statements pertain to unreinforced brick build-
ings. The region also had some very old and historic adobe buildings, and the same
engineering report just cited noted: “Historic adobe buildings in the Los Angeles
area suffered a tragic loss.” These buildings, which are present in other Western
and Southwestern states, have unique structural features, including the different
material properties of the adobe walls and their usually larger thickness, and they
require their own engineering retrofit approaches, different from those used on
the more common brick building.
The large-scale program enacted by the Los Angeles ordinance catalyzed the
involvement of a wide spectrum of the community, many of whom initially
opposed the idea because of cost. The key to its eventual success may lie with three
sets of proponents. These include its earliest advocates, the structural engineers
of the region, who knew how great the risks were. With funding from the National
Science Foundation, tests and analyses were conducted to develop a hazard reduc-
tion package of retrofit measures. The goal was not to bring these old buildings
up to current code standards—which would be virtually an impossible task and
prohibitively expensive—but to bring them up to a reasonable level of safety. The
performance of buildings retrofitted to that standard in the 1994 Northridge
earthquake was generally in line with that criterion, although building owners
often did not understand that “hazard reduction” could be compatible with a level
of damage that required expensive repairs.
The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety also played an essential role in
this program. This agency reviewed a large volume of building evaluation reports
submitted by consulting engineers and approved retrofit design documents,
once the program was underway. It was also responsible for reporting to the City
Council on costs and progress and for initiating any legal actions against non-
compliant owners.
The third source of crucial support was the Los Angeles City Council, which
remained determined in passing an unpopular law. One legislator in particular,
Howard Berman, maintained progress on the effort over a span of decades.
San Luis Obispo, California: Making the Effort to

Communicate with Building Owners
This central California city passed its unrein-
T he goal of working
toward seismic safety
was combined with efforts
forced masonry law in 1992, taking the
approach of setting deadlines for mandatory
retrofitting. Buildings were put into two
by local agencies to support categories, with the higher occupancy buildings
the economic development having closer deadlines. Partial upgrades could
of the affected businesses. be implemented, in order to extend the time
permitted to come into full compliance. After
the nearby 2003 San Simeon earthquake, the city decided to accelerate retrofits of
the remaining 40 unreinforced masonry buildings, which were clustered in the
central business district. In the meantime, the state’s unreinforced masonry law
required posting a standard hazard warning on unretrofitted unreinforced

masonry buildings. As the deadlines approached, the downtown business associa-
tion and individual owners became more opposed to and concerned about manda-
tory retrofits. Rather than wait until conflicts flared, the city retained an Economic
Development Manager, who met individually with building owners to explain
requirements and to inform them of technical assistance and financial incentives
available.32 The original deadline for all of the buildings to be in full compliance
was 2018; it has since been moved to 2012. Twenty years would seem like a reason-
able timetable for compliance but in fact, many business owners ignored the
program in its first decade and only seriously considered the law’s requirements
when the time remaining had grown short.
The City’s effort to incorporate an economic development perspective into its pro-
gram, rather than a building safety enforcement approach alone, is a lesson that
may well be applicable elsewhere. Another lesson is that allowing a long lead time
before the first deadline for compliance comes due can result in a program getting
off to a slow start.

5 Additional Technical Background
on Unreinforced Masonry
Construction
U nreinforced masonry buildings have design and construction characteristics

that make them perform poorly in earthquakes. Various retrofit techniques
are available to reduce their risk, ranging from low-cost solutions like anchor-
ing masonry parapets to highly engineered solutions involving seismic isolation.
This chapter details typical construction characteristics, conceptual information
about the earthquake response of URM buildings, and possible retrofit solutions.
Masonry materials are intrinsically strong when

O ut-of-plane forces act
on a wall both inwardly
and outwardly, primarily
compressed under the usual gravity loads but are
weak in resisting earthquake forces, which make
materials flex and also shear; ‘shear’ describes the
causing bending (flexural) tendency for a portion of the wall to slide vis-à-
stresses. In-plane forces, vis the rest. When an earthquake shakes an
oriented parallel with the unreinforced masonry building, it causes the
wall, cause sliding or shear building’s walls to flex out-of-plane (see Figure 24)
stresses. and to shear in-plane (see Figure 25). Unreinforced
masonry is weak in resisting both of those types
of forces. Mortar is the “glue” that holds the masonry units together; however,
when it eventually cracks, it does so in a brittle manner, similar to the way that the
bricks crack. Generally speaking, older masonry construction was built using
much weaker mortar than current building codes require. Mortar also tends to
deteriorate in strength over time more than the masonry units themselves do.
Thus, earthquake engineers sometimes say that in old masonry buildings, “the
mortar holds the bricks apart, not together.”
Shaking perpendicular Shaking

to wall parallel to
wall
 Figure 24. Out-of-plane failure of unreinforced  Figure 25. In-plane failure of unreinforced
masonry walls. —Rutherford and Chekene masonry walls. —Rutherford and Chekene

A common type of unreinforced masonry wall in one- or two-story buildings is
approximately a foot thick and uses a pattern of brickwork called “American bond.”
In this pattern, most of the bricks are laid running parallel with the wall (these are
known as stretchers). Approximately every sixth horizontal row, there will be a row
of bricks with their ends rather than their sides visible (these are known as headers),
as illustrated in Figure 7 and Figure 8. The header courses extend into the cross-sec-
tion or thickness of the wall, and they provide a strong clue that the wall is unrein-
forced (because there is no empty space in the middle of the wall, where reinforc-
ing and grout could have been placed). A form of hollow cavity unreinforced brick
wall also exists, which has no bricks connecting outer and inner layers. This type
of masonry work is done to provide some insulation and to keep rainwater from
seeping through from the outside to inside of a building. There are many patterns of
brickwork, although American bond is the most common one. While engineers and
building departments evaluate the strengths of unreinforced masonry walls on their
individual merits, all unreinforced masonry walls are essentially “guilty until proven
innocent,” when it comes to earthquake resistance. Simple field testing methods can
be used to measure existing masonry strength without damaging the wall.
Unreinforced masonry, as the name implies, is masonry without reinforcing.

“Reinforcing” (see Figure 26) has a very specific meaning in this context. It refers
to steel reinforcing bars (rebar), which vary in diameter from approximately 3/8
inch in diameter (9.5 mm, called a #3 bar) to an inch (25 mm) or more in diam-
eter. A bar 4/8 inch in diameter is called a #4 bar, and so on. The bars have knobs
or ridges along their length to increase their adhesion or bond with concrete or
grout. Grout is essentially a very fluid form of concrete, with small pea-sized gravel
instead of the larger aggregate in concrete.
 Figure 26. A piece of #4 bar (a steel reinforcing

bar that is 4/8 inch in diameter).
A nickname for reinforcing bar is rebar.
A reinforced masonry wall has a grid of horizontal and vertical steel reinforcing
bars within the wall cross-section (see Figure 27). In reinforced brick construction,
a hollow cavity is formed between an outer stack or wythe of bricks and an inner
wythe, and the reinforcing is placed in this space. Grout is poured into the cavity,
and when it sets, a monolithic structural sandwich forms, which is strong in resist-
ing horizontal earthquake forces, both those forces perpendicular to and those
parallel to the wall.
30 Additional Technical Background on Unreinforced Masonry Construction

 Figure 27. Reinforced brick wall. —FEMA 154,
Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential
Seismic Hazards: A Handbook
Reinforced masonry walls are not only much

D uctility is the toughness of
a material—its ability to
crack or permanently bend out
stronger than unreinforced ones: they also
remain intact and stable, even if they are
shaken to the point at which cracking occurs.
of shape, while still maintain- That desirable property of ductility is one of
ing its structural integrity. the most important seismic requirements for
all kinds of construction. Unreinforced
masonry, which lacks ductility, often comes apart in a brittle manner and col-
lapses, when it is shaken severely and begins to crack.
How Do Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

Behave in Earthquakes?
The short answer to this question is that unreinforced masonry buildings, on aver-
age, perform very poorly in earthquakes. More than any other kind of construc-
tion, they can be singled out as being seismically vulnerable. The following points
clarify why this is so.
When shaken in an earthquake, the heavy

I nertial forces are caused by
rapid movements—the quick
speeding up, slowing down, or
mass of masonry walls contributes to high
earthquake forces. If you hold an empty
cardboard box and shake it, then you don’t
turning of a car, for example— feel much effect. Fill it with groceries,
or the rapid and erratic shak- though, and shake it, and you experience
ing of the ground to which the large inertial forces, because the mass is now
building is connected. greater. Inertial forces are the product of the
mass of an object and the acceleration of its
motions; thus, heavier (more massive) buildings generate higher forces when they
are shaken. Acceleration indicates how much an object speeds up, slows down, or
changes direction. Drop an object here on Earth, and it falls with an acceleration of
1 unit of gravity, 1 g. Shake the ground horizontally with an acceleration of 1 g,
and an object that is rigidly mounted to it experiences a sideways force that is
equal to its own weight. Accelerations of ½ g up to 1 g or more have been measured
in earthquakes. It is easy to understand why people
can’t stand up during strong earthquake shaking,
when you imagine yourself subjected to horizontal, A cceleration is a com-
mon measure of the
severity of earthquake
erratic pulls equal to half or more of your body
weight. shaking.

As a rough guide, when strong-motion seismographic instruments measure accel-
erations of ground shaking to be about one to two tenths of that of gravity (0.1 g
to 0.2 g), then earthquake-resistant construction may suffer cracking but no seri-
ous damage. However, unreinforced masonry buildings can experience significant
damage and may drop debris, such as parapets. As shaking severities approach ½ g
or even exceed 1 g, then damage to all kinds of construction is common, but it is
especially severe for unreinforced masonry buildings. The building code allows the
structure to deform so much in a severe earthquake that it no longer elastically
returns to its pre-earthquake position and condition. Keeping it “earthquake-
proof”—that is, able to undergo strong shaking without experiencing even minor
damage—would require prohibitively expensive protection for the structure and
for nonstructural components such as ceilings, partitions, piping, etc. Modern
buildings designed to recent building codes have successfully resisted the most
severe earthquake ground motions with only repairable damage. For most kinds
of modern, code-conforming construction, less than 5% is severely damaged or
performs in a hazardous manner in a strong earthquake, whereas more than half
of unreinforced masonry buildings typically receive that level of damage (see
Chapter 2).
A cardboard box with a lid can resist much higher sideways or lateral forces than
the same box without the top can resist. Building walls also need that “lid on
the box,” in order to stabilize them. That role is provided by the roof and any
floors above ground level. Floor and roof diaphragms hold the walls of a building
together.
The most common kind of floor and roof

D iaphragm is the term struc-
tural engineers use to refer
to floors or roofs in their roles of
in an unreinforced masonry building is
wood frame, typically “two-by” lumber
such as 2 × 10 small beams (joists), which
resisting horizontal, rather than
are usually sheathed with “one-by” boards
the usual vertical, forces.
(the use of plywood not being common
until after World War II in building
construction). The wood floor or roof diaphragm of a building is, unfortunately,
very flexible when compared to the stiffer masonry walls. This flexible wooden
diaphragm can allow building walls to lean or bow excessively either inwardly or
outwardly (out-of-plane). As the diaphragm bends sideways and vibrates back and
forth, it dynamically pushes and pulls on the brick walls, increasing their motions
and damage.
Individual structural elements, such as a wall and the roof, only perform ade-
quately in earthquakes when these elements are strongly connected. The typical
connection of the wood beams or joists to the unreinforced masonry walls, how-
ever, is very weak. A common construction detail used over the decades was to
rest the end of a beam in a pocket or niche in the brick wall, with little or no steel
hardware providing a strong, positive connection. When an unreinforced masonry
building is shaken, the roof or floor framing can pull away from the walls. The
walls need the roof to keep them from leaning too far and collapsing, while the
roof needs the walls to support it, in order to keep from falling. Typical unrein-
forced masonry damage includes both the collapse of heavy masonry wall areas
and the collapse of part or all of the roof or upper floors (see Figure 28).

 Figure 28. Failure of roof-to-
wall connection, with resulting
collapse. —Rutherford and Chekene
Chapter 2 previously mentioned the common presence of parapets, chimneys, and

cornices or other decorative features on unreinforced masonry buildings. These
elements do not play a structural role, but their failure can be very hazardous.
The fact that unreinforced masonry buildings often have multiple seismic weak-
nesses is not surprising—they were not designed to be seismically safe in the
first place. By the time when American building codes started to include seismic
requirements, first in California in the 1930s and slowly spreading nationwide,
reinforced masonry construction techniques became increasingly standard. Strong
steel connections, analysis of the overall load path that the structural elements
needed to provide, and an emphasis on ductility also became increasingly stan-
dard.
Thus, unreinforced masonry buildings not only have three strikes against them
from an earthquake engineering point of view—they are vulnerable for at least
twice as many reasons:
1. The walls are weak in resisting horizontal forces (and they lack ductility or
toughness);
2. The walls are heavy (they have high mass, leading to high inertial forces);
3. Diaphragms are excessively flexible (insufficient lateral support for the walls);
4. Diaphragm-to-wall connections are either absent or weak;
5. Parapets and ornamentation are common (and made of masonry), and;
6. The buildings were not seismically designed by an engineer (because they were
built prior to the time when seismic regulations pertaining to masonry began
to be enforced in that particular region).

How Are Unreinforced Masonry Buildings
Seismically Retrofitted?
Retrofitting or seismically upgrading a building, which means reconstructing
portions of it, in order to improve its earthquake resistance, is not the only way
to reduce risks. A building that is demolished obviously poses no further risk.
One that has its occupancy changed to a lower level—for example, from a theater
to a warehouse—also reduces the risk of injury. The risk of economic loss might
be reduced by purchasing earthquake insurance (although it is often unavailable
or very expensive for this kind of construction). In this document, however, risk
reduction through structural seismic retrofit (also referred to as rehabilitation) is
the focus.
A variety of retrofit measures have been included in unreinforced masonry

building risk reduction programs, and one or more of those measures may be
appropriate in a given case. The FEMA book, Techniques for Seismic Rehabilitation
of Existing Buildings (FEMA 547), provides examples that relate to several kinds
of construction, including unreinforced masonry bearing wall buildings.33 The
general standard for such retrofit measures in the United States is the International
Existing Building Code.34 The International Code Council (ICC) was formed in 2000
through the merger of the three previous model building code organizations:
the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA), which promulgated the
National Building Code; the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO),
which promulgated the Uniform Building Code (UBC), and; the Southern Building
Code Congress International (SBCCI), which promulgated the Standard Building
Code. Prior to the establishment of the ICC code for existing buildings, the model
code available with specific application to seismic retrofit projects was “Seismic
Strengthening Provisions for Unreinforced Masonry Bearing Wall Buildings,” the
Uniform Code for Building Conservation (UCBC) Appendix Chapter 1, 1997 edition,
which was cross-referenced with the 1997 Uniform Building Code. In some cases, a
local program may still use the Uniform Code for Building Conservation rather than
the newer ICC document. Over time, it is expected that adopted versions of build-
ing codes will standardize around the ICC codes and the standards that it incorpo-
rates by reference.
Usually retrofit that offers the biggest benefit relative to its costs is the anchorage
of masonry parapets, those short walls that extend a few feet above a building’s
roofline. Bracing or removing these parts of the building, along with other exterior
masonry appendages such as cornices, effectively addresses the type of damage
that can happen even in very light shaking. The most common type of bracing used
is to bolt diagonal steel struts to the top of the parapet, with the bottom end of the
struts anchored with bolts into the roof structure. Usually this does not change
the building’s appearance from the street (see Figure 29).
Parapet safety programs do not provide protection, however, against the collapse
of the building itself. The first additional increment of seismic protection, beyond
parapet and appendage bracing, is provided by bolting the walls to the roof and to
any floors above the ground floor level. Long steel bolts are typically inserted into
holes drilled in the wall and attached to a steel angle, which in turn is bolted to
the side of a wooden joist. The end of the bolt on the outside of the wall requires a
large washer (the size of a teacup saucer) to prevent it from pulling through in an
earthquake (see Figure 30). In many communities that have enacted seismic ret-

 Figure 29. Retrofit
bracing of an unre-
inforced masonry
parapet.
Typically, diagonal
bracing struts are
installed behind the
wall and anchored to
the roof, as shown
here, which makes
them unobtrusive.
—Federal Emergency
Management Agency
 Figure 30. Generic

wall-diaphragm connection
retrofit detail. —FEMA 547,
Techniques for the Seismic
Rehabilitation of Existing
Buildings
rofit ordinances, the row of these washers running along the roofl ine indicates the
presence of this kind of retrofit. Similar-looking steel washers may be part of an
older building’s construction. In general, old, pre-seismic-code wall-joist anchors
are not found to be adequate.
The next additional increment of earthquake protection is provided by conducting

a more thorough engineering examination of the entire building structure. This
examination might reveal the need to increase the horizontal stiff ness of floors
and the roof, which is typically accomplished by adding a layer of sheathing (sheets
of plywood or oriented-strand board). New columns (posts) may be added that can
hold up the floors and roof, even if portions of the bearing wall fail. The brick or
concrete block walls themselves cannot be transformed into modern reinforced
masonry construction. However, walls can be strengthened by several techniques,
making them stronger, even if not as strong as new, reinforced masonry walls. One
available technique is to add a layer of reinforced concrete to the inside or outside
of the wall, as shown in Figure 31.
Another approach is to install columns attached to

S trongbacks are vertical
“splints” that retrofit
a wall to increase its
the walls, which act like splints or strongbacks that
brace the wall against excessively bowing outward
or inward (see Figure 32). Yet another wall
out-of-plane resistance to strengthening method is to drill holes down
horizontal forces. through the wall from top to bottom, using
machinery adapted from the oil well industry to
insert a steel bar and grout. Interior partitions can also help to stiffen the overall
box structure and can damp out or absorb its vibrations. Each retrofit brings its

 Figure 31. California Capitol
Retrofit.
An exhibit shows a cut-away view
of the reinforced concrete that is
anchored into the brickwork with
epoxied reinforcing bars. —Robert
Reitherman
 Figure 32. A retrofitted

lateral-force-resisting post
(strongback).
The strongback column spans
from foundation to roof,
serving to brace a brick wall
against out-of-plane forces.
—Consortium of Universities
for Research in Earthquake
Engineering
own challenges. For example, a church with an unreinforced masonry spire may
need to insert steel trusswork inside the tower to brace it adequately.
Seismic isolation devices can be employed in combination with any of the above
techniques. These devices are “shock absorbers” manufactured for the specific
purpose of being installed between a building’s superstructure and foundation;
they soften and reduce the motion of the ground, as it comes up into the building
structure. Prominent examples of this kind of retrofit being applied to prominent
historic buildings that contain unreinforced masonry include the Salt Lake City
and County Building and San Francisco City Hall (see Figure 33).
One can’t simply take the building code regulations for new buildings and extract
particular features to guide the retrofitting of existing buildings. In fact, these
kinds of retrofits require design criteria developed specifically for existing build-
ings. The Uniform Code for Building Conservation and the ICC International Existing
Building Code evolved to meet that need. Local communities have also adopted a
number of different code rules for unreinforced masonry retrofits; some of these
are described in Chapter 4. Codes also typically have “triggers” that require much
more significant overall building upgrading if a building remodel exceeds a par-
ticular threshold. For example, code requirements might be triggered if the cost
of the new work exceeds some percentage of the value of the existing building.

 Figure 33. The San Francisco
City Hall seismic retrofit, which
includes seismic isolators. —Robert
Reitherman
These requirements may address concerns beyond the seismic safety concern that
motivated an earthquake retrofit. Issues such as handicapped access, exits, energy
conservation, removal of hazardous materials such as asbestos, and so on can
come into play. Deciding on the level of required seismic retrofitting that is appro-
priate relative to its associated costs is a big part of developing any risk reduction
program.
Retrofits require an engineer’s expertise to design the changes to the construc-

tion. There are many kinds of engineer; in this instance, we are referring to civil
engineers with structural engineering expertise. In some states, “structural
engineer” is a license or professional registration category, while in other states,
the term is used more generically. Seismic retrofits are significant remodels that
require building permits, and thus building departments must review plans and
issue permits. The technical community—the consulting structural engineers,
building departments, architects, and contractors—are essential to any successful
unreinforced masonry building risk reduction program, but they can’t implement
such measures by themselves. The guidance in Chapter 3, “Developing a Strategy
for Implementing a URM Risk Reduction Program,” and in Chapter 4, “Examples of
Successful Risk Reduction Programs,” makes it clear that key non-technical sectors
of the community must be involved and exert leadership.

6 Sources of Information
I n addition to the cited references, the following sources of information may

be useful to consult for further information.
Note that all of the documents published by FEMA listed here are available as
downloads and can often be mailed in printed form, upon request. A much larger
number of earthquake publications than are listed here are available from FEMA.
See: http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/earthquake/.
Publications for the General Public

California Seismic Safety Commission, “Status of the Unreinforced Masonry
Building Law: 2006 Progress Report to the Legislature,” California Seismic
Safety Commission, Sacramento, California; http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub.
html.
In concise form, this report indicates the types of programs being used
in California and their success rates.
Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, Natural Hazard

Technical Resource Guide, Salem, Oregon, July 2000; http://oregon.gov/LCD/
HAZ/docs/earthquakes/08_seismic.pdf.
This booklet explains to the public the nature of the various natural
hazards in Oregon and what is being done about them. Examples of
programs to reduce the earthquake hazards of existing buildings are
included, along with a review of legislative bills that were drafted to
require seismic inventories of buildings. It points the reader toward fur-
ther sources of information.
Utah Seismic Safety Commission, “The Utah Guide for the Seismic
Improvement of Unreinforced Masonry Dwellings” (n.d.); http://ussc.utah.
gov/utahseismic.
This booklet exists as a web-based document for the general public. It
promotes the idea of producing web-accessible public information prod-
ucts as part of a seismic risk reduction program, with the twin advan-
tages of lowering costs (eliminating printing and distribution costs once
the document is produced) and appealing to the increasing number of
people who turn to the web as their first source of information. It may
also be advisable to have printed versions of such documents available,
for example, to hand out at meetings, to reach those who do not usually
use the web, and to reach additional audiences such as those who pick up
a copy when waiting at the counter of a building or planning department.

Utah Seismic Safety Commission, “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake
Country: Your Handbook for Earthquakes in Utah,” 2008; http://ussc.utah.gov.
This booklet is a customized version of a publication developed for
California residents by the Southern California Earthquake Center, the
U.S. Geological Survey, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
It includes an explanation of the hazard of earthquake shaking and fault
rupture in Utah and information on unreinforced masonry.
Historic Buildings and Seismic Retrofits

California Historical Building Code (Part 8, Title 24 of California law),
California Building Standards Commission, 2007; http://www.dsa.dgs.ca.
gov/SHBSB/default.htm.
This is the generally prevailing code used for historical buildings in
California, though not required statewide, and is now correlated with the
provisions of the 2006 International Building Code. It allows more latitude
in seismic retrofitting of historic buildings than apply to non-historic
building projects.
Rachel Cox, Controlling Disaster: Earthquake-Hazard Reduction for Historic

Buildings, National Trust for Historic Buildings, Washington, DC 2001;
http://www.preservationbooks.org.
An introduction to the topic and guide to further resources.
Building Inventories and Evaluation of Existing

Buildings
American Society of Civil Engineers, Seismic Evaluation of Existing Buildings—
ASCE 31-03, Reston, Virginia, 2002; ordering information: http://pubs.asce.
org/books/standards/.
This standard was developed for the use of structural engineers and
building departments in applying consistent criteria and calculation
methods to the seismic evaluation of existing buildings, that is, the
process of deciding whether an existing building is deficient in particular
ways and requires strengthening. It covers all kinds of buildings.
Applied Technology Council, Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential

Seismic Hazards: A Handbook—FEMA 154, second edition, Federal Emergency
Management Agency, Washington, DC, 2002; http://www.fema.gov/plan/
prevent/earthquake/.
A guide to the subject concerning all types of buildings, but with a chap-
ter specific to unreinforced masonry bearing wall buildings. Includes
sample data collection forms and guidance on field methods to identify
unreinforced masonry buildings.
Building Codes, Standards, Guidelines, and Laws
Applicable to Existing Buildings
American Society of Civil Engineers, Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing
Buildings—ASCE/SEI 41/06, Reston, Virginia, 2007; ordering information:
http://pubs.asce.org/books/standards/.
This standard was developed for use by structural engineers and build-
ing departments after the decision is made to strengthen (rehabilitate) a
building, and it is not limited to unreinforced masonry. It includes guid-
ance to the engineer on how to give appropriate earthquake engineering
“credit” to older kinds of structural components that are not included
in modern building codes and how to analyze them. Forerunner publi-
cations to this standard include documents known as FEMA 273, and
FEMA 356.
Association of Bay Area Governments, Seismic Retrofit Incentive Programs,

Oakland, California; http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/incentives
This report focuses on incentives, but it also includes summaries of sev-
eral local government ordinances.
California Seismic Safety Commission, “Status of the Unreinforced Masonry

Safety Commission, Sacramento, California; http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub.
html.
Includes a summary of this state law, passed in 1986. Also mentioned
above, under Publications for the General Public.
International Code Council, International Existing Building Code, 2006

edition, Washington, DC; ordering information: http://www.iccsafe.org/
This is derived from the earlier Uniform Code for Building Conservation,
which may still be the locally applicable standard, depending upon the
jurisdiction.
Rutherford & Chekene, Techniques for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing

Buildings—FEMA 547, Federal Emergency Management Agency, October 2006;
http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/earthquake/.
Written for engineers and building department personnel, this manual
deals in Chapter 21 with specific retrofit measures for unreinforced
masonry buildings, ranging from bracing parapets and veneer to reinforced
concrete and fiber-reinforced polymer methods of strengthening walls.
Includes generic engineering details of the various retrofit alternatives.

Uniform Code for Building Conservation, Appendix Chapter 1, International
Code Conference, Washington, DC, 1997; ordering information: http://www.
iccsafe.org/
Originally published by the International Conference of Building
Officials, the organization promulgating the Uniform Building Code, prior
to the merger of model code organizations into the International Code
Council. The Uniform Code for Building Conservation is formatted to be
compatible with the 1997 Uniform Building Code.
Costs of Seismic Retrofits

Federal Emergency Management Agency, “FEMA Seismic Rehabilitation Cost
Estimator,” FEMA Seismic Rehabilitation Cost Estimator; http://www.fema.
gov/srce/index.jsp
The user of this web-based calculator can either use a simplified method
requiring little input information or a more advanced method that
requires selections among more variables.
Hart Consultant Group, Inc., Typical Costs for Seismic Rehabilitation of

Buildings, Volume 1, Summary—FEMA 156, and Volume 2, Supporting
Documentation—FEMA 157, Federal Emergency Management Agency,
Washington DC, 1994-1995, second edition; http://www.fema.gov/plan/
prevent/earthquake/.
A study of completed seismic upgrade projects to derive cost statistics.
Rutherford & Chekene, Seismic Retrofitting Alternatives for San Francisco’s

Unreinforced Masonry Buildings: Estimates of Construction Cost and Seismic
Damage, San Francisco Department of City Planning, 1990.
A study which grouped the city’s 2,000 unreinforced masonry buildings
into categories based on occupancy, size, and configuration, in order to
estimate what kinds of retrofits would be needed to meet alternative
proposed strengthening criteria, listed with associated costs.
7 End Notes and Cited References
1. The International Building Code, promulgated by the International Code Council,

obtains its seismic criteria for where particular types of structural systems
can be used from ASCE 7-05, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other
Structures (ASCE/SEI 7-05 including Supplement No. 1), American Society of
Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia, 2006. The map in Figure 1 of this document
is based on several assumptions, including: (1) Occupancies up through III in
Table 1-1 of ASCE 7-05, which does not include fire stations, hospitals, or other
essential facilities; (2) a short-period site coefficient, Fa, of 1.75 (Table 11.4-1),
based on the mapped short-period Maximum Considered Earthquake (SS);
and (3) the design spectral short-period accelerations (SDS) must be less than
0.33 for Seismic Design Category B to apply (Table 11.6-1), and with the above
assumptions, the maximum SS of 0.33 is rounded here to 0.3 for mapping pur-
poses. For essential occupancies or for very soft soil, the red areas on the map
would expand.
2. Architectural Resources Group, An Assessment of Damage Caused to Historic

Resources by the Loma Prieta Earthquake, National Trust for Historic
Preservation, Washington, DC, August 1990, p. 40.
3. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published a number of pub-

lications that deal with a variety of kinds of buildings, and also for utility and
transportation systems. See http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/earthquake/.
FEMA publication number 736, “Catalog of FEMA Earthquake Resources,”
available at that website, provides the complete list.
4. Statistics are compiled from the 1886 Charleston, 1906 San Francisco, 1925
Santa Barbara, 1933 Long Beach, 1971 San Fernando, and 1983 Coalinga
earthquakes, in districts where the Modified Mercalli Intensity was approxi-
mately VII or greater. Data for the 1886 Charleston earthquake from H.C.
Stockdell, H. C. et al., Record of Earthquake Damages, Winham & Lester
Publishers, Atlanta, Georgia, 1886. Data for the 1925 Santa Barbara earth-
quake in Karl V. Steinbrugge, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: An Anatomy
of Hazards, Skandia America, New York, New York, 1982, p. 306. Data for
the other earthquakes from the compilation in Robert Reitherman, “Seismic
Damage to Unreinforced Masonry Buildings,” Final Report to the National
Science Foundation, Scientific Service, Inc., Redwood City, California, 1984, p.
23.
5. H.C. Stockdell, et al., Record of Earthquake Damages, Winham & Lester

Publishers, Atlanta, Georgia, 1886; figure for the demolitions from John R.
Freeman, Earthquake Damage, McGraw-Hill, New York, New York, 1932, p. 284.
6. Karl Steinbrugge, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: An Anatomy of Hazards,

Skandia America Group, New York, 1982, p. 306.

7. C. D. Wailes and A. C. Horner, “Earthquake Damage Analyzed by Long Beach
Officials,” Engineering News-Record, May 25, 1933.
8. Robert Reitherman, Gregor Cuzner, T.C. Zsutty, and Gretchen Smith,

“Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings,” Coalinga, California,
Earthquake of May 2, 1983, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute,
Oakland, California, 1984, p. 132.
9. Architectural Resources Group, An Assessment of Damage Caused to Historic

Resources by the Loma Prieta Earthquake, National Trust for Historic
Preservation, Washington, DC, 1990, p. 29.
10. Nisqually Earthquake Clearinghouse Group, The Nisqually Earthquake of 28

February 2001: Preliminary Reconnaissance Report, p. 11.
11. California Seismic Safety Commission, “Findings and Recommendations from

the San Simeon Earthquake of December 22, 2003,” California Seismic Safety
Commission, Sacramento, California; http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub.html.
12. Federal Emergency Management Agency, “FEMA Seismic Rehabilitation Cost

Estimator,” http://www.fema.gov/srce/index.jsp.
13. Hart Consultant Group, Inc., Typical Costs for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings,
Volume 1, Summary—FEMA 156, and Volume 2—FEMA 157, Supporting
Documentation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington DC,
1994-1995, second edition; http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/earthquake/.
14. Applied Technology Council, Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential
Seismic Hazards: A Handbook—FEMA 154, second edition, Federal Emergency
Management Agency, Washington, DC, 2002; http://www.fema.gov/plan/pre-
vent/earthquake/.
15. Robert Olshansky, “Making a Difference: Stories of Successful Seismic Safety

Advocates,” Earthquake Spectra, Volume 21, No. 2, May 2005; http://www.
urban.illinois.edu/faculty/olshansky/index.html.
16. The Utah law; http://www.dopl.utah.gov/laws/R156-56.pdf.
17. The Utah resolution H.J.R. 7; http://le.utah.gov/~2008/bills/hbillenr/hjr007.pdf.
18. Personal communication from Barry Welliver, former Chair, Utah Seismic
Safety Commission, June 23, 2009.
19. California Seismic Safety Commission, “Status of the Unreinforced Masonry

Safety Commission, Sacramento, California; http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub.html.
20. The original referenced standard was the Uniform Code for Building
Conservation, Appendix Chapter 1, published by the International Conference
of Building Officials. After the three U.S. model code groups merged in 2000 to
form the International Code Council and to promulgate the International Building
Code, the relevant existing building code became the International Existing
Building Code of 2006.
21. Historic Architecture, Seattle, Washington; http://www.historicseattle.org/advo-

cacy/nisqually.aspx.

22. Levy Oversight Committee, “Status Report, July 17 2008,” Fleets and Facilities
Department, City of Seattle, Washington; http://www.seattle.gov/fleetsfacilities/
firelevy/about.htm.
23. Robert Olshansky, “Making a Difference: Stories of Successful Seismic Safety

Advocates,” Earthquake Spectra, Volume 21, No. 2, May 2005; http://www.
urban.illinois.edu/faculty/olshansky/index.html.
24. Yumei Wang and Bill Burns, “Case History on the Oregon GO Bond Task
Force: Promoting Earthquake Safety in Public Schools and Emergency
Facilities,” Proceedings of the 8th National US Earthquake Conference, Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute, Oakland, California, 2006; http://www.oregon-
geology.org/sub/projects/rvs/EERI-GO-Bond-text.pdf.
25. Real Property Transfer Tax—Seismic Retrofit Fund, City of Berkeley; http://
www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=6282.
26. Association of Bay Area Governments, Seismic Retrofit Incentive Programs,

Oakland, California; http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/incentives.
27. Daniel Barclay, “Assessing Seismic Safety Policy,” Massachusetts Institute of

Technology Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume 10, Spring 2004; http://web.
mit.edu/murj/www/v10/v10-Features/v10-f2.pdf.
28. Edward M. O’Connor, ““An Interview With Edward M. O’Connor: Retroactive

Regulations in Long Beach,” Robert Reitherman, interviewer, Building
Standards, International Conference of Building Officials, September-October,
1984.
29. Association of Bay Area Governments, Seismic Retrofit Incentive Programs,

Oakland, California; http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/incentives/. See
pages 25-34.
30. Daniel Alesch and William Petak, The Politics and Economics of Earthquake
Hazard Mitigation: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings in Southern California, Natural
Hazards Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1986; http://www.colorado.
edu/hazards/publications/monographs/monopubs.html - 1980.
31. William T. Holmes and Peter Somers, editors, Northridge Earthquake of January
17, 1994 Reconnaissance Report—Volume 2, Earthquake Spectra, supplement C to
Volume 11, January 1996, p. 195-217.
32. City of San Luis Obispo, “Unreinforced Masonry Hazard Mitigation Program,”
http://www.ci.san-luis-obispo.ca.us/economicdevelopment/seismiccoord.asp; City
Manager, City of San Luis Obispo, “Draft Outline of Seismic Safety Ordinance
Update,” http://www.prcity.com/government/citycouncil/agenda-items/2004/
March/2004 03-16 CC ITM 17.pdf.
33. Rutherford & Chekene, Techniques for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing
Buildings—FEMA 547, Federal Emergency Management Agency, October 2006;
http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/earthquake/.
34. International Code Council, International Existing Building Code, 2006 edition,
Washington, DC; ordering information: http://www.iccsafe.org/.

8 Project Participants
FEMA Project Monitor Project Review Panel

Cathleen M. Carlisle Ronald P. Gallagher
Federal Emergency Management Agency R P Gallagher Associates, Inc.
500 C Street, SW 519 17th Street, Suite 220
Washington, DC 24072 Oakland, California 94612
Project Manager Jon A. Heintz

Thomas R. McLane Applied Technology Council
Applied Technology Council 201 Redwood Shores Parkway, Suite 240
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700 Redwood City, California 94065
Arlington, Virginia 22201
William T. Holmes
Principal Authors Rutherford & Chekene
Robert K. Reitherman 55 Second Street, Suite 600
Consortium of Universities for Research in San Francisco, California 94105
Earthquake Engineering
1301 South 46th St., Building 420 Ugo Morelli
Richmond, California 94804 2700 Calvert Street, NW, #314
Washington, DC 20008
Sue C. Perry
U.S. Geological Survey Lawrence D. Reaveley
525 So. Wilson Avenue University of Utah
Pasadena, California 91106 Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng’g
160 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 104
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0561
Christopher Rojahn
Applied Technology Council
201 Redwood Shores Parkway, Suite 240
Redwood City, California 94065
Editor
Kristen Yawitz
1923 Lyon Avenue
Belmont, California 94002

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Unreinforced Masonry

Buildings and Earthquakes

FEMA P-774 / October 2009

Front Cover Photo Credits (clockwise from top left):

1886, Charleston, South Carolina: J. K. Hillers, U.S. Geological Survey

2003, San Simeon, California: Josh Marrow, Earthquake Engineering

2001, Nisqually, Washington: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral

1935, Helena, Montana: L. H. Jorud, courtesy of Montana Historical Society

1993, Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral

2008, Wells, Nevada: Craig dePolo, Wells Earthquake Portal, www.nbmg.unr.

FEMA P-774/October 2009

Project Review Panel

2 Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings . . . . . . . 7

3 Developing a Strategy for Implementing a URM Building Risk

4 Examples of Successful Risk Reduction Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

7 End Notes and Cited References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

T his document provides guidance on how to develop programs to reduce the

While the information presented here is based on extensive earthquake engineer-

The typical unreinforced masonry building in

Chapter 3, “Developing a Strategy for Implementing a URM Risk Reduction

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 1

Chapter 6, “Sources of Information,” provides a number of annotated references

Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes:

Types of Earthquake Risks

INJURY: Promoting safety is the prime rationale for building code

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 3

PROPERTY DAMAGE: Experience from past earthquakes has shown

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 5

Dealing with the earthquake risks of unreinforced masonry buildings is a challeng-

T his chapter provides brief descriptions and illustrations of unreinforced

What is Unreinforced Masonry?

• Brick: clay that is fired to a hard consistency.

• Hollow concrete block: “concrete masonry unit” in the terminology of building

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 7

Wythe (2-wythe-thick wall

Unreinforced concrete block

 Figure 8. “Header” versus “stretcher” courses.  Figure 9. Complete collapse of an unrein-

The most common type of unreinforced masonry

8 Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

Masonry veneer is usually composed of one layer of ordinary brick or of thinner

 Figure 12. Workers installing brick veneer.

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 9

Further information on unreinforced masonry construction is provided in Chapter 5.

Examples and Statistics from Past U.S. Earthquakes

1886 Charleston Earthquake, South Carolina, M 7.7: Eighty-two percent of

 Figure 13. Debris result-

10 Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

 Figure 14. Heavily damaged Hotel

1933 Long Beach Earthquake, Southern California, M 6.3: In the City of

 Figure 15. URM building damage,

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 11

 Figure 16. URM building

 Figure 17. Aerial

12 Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

 Figure 18. Upper story wall collapse, with

2001 Nisqually Earthquake, Puget Sound Region, Washington, M 6.8:

 Figure 19. URM building damage, 2001 Nisqually, Washington earthquake.

FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes 13

 Figure 20. Retrofitted