About the author  ⁄ Joe Maffei, S.E., Ph.D.

Joe Maffei is the Founding Principal at Maffei Structural Engineering in San Francisco, CA. He is a member of the SEAOC Wind Committee. (joe@ maffei-structure.com)

Part 1: Design Process

San Francisco’s Pier 70 is located on the city’s southern waterfront on the San Francisco Bay, an area with a rich history of industry and shipbuilding dating back to the 19th century. Over time, these uses diminished, and many of the buildings fell into disrepair. In 2015, the Port of San Francisco began plans to redevelop the area around Pier 70 to create up to one thousand housing units and two million square feet of office space.

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Part 2

A recent seismic retrofit project provided an opportunity to test an interior concrete column retrofit with a three-sided, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) wrap with FRP through-anchors on the fourth side. The testing demonstrated the effectiveness of this application, which could be applied to columns or beams with deficient shear strength in situations where site conditions prevent access to one side of the member. Please refer to Part 1 (STRUCTURE, January 2022) for additional testing information.

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Part 1

Concrete buildings with vulnerable columns are some of the most dangerous structures when earthquakes occur. Since the 1970s, building codes have addressed the detailing of columns that are part of moment frames in high-seismic regions. Research for the Portland Cement Association [Blume et al., 1961] and subsequent studies in New Zealand established the need for close spacing of ties and a capacity design of frame members for shear strength sufficient to cause flexural yielding rather than undesirable shear failure.

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Performance-Based Design of the New Air Traffic Control Tower

Walter P Moore was an Outstanding Award Winner for its Air Traffic Control Tower and Integrated Facilities Building project in the 2016 NCSEA Annual Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards Program in the Category – New Buildings over $100M.

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STRUCTURE magazine