On August 24, 2014, the South Napa Earthquake left the Napa County Historic Courthouse heavily damaged with partially collapsed walls, ceilings, and extensive wall cracking (Figure 1). The City of Napa red-tagged the courthouse as unoccupiable, which began the extensive damage documentation and repair effort. The overarching goal throughout this process was to provide a solution to repair and preserve as much of the historic building as practical while providing improved detailing. …

Part 2

On August 24, 2014, the South Napa Earthquake left the Napa County Historic Courthouse heavily damaged with partially collapsed walls, ceilings, and extensive wall cracking (Figure 1). The City of Napa red-tagged the courthouse as un-occupiable, which began the extensive damage documentation effort outlined in the December 2019 edition of STRUCTURE. After documenting and assessing damage, the design team refocused efforts towards a solution to repair and preserve as much of the historic building as practical while providing improved detailing. …

At 3:20 AM, August 24, 2014, the Napa County Historic Courthouse was severely damaged in the magnitude 6.0 South Napa Earthquake, which induced nearby ground motion readings indicating spectral accelerations ranging from 0.4g to 1.7g for low period structures. Most obviously, the top of the south east corner at the front of the building (east face), along with its attached dental cornice, collapsed outward to the sidewalk below (Figure 1). …

Repair and Retrofit in the Aftermath of the Napa Earthquake

Trefethen Family Vineyards is a family-owned estate winery located just to the north of Napa, California, within the Oak Knoll District AVA. Their historic winery building, originally known as Eshcol, was constructed in 1886 by Hamden McIntyre, a Scottish civil engineer, honorary ship captain, and well-known builder of wineries in the Napa Valley (Figure 1). …