Performance and Resulting Building Code Changes

One of the most iconic images of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake is the photograph of a collapsed precast concrete parking structure at California State University, Northridge. While it was only one of many precast parking structures that suffered extensive damage as a result of the earthquake, it illustrates the juxtaposition of the incredible ductility exhibited by the perimeter columns with the collapse of the overall structure. It epitomizes one of the primary performance issues highlighted by the earthquake. The failure of numerous concrete parking structures during the earthquake, both precast and cast-in-place, led to an in-depth examination of the current design practices and ultimately led to several building code changes to improve the performance of these types of structures. …