#36 Earthquake Retrofitting of Parking Structure

Description:  The parking structure above is in Berkeley, California and exhibits a perfect example of earthquake retrofitting a structure.  The crisscrossed red members on the front of the structure were added after the completion of the building to increase the strength in the event of an earthquake.  If you look closely the connections of the frame to the ground are pin connections.  These pin connections literally are large steel plates with simple holes connected by rods.  These pin connections allow for rotation of the joint, but do not allow it to move up, down, or side to side apart from ground motion.