S3B: Resilient Design for Functional Recovery – Our Profession is Currently Taking the Lead

Structural engineers are leading the way in shifting design practice from simply code-conforming to resilient design, with enhanced goals of limiting damage, repair costs, and building closure times. It has long been understood in the engineering community that a life-safety based building code is not sufficient to meet the needs and expectations of the public following a significant seismic event. Engineers are already implementing resilient design for functional recovery, and doing so in a quantitative, standardized, and repeatable way, using the FEMA P-58 risk assessment methodology. This session will examine several examples of buildings that have been designed to be more resilient with enhanced performance objectives (typically limiting repair times and repair costs). The goal of each example is to show how this can be done (and is currently being done) in the structural engineering practice. Each example will specifically highlight the resilient features of the building and how FEMA P-58 was used to quantify and/or improve the building resilience.