University of Southern California Doheny Memorial Library Seismic Retrofit

Los Angeles, CA | 4 stories | 168,145 sq ft

Subsequent to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the University of Southern California executed a FEMA damage survey report for this historic building built in 1931.

FEMA authorized a seismic strengthening program which consisted of new shotcrete shear walls installed on the interior side of the building. Though the shear walls were going to be installed on the inside of the building, the existing historic fabric had to be preserved. This challenge was met by judiciously locating the shear walls to optimize building performance while minimizing impact to the historic finishes. This was accomplished in one of two ways:

First, the walls were shot from whichever side of a given wall did not have artistic historic finishes. A second option was to remove the existing historic finishes in panels as well as removing 1 to 2 wythes of the existing brick wall and then reinstalling the historic finishes. Removing the brick wythes allowed us to install the new concrete shear walls while not impacting the original location of the historic finishes. Our firm worked closely with the Owner and the Contractor throughout the process to minimize impact and to expedite construction reviews in order to maintain the construction schedule. As a result, the project was finished ahead of schedule and under budget.