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December 8, 2023   |   San Francisco
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Project Title: Development of a Prestandard for the Evaluation and Retrofit of One and Two Family Light Frame Residential Buildings

Client: California Earthquake Authority; Federal Emergency Management Agency

Purpose: This project developed a prestandard for vulnerability-based seismic assessment and retrofit of one- and two-family wood light frame residential buildings. The prestandard is supported by prescriptive, pre-engineered set of plans that can be adapted to retrofit crawlspace dwelling cripple walls, living-space-over-garage dwelling ground story bracing walls, masonry chimneys and masonry fireplace surrounds in wood light-frame dwellings, as well as the technical basis of the prestandard. ATC is currently developing a training course in accordance with the prestandard.

Published Reports: This project published the following reports.

ATC-110, Plan for Development of a Prestandard for Evaluation and Retrofit of Wood Light-Frame Dwellings (ATC, 2014)

FEMA P-1100, Vulnerability-Based Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of One- and Two-Family Dwellings, Volume 1 - Prestandard

FEMA P-1100-2A, Vulnerability-Based Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of One- and Two-Family Dwellings, Volume 2A – Plan Set for Crawlspace Dwellings

FEMA P-1100-2B, Vulnerability-Based Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of One- and Two-Family Dwellings, Volume 2B – Plan Set for Living-Space-Over-Garage Dwellings

FEMA P-1100-2C, Vulnerability-Based Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of One- and Two-Family Dwellings, Volume 2C – Plan Set for Masonry Chimneys

FEMA P-1100-3, Vulnerability-Based Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of One- and Two-Family Dwellings, Volume 3 – Background Documentation

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Project Title: Development of ATC Design Guides

Funding Source: ATC Endowment Fund

Purpose: To develop design guides on selected topics including minimizing floor vibration, basic wind design information, tornadoes, serviceability issues, and risk category selection.

This project has produced the following reports:

ATC Design Guide 1, Minimizing Floor Vibration

ATC Design Guide 2, Basic Wind Engineering for Low-Rise Buildings

ATC Design Guide 3, Serviceability Design of Tall Buildings Under Wind Loads (also available for purchase in electronic format)

                000 ATC DG3 Cover 2021 bordered

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Project Title: September 19, 2017 Puebla-Morelos, Mexico Earthquake: Seismological and Structural Observations by the ATC Reconnaissance Team

Funding Source: ATC Endowment Fund

Purpose: Following the magnitude-7.1 Puebla-Morelos, Mexico earthquake on September 19th of 2017, the Applied Technology Council (ATC) deployed to the field an interdisciplinary team of seismologists, structural and geotechnical engineers, tasked with performing reconnaissance and collecting building design and strong ground motion information.  The team arrived in Mexico City on October 10th, 2017 and worked with local agencies and academic institutions for the duration of one week.  The ATC-141 report documents the findings of the field team, including observation of earthquake effects for 70 buildings, microtremors recorded using monitoring instruments at 7 buildings, and a compilation of processed ground motion recordings from UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and CIRES (Center of Instrumentation and Seismic Records). This report also serves as a reference to two papers approved for publication in Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Spectra Journal.

Acknowledgements: The field team was primarily supported by the ATC Endowment fund, which was established in 1989 with a purpose to support projects of critical interest to structural engineering design practice, research, and education.  Additional support was provided for instrumentation by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant #1810899. The contents of this report are the result of collaboration by universities (State University of New York at Buffalo, National Technical University of Athens, University of Greenwich, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), private engineering firms in the United States (Gilsanz Murray Steficek, WSP, Degenkolb Engineers, Forell/Elsesser Engineers, IDS Group, and Rutherford + Chekene), private engineering and architecture firms in Mexico (TEN Arquitectos, Grupo Colinas de Buen , PEI Diseño Estructural S.A. de C.V., Grupo Rioboo, Kali Design), and agencies and organizations in both Mexico and United States (Centro de Instrumentación de Registro Sísmico, Sociedad Mexicana de Ingenería Estructural, A.C., and Earthquake Engineering Research Institute).

Access: The ATC-141 report is provided here in its entirety free of charge, courtesy of the ATC Endowment Fund.  

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Project Title: Investigation of Project 17 Duration Effects

Funding Source: ATC Endowment Fund

Purpose: To support the FEMA-funded Project 17 effort that is examining the basis for the national seismic design value maps and the design procedures that reference them, in preparation for the 2020 Provisions update cycle. This work will investigate the effects of duration on building response and collapse behavior, which is a topic that is not currently funded within the Project 17 scope of work.

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Project Title: AISC-ATC Workshop on Performance-Based Structural-Fire Engineering

Client: American Institute of Steel Construction; Applied Technology Council

Purpose: To build on ATC’s London Forum on performance-based structure-fire engineering to answer questions related to benefits and incentives for performance-based structural fireengineering, cost savings, barriers to implementation in the United States, and strategies for implementation.

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 Welcome to the ATC Team!

Valley Mike crop As a former Principal at Magnusson Klemencic Associates in Seattle, Mike comes to ATC with more than 30 years of structural engineering experience in new design, evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings, applied research, and codes and standards development. Mike’s design experience includes the landmark Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, and his research and development experience includes the FEMA 356 Prestandard and Commentary for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings, FEMA P-2012 Assessing Seismic Performance of Buildings with Configuration Irregularities (ATC-123 Project), and NIST GCR 10-917-9 Applicability of Nonlinear Multiple-Degree-of-Freedom Modeling for Design (ATC-76-6 Project).

Mike also has extensive experience as an ATC consultant serving as a reviewer, a technical contributor, and Project Director on multiple ATC projects. We look forward to how Mike’s unique experiences as a successful team member will contribute to ATC projects in the future.
Mahoney Mike crop

Retired from federal service as a Senior Geophysicist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mike comes to ATC with more than 30 years of experience in hazard mitigation program management and policy development, post-disaster response and recovery, and problem-focused research and development in support of FEMA’s efforts under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). He has led FEMA’s earthquake-related work with the International Code Council and has been involved with the development of national model codes and standards since 1984.

In his career at FEMA, Mike has led the development of countless major FEMA publications, including: FEMA 350 Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings and its series of companion reports (ATC-41 Project series), FEMA P-58 Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings, Methodology and Implementation (ATC-58 Project series), FEMA P-695 Quantification of Building Seismic Performance Factors (ATC-63 Project), FEMA P-2018 Seismic Evaluation of Older Concrete Buildings for Collapse Potential (ATC-78 Project), and FEMA P-2090/NIST SP-1254 Recommended Options for Improving the Built Environment for Post-Earthquake Reoccupancy and Functional Recovery Time (ATC-137 Project). With Mike’s extensive knowledge of federal government programs, and past collaboration with state and local agencies, hazard mitigation partners, and code development organizations, we look forward to how his unique experiences will help serve ATC’s client needs and objectives in the future.