Seismic Studies

Structural evaluation is one the most important aspects of the structural engineering profession, providing the requisite information to building owners, tenants, and other stake holders such as lenders to make informed decisions about seismic risk and ultimately investment decisions.

Hohbach-Lewin has provided 1000’s of structural evaluations for buildings of all shapes, sizes and construction types. Utilizing many different evaluation methodologies including, ASCE 41, Thiel-Zsutty, FEMA P-58, and FEMA P-807 coupled with conducting different levels of seismic analyses, Hohbach-Lewin can provide seismic performance prediction in the form of Scenario Expected Losses (SEL), devise retrofit schemes to increase a buildings seismic performance, and generate the associated estimated retrofit costs.

Seismic Retrofits

Seismic retrofitting of vulnerable structures is critical to decreasing risk to the lives and assets of the building’s occupants, the continuity of their work, and the resiliency of the community including recovery time. Hohbach-Lewin has provided construction documents for innumerable seismic retrofits. Often more difficult than ground up construction projects, the process of designing a seismic retrofit for a building is a true art that requires creativity, ingenuity, and collaboration.

Hohbach-Lewin has provided structural engineering services to retrofit older steel office buildings, non-ductile concrete structures, unreinforced masonry buildings, concrete tilt-up structures, and many other building types. Addressing torsional and vertical irregularities, increasing in plane strength by the addition of new vertical lateral force resisting elements or strengthening existing ones, increasing insufficient diaphragm strengths, and increasing concrete ductility through the use of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) are all solutions we have implemented in the past. These retrofits have to be woven into the existing framework of the buildings architecture to ensure the end product provides the required seismic performance level while not compromising the architecture of the structure which are often iconic or historic buildings.

Capuchino High School20200507200419

Capuchino High School

Hohbach-Lewin provided the structural design for this new $25M two-story classroom and administration building designed by Bi...
Abgenix20200507201830

Abgenix

Hohbach-Lewin, Inc. provided full structural engineering design services for the build-out of this $80 million office/product...
Stanford University, Crothers Memorial Hall20200507202615

Stanford University, Crothers Memorial Hall

By utilizing performance based techniques, Hohbach-Lewin was able to devise a scheme which eliminated the need for both of th...
Historic Hoover Middle School20200507202700

Historic Hoover Middle School

This 1930’s vintage concrete building has been retrofitted and returned to public educational use utilizing performance-based...
Marin Executive Center20200507202728

Marin Executive Center

The retrofit solution largely consisted of the construction of exterior buttresses which served the dual function of providin...
Santa Ana State Office Building20200507202754

Santa Ana State Office Building

Four distinctly different seismic retrofit strategies were investigated, with the exterior concrete buttress shear wall schem...
Stent Hall, Menlo School20200507202808

Stent Hall, Menlo School

This existing 3-story historic concrete mansion now functions as the administration building for Menlo School. To seismically...
Glendale City Center20200507202827

Glendale City Center

A dynamic analysis was performed on this structure in order to accurately model the structure’s expected performance when exp...
Phelan Building20200507202850

Phelan Building

Hohbach-Lewin, Inc. performed a non-linear performance based analysis of this historic 1908 San Francisco landmark structure....
Safeway Expansion and Renovation20200508202851

Safeway Expansion and Renovation

The entire project team utilized 3-D modeling software, REVIT, to produce working drawings for this extensive renovation proj...

OFFICE LOCATIONS

Hohbach-Lewin Palo Alto

PALO ALTO
260 Sheridan Avenue, Suite 150
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 617.5930

Hohbach-Lewin San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO
909 Montgomery Street, Suite 260
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 318.8520

Hohbach-Lewin Eugene

EUGENE
296 East 5th Avenue, Suite 302
Eugene, OR 97401
(541) 349.1701

Hohbach-Lewin Pasadena

PASADENA
511 Mission Street
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 441-1211

chicago

CHICAGO
(312) 535-0200