channing house - senior housing

Seismic Upgrade - Base Isolation

Palo Alto, CA

Architect: B. H. Bocook Architect

Contractor:  Anderson Pacific Engineering Construction

How do you seismically retrofit a 10 story senior housing facility while remaining fully functional?

RPSE proposed a particularly innovative solution for it's time:  base isolation.  This project was the first base isolated retrofit project to be approved by OSHPD. 

The construction, with a modest $18M budget, faced many complex construction procedures and challenges, such as clamping, jacking and saw cutting sections out of 1,000,000 pound loaded columns for inserting 4000-pound isolator units, while life on all 10 floors above went on every day.

2002 / SEAONC Excellence in Engineering Award