Saiful Bouquet designed a comprehensive seismic strengthening of the Bunker Hill Towers, located in Los Angeles, CA, using state-of-the-art seismic analysis methodologies and techniques. Our team developed a seismic strengthening scheme for these two 19-story 1960’s concrete towers which addressed the key concerns identified by the analysis. The building’s lateral force resisting system is a non-ductile concrete moment frame system at the perimeter of the building. Unlike typical concrete moment frame systems with widely spaced columns, this system is unique in that the columns are closely spaced which makes the frame beams highly susceptible to non-ductile shear failure.
For the seismic retrofit solution, Saiful Bouquet developed an innovative doweling technique to provide increased shear strength to the frame beams. With this scheme, construction could be performed completely from the exterior of the building, and did not have any functional or aesthetic implications when complete. In addition, performing the work from the exterior allowed for minimal disruption to the tenants, allowing continuous occupancy of the building during construction.
