ABSTRACT
Seismic ground shaking has been a factor in the structural design of buildings for only slightly more than one hundred years. It is indeed a “young” science, with room for further discoveries, advancements, and new technologies. Similarly, the design and construction of tall buildings is also only slightly more than one hundred years old. It follows, then, that tall buildings in areas prone to significant earthquakes are arguably an untested building type. While significant earthquakes in Mexico City (1986), San Francisco (1989), Northridge (1994), Kobe (1995), Chile (2010), and Japan (2011) have provided insight to the performance of towers, much remains to be learned.
