ABSTRACT
On February 22, 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand, was hit by an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude with a hypocenter depth of 5 kilometers and a horizontal distance of less than 10 kilometers from the city’s Central Business District. The interviews conducted also provided a valuable overarching narrative for the reconstruction process that goes beyond the quantification process. With the rebuilding of Christchurch, which has taken place since 2011, the number of buildings with steel, concrete, and timber lateral force resisting systems has been in the ratio of approximately 10:10:1. Concrete structures in the rebuild were nearly all structural wall systems. Steel buildings have been constructed using a variety of lateral-load resisting systems. The professional opinions of structural engineers have driven the adoption of low-damage systems, but tenant expectations have a significant direct or indirect impact on the choice of structural systems for individual buildings.
