ABSTRACT
The eight-story office building is located in a high seismic area (Seismic Design Category (SDC) Dmax1). The building plan and elevation views are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively. The building is symmetric in plan with five 9.0 m bays in the E-W direction and five 6.0 m bays in the N-S direction. The first story is 5.4 m and the remaining story heights are 4.2 m. The Seismic Force Resisting System (SFRS) is composed of Special
1 INTRODUCTION
Prescriptive building code procedures, such as those found in the International Building Code (ICC 2009) and ASCE 7 (ASCE 2010) often restrict design innovation, leading to potentially inefficient structural designs and higher construction costs. However, ASCE 7 allows alternative rational design methods, such as Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD), to be used in lieu of its prescriptive provisions, but provides no substantial guidance on implementing these rational methods. Therefore, many practitioners have turned to the guidance of ASCE 41 (ASCE 2006), the standard for assessment of existing buildings, in order to implement “first-generation” PBSD principles in the design of new buildings.
