ABSTRACT
Performance-based engineering (PBE) methodologies have been developed and adopted in an effort to create design procedures that satisfy performance objectives for design-level hazard events a priori. Proponents of PBE believe that this methodology can enable a paradigm shift toward construction of more robust, redundant structures that experience low levels of hazard-induced damage and limit loss of post-event functionality. This chapter explores tradeoffs between sustainable and resilient buildings using a life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology that incorporates PBE. Successful integration of these two design philosophies requires development of techniques that integrate hazard performance in quantification of a building’s life-cycle impacts. The chapter describes LCA methods that can be used to quantify a building’s environmental and economic life-cycle, considering a hazard event. Both studies are based on the life-cycle environmental impacts and seismic performance of a series of code-conforming, reinforced concrete office buildings in Los Angeles, varied with respect to nonstructural green building features, structural frame and member configurations, and structural concrete properties.
