Enhanced Seismic Design of the New San Bernardino Court

摘要

This paper presents an overview of the "Enhanced" seismic design of the New San Bernardino Court facility. Designed for the Judicial Council of California under the jurisdiction of the Administrative Office of the Courts, the state-of-the-art Superior Court facility will be located in the City of San Bernardino, California - a region of high seismicity in close proximity to active earthquake faults. The 12-story structure with one below grade level was designed to meet "Enhanced" seismic performance objectives of the 2006 California Trial Court Facility Standards in accordance with the 2007 California Building Code. The final design features a cost-effective steel-framed superstructure with special moment-resisting frames and supplementary viscous damping devices supported on a triple-concave friction pendulum seismic isolation system. This paper focuses on the overall progression of the final design from early design phases through final construction documents. This includes architectural design development, site-specific seismic hazard evaluation, structural system options considered, as well as, seismic risk assessment and life-cycle cost analysis to help inform decision making and system selection.