Evaluation and Repair of Construction Damage to an Old Factory Building

Abstract

This paper describes the performance based seismic rehabilitation of an old four-story RC frame building which is being remodeled to be reused as an office building in the creative industrial park. The building is part of the city’s adaptive reuse and redevelopment program. It was designed and constructed in the 1980’s and, therefore, does not meet current design and detailing standards. To make matters worse, two of the first floor columns were badly damaged during renovation and were in danger of collapsing at any time. This paper presents the effects of the accident, failure mechanism, as well as the actions taken to repair the building. The damaged columns are strengthened by a reinforced concrete jacket. The beams closer to damaged columns are retrofitted by externally bonded CFRP. Structural redesign made it feasible to rehabilitate and strengthen the structure sufficient to meet seismic criteria that were judged to be compatible with the site conditions.