The restoration and seismic strengthening of the earthquake-damaged UNESCO heritage palace in Kathmandu

Abstract

ABSTRACT On April 25, 2015, an earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.8 struck midwestern Nepal, followed by hundreds of aftershocks. The Government of Nepal Department of Archaeology estimates that one-third of the country’s important cultural heritage sites were destroyed by the earthquake and that hundreds of other historic buildings were severely damaged. One such monument is Gaddi Baithak, an early 20th-century, neoclassical, European-style masonry palace built in 1908, a few years after the Kangra earthquake (1905). This building was constructed as an extension of the king’s residence, with a clear design concept and consistent detailing that show intentional consideration for earthquake peril. This paper focuses on the approach to repair and to seismically strengthen this historic icon. Performance-based engineering is being applied to capture the structure’s dynamic behavior and its inherent strengths and weaknesses. The work is funded by the U.S. Embassy in Nepal under the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).