Review of structural damage to existing buildings, and seismic rehabilitation lessons from the 1989 Loma Prieta (San Francisco) earthquake

This paper is intended to provide a brief description of the seismic characteristics of the San Francisoc Earthquake, a report on the various types of building damage and major modes of structural engineering failures that occured, and recommendations on how the collected data can be used to improve earthquake preparedness. Emphasis is placed on the behavior of building structures whose construction characteristics can be found through North America, and most importantly on historical and heritage structures. Preliminary findings on the reason for structural failures are based on observational analysis. Examples of typical building failures or satisfactory performance are presented.