U.S. Resiliency Council Certifies First Building for Resilience

Recently, the Roseville, CA, City Hall Annex became the first building to become rated by the U.S. Resiliency Council® (USRC). It received the USRC's highest Platinum Earthquake Rating. The 4-story office building houses critical operations for the city and, in the case of an earthquake, city officials needed the reassurance that these mission critical services would be housed in a safe, resilient structure. This platinum award is the highest USRC award and validates the excellent performance expected of this building in its design level.

Roseville is within the greater Sacramento region and has a moderately high seismic hazard (compared to the "high" or "extremely high" hazard in much of the rest of California) and achieved high seismic performance with only a nominal, if any, increase in construction cost. The building’s structural system incorporates a high-performance precast concrete hybrid moment-resisting frame that limited design level drifts to less than 1.25% and is designed to be self-centering after the design seismic event, therefore eliminating residual drifts, limiting damage and providing for reduced recovery time.

The U.S. Resiliency Council® (USRC) was formed as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and launched in November 2015 to establish and implement a rating system for the performance of buildings in earthquakes and other natural hazards. The system is currently applicable to earthquake performance, but the vision is for it address other hazards, including wind, flood and blast.