Soft Story Seismic Retrofitting

Soft story retrofitting is an improvement in a building’s structural stability, and particularly, the ability to withstand the lateral forces of earthquakes. It is achieved by reducing structural deficiencies in the first floor, and is necessary for many buildings with large, open spaces with big entrances, such as tuck-under parking spaces or lobbies. By analyzing the structure, we can determine the ideal solution to meet all LADBS retrofitting standards, while preserving the essential functionality of the first floor. Typically, this is performed by a variety of methods, such as introducing wall reinforcements, steel frames, anchoring, building shear walls, and many other ways, carefully selected and applied to maximize safety, and minimize functionality loss.