Historic Martha Washington Building

A revitalization of an unreinforced masonry building, the 64,000-square-foot, four-story Martha Washington Building is used for low income housing. This project required extensive rocking analyses of the existing unreinforced masonry walls to demonstrate their adequacy during an earthquake. The addition of a single concrete shear wall was utilized in conjunction with the existing unreinforced masonry walls. The adequacies of the existing walls were justified using these advanced engineering analyses, saving the project from more expensive structural solutions and preserving the original historic interiors. Completed in 2010 with $8.85 million in construction costs, the building has LEED Silver certification and received a Silver Rating from the US Resiliency Council.