Open for Construction Workshop

Join us for the next meeting to learn about Soft Story Structures and Seismic Building Retrofits:
Vulnerable Building Types and Recommended Solutions

Come and learn about how to protect your building from earthquakes through retro-fitting. Older residential homes that are not securely connected to their foundation and multi-story wood buildings with soft or weak first story (typically a ground-level garage or storefront with residential units on the floors above) are particularly suscep-tible to damage from earthquake forces. We will discuss potential retrofit schemes and product solutions to help you get started on improving your building's earthquake performance.

Jerry Myers, Director of the Laguna Beach Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), an organized and trained group of volunteers ready to assist in case of disaster, will be presenting how residents can be prepared for the next big earthquake.

A Simpson Strong-Tie representative will be presenting prescriptive residential retro-fitting systems that are available to brace and secure structures to their foundations, and an Interwest Consulting Group structural engineer representative will be pre-senting why Soft Story structures have been getting a lot of attention, their vulnerabili-ties and how other municipalities have developed programs to address them.

Architects, designers, contractors, real estate professionals, residents, property and business owners are invited to attend. 

For more information on the content of the workshop, please contact Maria Ring, Sr. Permit Technician, Building Division at (949) 497-0798 or mring@lagunabeachcity.net.