Future hospital design: focusing on performance

Hospitals in seismic areas are now being designed not just to survive an earthquake but also to remain fully operational during and after a seismic event. Two examples -- the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Replacement Hospital in Palo Alto, California, and the Davis Wing of the University of California, Davis, Medical Center -- illustrate how stringent code provisions coupled with expertise in structural engineering can be used to design buildings for improved earthquake performance. After its main hospital was heavily damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the VA Medical Center in Palo Alto decided to replace the exiting structure with a new facility that would not only withstand the next big earthquake but would remain operational afterward. For the lateral-force-resisting system of the replacement hospital, a dual system of eccentrically braced steel frames and a full back-up steel moment-resisting frame was used. The Davis Wing project at the UC Davis Medical Center involved the use of a steel moment-resisting frame. The 1994 Northridge earthquake occurred after the design for the Davis Wing was complete. Because of the earthquake damage to steel moment-frame connections observed in some buildings during that earthquake, the viability of the steel moment-frame system came under close scrutiny.