By John Leuenberger
The ground beneath us is anything but still. In a time when extreme weather events like wildfires and floods frequently dominate headlines, it’s easy to forget that earthquakes remain one of the most unpredictable and destructive forces we face, particularly on the West Coast. In December 2024, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake off the coast of California triggered tsunami warnings for nearly 5 million people in northern California and Oregon. While no major damage was reported, it served as another stark reminder: seismic activity is not a distant threat, it’s an everyday reality.
Globally, more than 1,500 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.0 or higher were recorded in 2024 alone. Many more occurred below the 2.5 magnitude threshold and weren’t even felt. But each tremor represents a data point and a learning opportunity. As a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and someone who has dedicated a career to structural engineering and building construction, I can say with confidence that now, more than ever, disaster-resilient design and construction must be top of mind for building owners, engineers, and developers alike.
The Impact Of Earthquakes On The Structural Community
The structural engineering community is constantly evolving in response to seismic events. Whether earthquakes happen in California or Chile, Turkey or Japan, they are studied. Each event provides critical insights that help improve building codes, materials, and construction methods.
The goal is always to translate lessons learned into practical applications. In California, this is especially important for healthcare facilities. Legislation in California has historically followed major earthquakes. The Hospital Seismic Safety Act was passed a year after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, and Senate Bill 1953 was enacted just five weeks after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. SB 1953 mandated that by 2008, acute care facilities must meet higher structural performance standards or risk being removed from service. As a result, there has been a significant increase in seismic retrofitting and new construction aimed at complying with these more rigorous standards. The Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) partnered with the design and construction industry has been instrumental in driving this forward, overseeing the planning, design, and construction of healthcare facilities to ensure patient safety and structural resilience.
Building codes continue to be updated based on the latest research and real-world performance. It’s our responsibility as structural engineers to stay ahead of those updates and adopt the most effective tools and technologies into our work.
How To Build A Seismic-Resistant Building
At the heart of seismic-resilient construction is a simple but powerful goal: buildings that bend, not break. The ultimate goal is to continually improve our built environment to ensure a resilient and protected community in the aftermath of a major earthquake. While typical buildings should allow occupants to exit safely, key high-performance structures such as hospitals, power plants, and emergency shelters, must be designed to remain operational and continue serving the community when they’re needed most.
There are several innovative approaches to achieving this:
- Base Isolation Systems: These are structural elements placed between a building and its foundation. During an earthquake, base isolators reduce the energy transferred from the ground to the building, minimizing damage. This approach has become increasingly common in new construction, especially in critical facilities.
- Lightweight Timber-Based Systems: Mass timber and hybrid wood systems offer a combination of strength, flexibility, and sustainability. When designed correctly, timber-based structures can perform exceptionally well in seismic events due to their ability to flex without failing.
- Energy Dissipation Devices: From dampers to shear walls, these elements are designed to absorb and dissipate seismic energy, reducing the force experienced by the building structure.
- Future-Ready Infrastructure: A good example is the Dublin Transit Center Parking Garage — a recent project that demonstrates how thoughtful design can address both today’s needs and tomorrow’s risks. It includes EV and autonomous shuttle infrastructure, a ground floor prepped for mixed-use conversion and has earned both Parksmart Bronze and CalGreen certifications. Future planning is a cornerstone of resilience.
Collaboration Is Key
No one builds alone. Resilient design requires a collaborative effort between architects, engineers, construction teams, building owners, and facilities managers. Each party brings a unique perspective and a set of responsibilities that must align to ensure success.
Facilities managers play a particularly vital role. The more informed and engaged they are, the better. Facilities teams are encouraged to take a proactive look at their building inventory. Often, they’re managing a portfolio of aging structures or buildings they’ve grown into over time. Some of those buildings may be more vulnerable than they appear.
That’s where early assessment and strategic planning come in. Modern risk modeling tools allow structural engineering teams to evaluate seismic vulnerability and prioritize retrofitting based on risk, cost, and operational impact. But retrofitting isn’t always simple. It may involve deep foundation work, structural reinforcement, or mechanical upgrades—all of which must be weighed carefully against a facility’s operational goals and financial constraints.
This is why trust and communication between project stakeholders are so critical. The best outcomes come from shared vision, open dialogue, and collective problem-solving.
Learning And Looking Forward
We live in an earthquake world. Whether the tremors make headlines or go unnoticed, earthquakes are constant—and they’re shaping the way we must think about the built environment. For those of us in construction, particularly along the West Coast, seismic resilience is not optional. It’s a responsibility.
By learning from every seismic event, embracing innovative technologies, and fostering collaboration across disciplines, we can build structures that don’t just withstand the next big one—they set a new standard for safety, adaptability, and forward-thinking design.
John is a Preconstruction Manager for McCarthy’s Northern Pacific Region with 23 years of experience guiding the design and construction phase for healthcare, commercial and science & technology projects. With a background in structural engineering, he brings deep expertise in managing complex building systems, including mass timber. John excels at fostering cohesive teams and leverages his engineering and operations expertise to drive project success.