Non-ductile concrete buildings were built before modern building codes, leaving them susceptible to extreme damage or even collapse in the event of an earthquake. Many non-ductile concrete buildings have high occupancies; in a modeled repeat of the 1906 earthquake, a large proportion of the deaths and serious injuries were attributed to the collapse of non-ductile concrete buildings. Initial estimates from the Concrete Coalition at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute estimates there are 3,200 of these buildings in San Francisco. The San Francisco Office of Resilience and Capital Planning will develop a program for the evaluation and eventual retrofit of all non-ductile concrete buildings.

More information on the Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety (CAPSS), which guides San Francisco’s work in the area of seismic safety, can be found here.