Tallest skyscraper in san francisco code#

“We want to go a step further - and make sure you can go back into the building.”

Tallest skyscraper in san francisco code#

“The building code is usually looking to make sure you survive the earthquake,” Naomi Kelly, the San Francisco city administrator, said in an interview on Thursday. Jones believes that San Francisco would be the first city in the United States to enact broader regulations that demand that a city be functional after an earthquake. If it carries out these recommendations, Ms. A growing number of experts say the current building codes are not appropriate for modern urban areas that are much more dense. The driving philosophy of seismic building codes, which were conceived when most of the population in California lived in rural areas with lower-lying structures, focuses on protecting lives, not on whether a building will be usable after an earthquake. If passed, they could be put into effect in the next revision of the city’s building code in September 2019.įlush with money from the technology industry, San Francisco has undergone a boom of high-rise construction that has made what was once a low-rise city more dense and in some ways more vulnerable. No legislation has been written yet, but the report’s recommendations will be presented to the city’s board of supervisors later this month.

“What you are seeing here is the city’s recognition that it cannot protect their citizens from the biggest earthquake without dealing with these issues,” said Lucy Jones, one of the state’s most prominent earthquake specialists who has been advocating stronger building codes. The report recommends that tall buildings be required to be more rigid and that critical infrastructure like plumbing, water supply and electricity be built to higher standards.