Report - PEER - University of California, Berkeley

The future techniques will improve the accuracy of the results significantly andprovide practitioners with consensus-based guidance on reliable procedures.Selection of an Appropriate Structural System for a Critical FacilityThe University of California at Berkeley is building a new state-of-the art laboratorybuilding to replace an existing building. The $200 million facility will serve the needsof important bioscience research for the next thirty to fifty years that are funded at acurrent annual rate of $40 million. The design engineer proposed the use ofunbonded braces, a new structural system with enhanced performance characteristics,with the goal of protecting the University’s investment and future researchcapabilities. However, as a public institution, receiving government funding, theUniversity had to justify use of the new system, which was a more expensivealternative than a more conventional system would still meet the minimumrequirements of the State of California Building Code, such as concentric braced steelframes. Figure 2 presents an architectural rendering of the building together withinformation on the development cost, projected value of building contents and of theeconomic loss to the University projected for each year that the building is out ofservice.ItemCostCapital$160 millionContents$50 millionBusiness Interruption$40 million annuallyFigure 2. Example building at the University of California at Berkeley.The engineers developed designs for both the proposed unbonded brace framesystem and a conventional braced frame system. The unbonded brace design wasestimated to be approximately $1.2 million more expensive than the conventionallybraced system. Using, presently available tools, that are rely heavily on the judgmentof the analyst as to economic losses and structural damage, an economic analysis wasperformed for each system to quantify the potential loss of capital, contents and107