Taylor C. Steele

Background

About Taylor C. Steele

You might think we design buildings to be earthquake proof. But the design approaches in our modern building codes result in buildings that are designed for earthquakes like the crumple zone of a car is designed for crashes. We design specific components in the structure to absorb energy from the ground shaking by accepting significant damage to those components. In other words, we sacrifice the building to protect the occupants. This works for cars; one crash, one write-off. But the devastating cumulative effects of this practice for buildings in cities was clear after the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand a decade ago. What about the rest of our cities? Do we just sit and wait for earthquakes in those regions to force us to rebuild? We need tools and policies NOW to identify the existing buildings most at risk, and to reduce this risk through cost-effective retrofit. The goal of my research program at UNB is to develop a framework to identify and address the fundamental drivers of seismic risk to existing buildings and develop approaches to reduce this risk across our urban portfolio of buildings and other structures.