PRESENTATION: “Seismic Risk in Existing Buildings & Future Direction of Seismic Policy”

When: Wednesday 14^th August 2013

This was a joint presentation with SESOC and IPENZ by Structural Engineering Society of NZ (SESOC) president John Hare about future policy surrounding earthquake prone buildings.

PRESENTATION:

Since the Canterbury earthquakes, there has been a sharp increase in public awareness of earthquakes and earthquake prone buildings. This has been further highlighted by the recent earthquakes in Wellington. This presentation explores aspects of seismic risk in respect of existing buildings, including addressing some of the mythology that has developed around risk and its quantification. Possible future directions for assessment of buildings will be addressed, and implications for both small-town New Zealand and larger centres will be touched on.

Evaluation of Existing Buldings - ASG 14 Aug 2013 Presentation Slides

ABOUT PRESENTER:

John Hare is a structural engineer and a Director of the Holmes Group of companies. He has worked in NZ, UK and the US, where he established a Holmes office in San Francisco in 2000. For the last five years he has been based again in Christchurch, where he originally commenced practice in 1985. He is the current President of the NZ Structural Engineering Society (SESOC) and is the chair of the commercial work-stream of the Department of Building and Housing’s Engineering Advisory Group, established since the Canterbury Earthquakes. Since March 2011, John has also been acting as Principal Engineering Adviser, firstly to Civil Defence and subsequently to CERA. In March 2013, John was awarded the Fulton-Downer gold medal from IPENZ for public service, as a result of his activities over the previous two years.