It all started from the first SEAOC dinner that I attended. Interestingly enough, the SEAOC dinner that night was dedicated to Henry Degenkolb, a great earthquake engineer. I recall Mark Sinclair provided the opening speech to commemorate Henry Degenkolb’s life and related his passion with the topic of the presentation that night, “Mitigating Seismic Hazard in the Developing Countries.” Brian Tucker, the founder of GeoHazards International (GHI) was the presenter. He started by discussing the alarming danger that many ...
Posted by Nick Alexander on August 4, 2010 11:21 PM
Degenkolb Team Day 3
by Nick Alexander
On day 3, we looked at buildings with different types of occupancy. We investigated Mariani International Hotel, Yos Sudarso Private Hospital, Nurul Iman Mosque, and a couple of government buildings: BAPPEDA (Regional Planning Department – Provincial Level) and Financial Department.
BAPPEDA (Regional Planning Department – Provincial Level)
The BAPPEDA building is one of 25 government buildings that were either heavily damaged or collapsed during the September 30, 2009 Padang earthquake. ...
Posted by Nick Alexander on October 21, 2009 12:16 AM
Degenkolb Team Day 2
by Nick Alexander
We started our day early to take a look at the landslide site at Pariaman district, about 2 hour drive north of Padang. The epicenter of the earthquake was very close to the city of Pariaman which is about 1 hour drive west of the landslide site. Afterwards we went back to the city of Padang to investigate damaged buildings. We investigated a house that was tilted. Then we ...
Posted by Nick Alexander on October 20, 2009 11:53 PM
Ambacang Hotel by Nick Alexander
This three star hotel has undergone several renovations over the past century. The original portion of the building was a Dutch-colonial style warehouse building facing North and was constructed in the early 1900’s. The structural system of the original two-story building consisted of a reinforced concrete frame with masonry infill. Within the past three years, additions were added to the original building in different phases. Initially, an additional three-story level was added on ...
Posted by Nick Alexander on October 15, 2009 10:18 PM
