Memphis South Main St. Seismic Retrofit Demonstration Project

Ozeryansky Engineering is developing a project we hope will spark a conversation about how well prepared older, bearing wall brick buildings in Memphis are for earthquakes and other environmental threats. We are currently talking to building owners and developers in the South Main Street neighborhood which we believe to be the ideal site for this project. The historic value of this neighborhood is acknowedged by it's status on the national register and local landmark designation. Those in Memphis know that the neighborhood is thriving and is a unique expression of both Memphis heritage and culture.

However, as the neighborhood gentrifies- with an eclectic mixture of local small business and condominiums- the city has not made necessary efforts to guide building owners to invest in the structural repair and maintenance of these buildings. As they continue to age and deteriorate, measures must be taken to preserve these buildings against threat from environmental factors ranging from damaging moisture intrusion to earthquakes. Structural elements that are already marginalized, such as deteriorated mortar or rotted wood must be protected from further damage. Minimal strengthening for earthquakes must be mandated, such as anchoring of wood floor joists to the brick bearing walls.

We want to educate the building community, the public, and local officials, that there are practical, low cost solutions that can have a great benefit in terms of safety, durability, and neighborhood resilience.

The first phase of the project is envisioned to co-incide with the National Earthquake Conference coming to Memphis in April of next year. (Dmitry is on the organizing committee of the conference.) We expect to have a conference presentation and field trip to the project site with educational exhibits on display.

For more information, please download our vision document by clicking on the file name at the top of the sidebar.

This project is a community service project and we are looking for volunteers to get involved. Please contact us if you are interested. We need volunteers to help with:

• Fundraising
• Outreach
• Research
• Admin assistance

Recent presentation about Memphis at AIA East Bay

On a recent visit to California, Dmitry was very pleased to give a presentation on the topic of: 'Green Building and Seismic Design in Memphis' to the AIA East Bay in Oakland.

 

Progress on Agricultural Fiber Standard

Last year, Ozeryansky Engineering was contracted by the Ecological Building Network (EBN) to develop a new ASTM Standard: Guide to Use of Agricultural Fiber in Construction. In Feb, the draft was finished and it has now gone through the first round of ballotting, please see the ASTM press release for more information. EBN is currently engaged in fundraising to help us continue this effort.

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Small Oakland Hills Project Highlights Collaboration

This addition and remodel that we designed working collaboratively with Geoff Holton and Associates highlights a couple of unusual structural systems and details, as well as GHA's consistently great designs.

For the floor in the bedrooms and stair landings we came up with the idea of using mechanically laminated decking. By ripping 5-1/2" deep LVLs in half, we were able to create these beautiful floors that are only 2-3/4" in total thickness! The LVL planks which were glued and nailed, serve all of the functions normally provided by a host of separate pieces: they support gravity loads, they act as the diaphragm for seismic and wind, and they provide a beautiful finished surface on both floor and ceiling. Because of the savings from overlapping functions, we were able to make the construction very economical, while maintaining this extremely thin profile. The solid 2-3/4" wood also provides good sound deadening and fire resistance.

The handrails were another collaborative design success. The IBC requires a 200# out-of-plane design force at the top of handrails which usually makes base connections extremely bulky, since handrails are usually designed as cantilevers. However, here we realized that the stair case could be modeled more like a spiral stair with the top rail spanning horizontally to the perpendicular runs and landings. This allowed us to use the top rail as the primary structure, enabling very light base connections.

All of the other details look great as well. These were the result of collaborative design and great craftsmanship on the part of the contractor, Dave Sylvester.