The objective of this paper is to provide a brief overview of damage as observed immediately following the earthquake. Detailed studies of structural seismic performance, conducted in the time elapsed since August 1999, are not the subject of this paper, but rather the object of other papers presented in this Special Issue of the Journal. Damage to reinforced concrete, masonry, and steel struct...

Infills can highly influence the seismic response of a Reinforced Concrete (RC) building: generally speaking, their presence leads to an increase in global stiffness and strength, but their brittle behavior can result in an increase of displacement demand if a certain threshold of seismic intensity is overcome. Moreover, presence of infills often leads to a change in the collapse mechanism comp...

Cultural heritage buildings were typically built without considering seismic action and are therefore potentially susceptible to earthquake damage. The performance states and protection objectives developed for ordinary buildings are not directly applicable since they do not address the cultural importance of the heritage buildings. This paper proposes a seismic conservation strategy for cultur...

This paper proposes an indicator of seismic performance based on life-cycle cost of a building. It is expressed as a ratio of lifetime damage loss to life-cycle cost and determines the seismic performance of isolated buildings. Major factors are considered, including uncertainty in hazard demand and structural capacity, initial costs, and expected loss during earthquakes. Thus, a high indicator...