The EPICENTER

05/15/2017

Join ELL San Francisco on Thursday, May 18, 2017, 6PM-9PM, for a public forum, social reception and pin-up in response to the Art-a-thon. An event w/ Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative & Co-Risk Labs. ELL would like to represent the vision of each participant by including all the work, process and documentation — the messy, the clean, the written, the crumpled — produced during the Art-a-Thon. This reception will be a space to discuss the event, show the process and production, and exchange ideas.

The Art-a-thon was a two day event held on April 29th and 30th at The EPICENTER that brought together artists, designers, ethnographers, and scientists to collaboratively explore the future of the region in a world of climate change and natural disasters. The goals of the event included: a fun weekend with new friends, new longer-term collaborations, new ways of thinking about climate and disaster risk science, and compelling project proposals. Process work and documentation will contribute to the conversation at ELL.

Location
ELL San Francisco
670 Commercial Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reception-for-natural-disaster…

Learn more at the website: http://urbanresilience.stanford.edu/artathon

08/31/2016

Today's front page article in the The San Francisco Examiner.

In 2014, San Francisco became the first city in California to require private schools to perform seismic evaluations of their soft-historic buildings. All of the schools have complied with the ordinance to date, and some have even completed evaluations before next year’s deadline.

Read the full article here: http://www.sfexaminer.com/sfs-private-schools-shake-earthquake-safety-efforts/

07/20/2016

Laurence Kornfield lead today's working group discussion on the Facade Inspection & Maintanence Program. On May 6, 2016, Mayor Ed Lee signed into law the Building Facade Inspection and Maintenance Ordinance. This legislation requires the facades of certain buildings having five or more stories undergo initial and subsequent inspections according to a schedule based on the original construction date of a building. The program was developed from extensive community and design professional input aimed at reducing the risk to the public and the City’s resilience from façade failure. It provides clarification to the existing requirements of SFBC Section 3401.2 and brings San Francisco up to the national standard of required regular inspection and maintenance. Buildings will be safer leading up to an inevitable earthquake and provide for clear requirements for buildings after the earthquake.

To learn more about the program, please visit us at: https://sfgov.org/esip/facade-maintenance-program

06/16/2016

05/10/2016

DBI Building Safety Month Workshop - Mandatory Soft Story Program
When: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM (PDT)
Where: Department of Building Inspection 1660 Mission St - 2nd Floor Room 2001, San Francisco, CA 94103

Is your property on the Mandatory Soft Story Program list? If so and you fall under tiers 2-4, join us for this informative workshop to learn the about steps you need to take to have your building seismically retrofitted by the due dates and have your tenant related questions answered by the Rent Bo...

03/28/2016

April 14, 2016 - FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency P-50 Training.

The free training will instruct attendees in the use of the Simplified Seismic Assessment Form. The form is used in the evaluation of a house for seismic vulnerabilities and provides homeowners with a Seismic Performance Grade that identifies areas of the house in need of retrofit.

-Home inspection professionals
-Contractors
-Engineers
-Building Inspectors

Earn 6 Professional Development Hours

Location: Simpson Strong-Tie
5956 W. Las Positas Blvd., Pleasanton, CA 94588
Time: 9:00 a.m.—3:30 p.m.
Registration/Check in at 8:30 a.m. Lunch provided.
Cost: Free

Register Today: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ecen5qs00bbfa9d7&llr=zbhocyrab

Brought to you by the California Earthquake Authority, Cal OES, Simpson Strong-Tie, Applied Technology Council - ATC & US Department of Homeland Security

The training will instruct attendees in the use of the FEMA P-50, Simplified Seismic Assessment Form. The form is used in the evaluation of a house for seismic vulnerabilities and provides homeowners with a Seismic Performance Grade that identifies areas of the house in need of retrofit. Training is…

03/25/2016

Stay Safe Season 2 kicks off with a conversation/demonstration highlighting dangers of soft story buildings with host Patrick Otellini, Chief Resilience Officer for the City and County of San Francisco, and Kelly Cobeen, a structural engineer with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

03/18/2016

Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today sent a letter to the Commerce Department and Federal Emergency Management Agency calling for detailed guidelines to ensure federal agencies comply with the administration’s recent executive order on earthquake preparedness.

02/26/2016

2016 Earthquake Retrofit Fair. LAST CALL FOR VENDOR PARTICIPATION!!
On April 18, 2016, from 3PM-7PM, the Earthquake Safety Implementation Program will be hosting its 2016 Earthquake Retrofit Fair at the Historic Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. There's just one week left to reserve a table. We have a limited number of free tables available for this year's 2016 Earthquake Retrofit Fair for contractors, design professionals, manufacturers, and lenders interested in connecting with hundreds of property owners looking to start work on retrofitting their properties. If you would like to participate, please provide us with your company's name, the service(s) you offer, and your contact information by March 1, 2016. All inquiries may be submitted to Jeno Wilkinson at [email protected].
https://sfgov.org/esip/RetrofitFair

2016 Earthquake Retrofit Fair Design Professionals | Lenders | Contractors | Property Owners April 18, 2016

02/12/2016

MyShake is a free app for Android phones that has the ability to recognize earthquake shaking using the sensors in every smartphone. The app runs “silently” in the background on your phone using very little power – just like the step-tracking fitness apps. When the shaking fits the vibrational profi…

02/11/2016

2016 Startup in Residence applications for the City and County of San Francisco are due February 18, 2016! The core mission of STIR is to bring together government and startups to explore ways to use technology to make government more accountable, efficient and responsive.

San Francisco Public Works - Post Mobile Evaluation App

Context: San Francisco Public Works designs, builds, operates, and maintains the City’s infrastructure, public rights-of-way and facilities. After earthquakes occur, there is a need to gather information regarding the structural integrity of the City’s buildings. Currently, there are several technology products on the market, but they are not often available to be customized to fit the need of inspecting San Francisco’s unique building stock. ATC-20 forms are the standard fail-safe way to document damage when a digital interface is not available. But completing, compiling, reviewing and transferring this data from hard copies to digital format can be onerous and time consuming – not to mention valuable data can be lost in the transfer and consolidation of this information.

Technology Tool: San Francisco Public Works seeks a mobile app that would allow City engineers and inspectors, following an earthquake, to fill out the ATC-20 form online, and input building data (on approved checklists), photos, video recordings, notes, and Global Positioning System ( ) data while simultaneously syncing information with a database. The proposed work includes the development of the database framework, along with capabilities for and reporting.

STARTUP IN RESIDENCE

02/03/2016

The Obama Administration remains committed to improving the resilience of our communities, States, and the Nation to important hazards, such as earthquakes. A 2015 scientific assessment from the U.S. Geological Survey shows that more than 143 million Americans in the continental United States could…