We maintain a database of more than 1100 unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings that are vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake and pose a significant threat to public safety if left un-retrofitted. If you own a retrofitted building, or are a design professional who completed a URM retrofit that has not yet been recognized as retrofitted in the URM database, please fill out the recognition form, or contact SCI_URM@seattle.gov to get started on an application.
In 2021, through joint Mayoral and Council support, we were directed to establish a process for mandatory seismic retrofits. Retrofitting a URM building entails attaching the floors and roof to the walls to prevent them from falling outward during shaking and bracing parapets or tall slender walls, to prevent collapse.
In 2022, we collaborated with the local engineering community to define the scope of work required to recognize a URM building as “Retrofitted” and to craft seismic regulations for URM buildings. We officially adopted the regulations into the 2021 Seattle Existing Building Code (SEBC) which went into effect in November 2024. A building is eligible for “Retrofitted” status in the City’s database, under the URM seismic regulations by completing a new retrofit or by recognizing retrofits permitted and completed under previous code cycles.
Retrofitting a URM building is currently voluntary, (unless changes initiated by the building owner meet certain thresholds where it becomes mandatory). We’re working to make these retrofits mandatory in the future to protect the lives and safety of building occupants and the public.
Since November 2024, 9 building owners have applied for recognition of their previously completed retrofits under this process. Recently, the URM Program team recognized 67 additional retrofitted buildings to the list due to a substantial alteration determination after April 24, 2009 and proactively changed their status to “Retrofitted in the URM Database. These 76 retrofitted buildings only account for about 40% of the total qualifying retrofits across the city and less than 7% of all URM buildings.
If your Building has been retrofitted due to a substantial alteration determination between September 16, 1996 and April 24, 2009, please fill out the recognition form so that information is added to our URM database or contact us. There are other URM retrofits that meet the definition of a “retrofitted URM” in theSEBC. These retrofits may have been designed to a comprehensive level or the reduced scope of work previously outlined in Director’s Rule 6-2023 and the draft versions of the URM technical standard now known as the Alternate Method. Recognition of these varied retrofit methods will require an engineer’s report demonstrating the retrofit meets the minimum standards of the URM seismic regulations.