Rutherford & Chekene's engineers frequently lend their expertise to applied research projects that advance design standards and improve public safety. We have led or contributed to numerous studies funded by organizations such as the Applied Technology Council (ATC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE), California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP), and Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). These organizations improve the practice of structural and earthquake engineering by bringing research results into the professional realm. Some publications that resulted from this work are listed below.

ATC-40 Report: Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Concrete Buildings—This report presented the findings of the Seismic Retrofit Practices Improvement Program, which was funded by California Proposition 122. Rich Niewiarowski served as Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director. William Holmes also participated in this project.

FEMA-350: Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings—The extensive damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California exposed performance problems with welded, steel moment-frame connections. The SAC Joint Venture was formed to address these performance issues. William Holmes served as chair of the Joint Venture Management Committee and was a member of the SAC Project Management Committee. Mark Saunders was a member of the Guidelines Development Committee.

FEMA-273: NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings—This report provided guidelines for effective and reliable rehabilitation approaches to limit earthquake damage to a specified range for a specified level of ground shaking. William Holmes was the Senior Technical Advisor for the report. William was also a member of the project team for the subsequent report FEMA-356: Prestandard and Commentary for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings.

FEMA-547: Techniques for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings—This report was a compilation of practical and effective seismic rehabilitation techniques, with guidance on commonly used techniques for mitigating specific seismic deficiencies in various model building types. Bret Lizundia was the Project Manager and Editor, and William Holmes served as Chair of the Technical Update Team.

ATC-43 Project—This project addressed the investigation and evaluation of earthquake damage and discussed policy issues related to the repair and upgrade of earthquake damaged buildings. The project resulted in the publication of FEMA-306: Evaluation of Earthquake Damaged Concrete and Masonry Wall Buildings and two related documents (FEMA-307 and FEMA-308). Joseph Maffei and Bret Lizundia were principal authors of the documents.

ATC-56 Project—This project resulted in the publication, FEMA 427: Primer for Design of Commercial Buildings to Mitigate Terrorist Attacks. Dominic Campi served as the expert structural engineer for the ATC-56 project.