Rutherford & Chekene's engineers are actively involved in developing new retrofitting standards that will ensure public safety and preserve historic structures for generations to come. Traditional seismic retrofit approaches for buildings have tended to rely solely on providing increased strength and stiffness to resist lateral forces. For many structures, recent performance type standards, such as ASCE 41, allow the design engineer to enhance seismic resistance by improving or simply recognizing a structure's ability to deform under strong ground shaking. R&C consistently employs the latest performance-based design methods and new technologies to reduce required strengthening. This not only limits cost, but also minimizes the impact to historic architectural elements.