The City of Seattle is now home to its first officially recognized retrofitted unreinforced masonry building (URM) that meets new seismic regulations. The Poll Building, located at 110 Union Street, has completed crucial earthquake upgrades, as announced by the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections. The updated URM database documents the retrofitting work and showcases the building's adherence to stringent safety standards.
The Poll Building engineering team conducted tests confirming that the 1990s retrofits comply with current strength requirements. To ensure the additional seismic upgrades would satisfy the City's criteria, the teams initially followed the City’s Construction Pre-Submittal Conference path. An updated map highlights the building's "retrofitted" status near the bustling Pike Place Market. The map forms part of the City’s revised URM database, which guides building owners through retrofitting, including completing a URM Pre-Submittal Seismic Retrofit Questionnaire.
The Poll Building owner completed the URM Database Application Form for Retrofitted Status to earn the official retrofitted status, adhering to the "URM Retrofit Recognition" under code SEBC 304.5.1. A seismic evaluation report, photos detailing the work, and the approved plan set were submitted to the City for a thorough review. Building Connections Seattle stated that new functionalities in the Seattle Services Portal simplify documenting these retrofits, thus ensuring they are recorded for the long term.
After the city's review, the poll building was confirmed to comply with earthquake retrofit work and align with the new standards. This granted the building a status update within the City's new URM Database Viewer. It now proudly displays a "Yes" under "Confirmed Retrofit" and "3c" for the "Compliance Method," per the Building Connections Seattle article. The City’s URM database has undergone additional updates to better serve building owners, including updates to the "ECA Liquefaction-Prone Areas Map," alterations to neighborhood columns reflecting boundary and name changes, and additional columns for "Overlay Districts" and "Landmark Status" to flag design requirement considerations.
According to the research completed by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI), among the 1,114 recognized URMs, 201 completed retrofits could potentially qualify for an updated retrofitted status, and 543 remain eligible for upgrades under the Alternate Method. In the latest development, 69 URMs have experienced reclassification of their vulnerability status, which is closely linked to impending mandatory compliance deadlines.
