Oregon Treasury Resiliency Building

Treasury Resiliency Building is First USRC Platinum Building in Oregon

Oregon State Treasury processes more than $300 billion annually on behalf of state agencies and local governments. It also issues bonds for the state and oversees and manages $100 billion in investments. This work is important day-to-day and will be critical in post-event disaster recovery. In addition to these no-fail responsibilities, Oregon State Treasury would also be responsible for distributing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds following a disaster.

As part of its emergency planning work, several years ago, Oregon State Treasury identified a need for a resilient workplace. This was motivated in part by the hazard posed by the Cascadia Subduction Zone. An earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone would significantly affect almost all of Oregon’s metropolitan centers and the majority of the state’s population. Oregon State Treasury required that its new building achieve a USRC Platinum rating while also being built to continue operating after a variety of emergency scenarios.

KPFF evaluated multiple schemes to achieve the desired resilience objectives and determined that seismic base isolation provided the best assurance of meeting the safety, damage, and recovery targets. The resulting building, known as the Treasury Resiliency Building, is a 35,000sf, 2-story, steel-framed building located in Salem, Oregon. Seismic base isolation is realized through a combination of elastomeric and flat-sliding isolators, depending on column location, which dramatically reduces drift and acceleration demands on superstructure and nonstructural components.

The Treasury Resiliency Building is the first USRC Platinum-rated building in Oregon and the first USRC-rated seismically isolated building in the United States. It not only achieves a USRC Platinum rating at the design-basis earthquake (as required by the USRC methodology) but also at the Risk-Targeted Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE_R) as a result of the seismic isolation system.