Burbank Mall Parking Garages

Burbank, CA

The voluntary seismic retrofit of parking structures at Burbank Town Center is a clear example of how Kandou’s expertise bridges traditional structural engineering and the needs of the commercial real estate industry. Initial seismic risk assessments had flagged gravity columns as the critical deficiency. Even though the lateral systems had been previously strengthened, the concrete columns that supported the garages lacked confinement and shear strength, making them vulnerable during earthquakes.

Conventional approaches recommended a blanket solution: full-height CFRP wrapping of every column. Kandou’s founder, serving as Technical Director at the design-build company, advanced the scope by introducing nonlinear analysis. These simulations demonstrated that some columns could tolerate the expected drift demands without retrofit, while others required CFRP jackets. This selective approach optimized the retrofit scope, reduced construction costs, and provided owners with clear evidence of risk reduction and probable maximum loss (PML) improvement.

For the design-build engineer, the challenge was not only to design a practical retrofit but also to quantify its financial value. The solution relied on cutting-edge standards, including ASCE 41 for evaluation and ACI 440.2-17 for CFRP design, together with ACI 369.1 modeling provisions for FRP-jacketed columns. Every aspect of the advanced knowledge was essential to show how ductility and residual strength improved after retrofit, and to connect technical performance with PML reduction.

This project was presented at the 2018 ACI Convention in Las Vegas, titled “Quantifying Benefits of Seismic Retrofitting Gravity Columns in Parking Structures.”