Shea Federal Courthouse

Santa Rosa, CA

The seismic evaluation of the Shea Federal Courthouse illustrates Kandou’s ability to combine advanced analysis with practical constraints to deliver optimized retrofit solutions. The courthouse complex included two steel moment frame buildings with pre-Northridge welded connections and a heavy cladding system with limited drift compatibility. Conventional evaluation methods would have made a project of this scale and complexity prohibitively expensive to analyze, yet the client, the General Services Administration (GSA), needed a reliable strategy to reduce seismic risk while keeping costs and disruption under control.

As a sub-consultant to Rutherford + Chekene, Kandou’s founder developed detailed three-dimensional nonlinear models of both buildings. The analysis identified deficiencies in the frame connections and column splices, then tested retrofit options that respected ASCE 41 criteria, the existing foundation capacity, and the drift limitations of the cladding system. By introducing viscous dampers as part of the retrofit strategy, the solution minimized construction cost and impact on courthouse operations.

The key enabler was Kandou’s founder ability to automate modeling and post-processing workflows. This innovation made it possible to examine several nonlinear response-history scenarios efficiently, something that would normally exceed the analysis budget of a federal courthouse retrofit. The outcome was an optimized design path that met seismic safety goals, respected operational constraints, and stayed within budget. Kandou brings this same combination of advanced tools and practical thinking to any project where performance, cost, and constructability need to be balanced.

Client: General Services Administration. Structural Engineer of Record (SEOR): Rutherford + Chekene. Kandou’s founder served as advanced analysis lead, creating automated models, evaluating seismic deficiencies, and developing optimized retrofit solutions.