The Field Act is a

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state law that mandates

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

-resistant construction for public school buildings. The Field Act was one of the first pieces of

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in the

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to mandate earthquake-resistant construction, and had its genesis in the 6.4 magnitude

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and ...

which occurred on March 10 of that year and destroyed or rendered unsafe 230 school buildings in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. Many school buildings had completely collapsed due to unreinforced masonry construction and/or shoddy workmanship. The earthquake occurred at 5:55pm on a Friday, several hours after school had let out. Had the earthquake occurred while school was in session earlier that afternoon, thousands of casualties, mainly children, would have likely occurred. Public awareness of this narrowly averted tragedy led to passage of the Act within 30 days of the quake by the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

. The Act was named after California Assemblyman Charles Field, the key sponsor of the legislation. The act was based on the research done by

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architect Louis John Gill, then president of the California State Board of Architectural Examiners, who traveled to the stricken area within hours of the quake and analyzed the structural failures which had caused buildings to collapse.

Provisions of the Act

The Field Act was introduced with other laws that banned the construction of unreinforced masonry buildings, and required that earthquake forces be taken into account in

structural design Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and joints' that create the form and shape of human-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and c ...

(specifically, a new requirement for a base shear calculation, and that school buildings must be able to withstand lateral forces equal to at least 3% of the building total mass). The Act also established the Office of the State Architect (now Division of the State Architect or DSA) which developed design standards, quality control procedures, and required that schools be designed by registered

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

s. These professionals must submit their plans and specifications to the State Architect for review and approval prior to construction. The same professionals were also required by the Act to periodically inspect the construction while underway and verify that the actual work completed is in compliance with the approved drawings. Peer review was also introduced as another quality control procedure.

The Garrison Act

In 1939 the Garrison Act applied Field Act Standards to existing school buildings. The first real world test of the Field Act took place in the 1940 Imperial Valley earthquake. This earthquake was magnitude 6.9 (larger than the Long Beach earthquake) but the 16 post Field Act school buildings subjected to intense shaking suffered damage that was less than 1% of their valuation. Older pre Field Act structures in contrast suffered damaged equal to 29% of their valuation.

The Greene Acts

Although the benefits of the Field Act were clearly demonstrated by this event, many districts still delayed inspecting or renovating older pre-Field Act structures. As a result, the first and second Greene Acts (named for their author, State Senator Leroy F. Greene), were passed in 1967 and 1968 respectively to set inspection deadline for school districts. The

1971 San Fernando earthquake The 1971 San Fernando earthquake (also known as the 1971 Sylmar earthquake) occurred in the early morning of February 9 in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. The unanticipated thrust earthquake had a magnitude o ...

spurred the State Legislature to provide additional funding to retrofit older buildings.

Current application

As of 2010, the Field Act currently applies to the design, construction and renovation of all

K–12 K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an English language expression that indicates the range of years of publicly supported primary and secondary education found in the United States and Canada, which is similar to publicly supported sch ...

school buildings and

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buildings in California. Although there have been attempts to make private schools comply with the provision of the Field Act, they are currently exempt. The DSA remains the primary enforcement body, and also provides limited review of university buildings, primarily for disabled access issues. Since 1940, no building constructed under the Field Act has either partially or completely collapsed, and no students have been killed or injured in a Field Act compliant building.

References

Sources * * Assessing Seismic Safety Policy: Daniel Barclay: MURJ Volume 10, 2004 {{refend California statutes

Provisions of the Act

The Garrison Act

The Greene Acts

Current application

See also

References