Press Clips
Test results are in: TallWood building a resounding success
Temblor | February 14, 2024
After three months of testing and more than 100 simulated earthquakes, one 10-story building has demonstrated the impressive seismic resilience of mass timber buildings. As previously reported, the TallWood building was designed and constructed by a team led by Colorado School of Mines associate professor Shiling Pei and dubbed the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) TallWood Project. The National Science Foundation-funded project is managed by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) where the tower was built. Full Story
Home Disasters: Earthquakes, Landslides, Sinkholes, and What To Do
Home Diagnosis | January 27, 2024
An exploration of the natural phenomena around our homes that are unexpectedly hard or soft- hail, landslides, liquefaction of the ground during earthquakes, and the research around all of these. Features the UC San Diego shake table. Full Story
Local middle schoolers shake things up at K'nex competition
10News | November 27, 2023
On Monday, 180 middle school students from Oceanside and National City showcased their engineering skills in UC San Diego's Seismic Outreach K'Nex Competition. Full Story
They were shook: Tweens compete at UC San Diego shake-table quake simulation
NBC San Diego | November 27, 2023
It?s a humbling sound: middle-schoolers hearing a structure crash into pieces after they spent the past five weeks building it. For Jefferson Middle School student Emma Davis, it?s also a familiar sound. Full Story
Five Things Construction Specialties Learned from Shaking a 10-Story Building
BCD Network | September 19, 2023
Construction Specialties (CS) is the only manufacturer in the market that can claim its modular stair system can withstand 100 earthquakes. Thanks to extensive practical testing conducted this spring at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) on the tallest building ever to be seismically tested, CS has identified five significant insights that will impact all future research and development in stair solutions. Full Story
Behind the scenes of the TallWood shake table test at UC San Diego
ASCE/Civil Engineering Source | August 28, 2023
It is often said: ?The bigger they are, the harder they fall.? But the largest full-scale building ever tested on the University of California San Diego?s newly upgraded outdoor shake table remained upright through dozens of earthquake simulations run over several weeks. Full Story
How a 10-Story Wood Building Survived More Than 100 Earthquakes
Bloomberg | June 5, 2023
The structure is the tallest ever subjected to simulated earthquakes on the world?s largest high-performance ?shake table,? which uses hydraulic actuators to thrust the steel platform through six degrees of motion to replicate seismic force. The shake-table trials at a University of California at San Diego facility are part of the TallWood Project, an initiative to test the seismic resiliency of high-rise buildings made of mass timber. Full Story
Earthquake tests could help wooden structures reach new heights
NSF | May 23, 2023
The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure, or NHERI, TallWood project is simulating the earthquakes at the Large High Performance Outdoor Shake Table at the University of California, San Diego. Both the NHERI TallWood project and the shake table are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation to advance the nation's infrastructure resilience. Full Story
Shake tables are way more complex than I thought
Tom Scott | May 22, 2023
At the University of California San Diego, there's the Shake Table: an earthquake simulator with the heaviest payload capacity in the world. ■ More about the table: https://nheri.ucsd.edu/ and the building: http://nheritallwood.mines.edu/ Full Story
Tall wood building is shaken, but not scathed
Science | May 11, 2023
A 10-story wooden building survived two severe, simulated earthquakes intact this week as scientists sought to show that wood can rival steel and concrete to safely support tall buildings. The structure is the tallest ever tested at the University of California, San Diego?s earthquake simulator. Full Story