Structural Damage of “A” High School Buildings

By Shunsuke Otani.

April 20, 2011. University of Tokyo.

“A” school is located on a hill. The name of the school is kept anonymous to avoid much burden on the school staff by many visitors. The four-story reinforced concrete school buildings were designed and constructed in 1974. There are three buildings; Building No. 1 on the south side, Building No.2 on the north side, and Building No. 3 connects the two buildings. The Building No.2, especially special education room on the west end, suffered severe damage by the 2011 off the Pacific Tohoku Earthquake followed by a near field earthquake of M 7.1 on April 11, while the damage of buildings No.1 and 3 was relatively light. There are single-story technical training buildings of timber construction to the west and north of the reinforced concrete buildings, and these timber buildings suffered severe damage.