QUAKESTAR - DEATHS, DOLLARS & DOWNTIME, A RELIABLE BUILDING SEISMIC RATING SYSTEM FOR NEW ZEALAND

QuakeStar is a proposed rating system for buildings to provide users, owners and other stakeholders in buildings an immediate, clear, concise, unambiguous understanding of a building's seismic performance. Since the Christchurch earthquakes in particular, QuakeStar initiators, Don Holden and Bob Burnett, have consulted stakeholders involved with commercial buildings who have indicated strong interest in an earthquake building performance rating system to enable better understanding of: • safety of existing commercial buildings • safety, insurability and financing of new buildings A quakestar meeting in February was attended by over 50 industry representatives. Don has established a steering group who plan to develop New Zealand's own Building Rating Scheme for Earthquake Performance. The system is proposed to address three main issues for commercial buildings: • safety (deaths) • cost to recover (dollars) • time to recover (downtime) The focus will be on Safety of existing buildings in the first instance.