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Dr. Carlos Molina Hutt
Overview of the forthcoming 2026 NEHRP Provisions on Seismic Design for Functional Recovery

Speaker: Prof. Carlos Molina Hutt, University of British Columbia
Date/Time: Monday, November 9, 2026, 12 - 1 pm Pacific
In Person: 438 Soda Hall (Wozniak Lounge)
SEMM students are required to attend in person

Zoom Link

 


Abstract
Modern building codes aim to protect lives, but they do not explicitly address how quickly a building can be reoccupied and resume its function after an earthquake. The forthcoming 2026 NEHRP Provisions take a first step toward closing this gap by introducing prescriptive design requirements for functional recovery performance. This presentation will discuss the need for functional recovery design criteria and the research that has made codifying them possible. It will then outline the overall structure of the new requirements: definitions, functional recovery categorization, ground motion considerations (i.e., the functional recovery earthquake), structural and nonstructural design requirements, and quality assurance/quality control. The structural and nonstructural design criteria, which the speaker and his research group helped develop, will be discussed in greater depth. The presentation will close with an update on ongoing efforts to introduce functional recovery design criteria into ASCE 7-28 and, ultimately, the 2030 IBC.

Bio
Carlos Molina Hutt is an Associate Professor of Structural and Earthquake Engineering at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he leads the Engineering for Seismic Resilience Research Lab. His work focuses on developing methods to assess seismic risk in buildings and its implications for urban resilience, and on translating this knowledge into tools and information for practicing engineers, seismic planners, and policymakers. Carlos is a registered professional engineer in British Columbia and California and a chartered engineer in the UK. He received the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Shah Family Innovation Prize in 2019 and serves as an Associate Editor of Earthquake Spectra. In 2022, he was invited by the Building Seismic Safety Council’s Provisions Update Committee to serve on the Functional Recovery Task Committee, which developed the functional recovery design requirements in the forthcoming 2026 NEHRP Provisions. He continues this work as a member of the Seismic Subcommittee for the ASCE 7-28 code cycle.