PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND EARTHQUAKE, MARCH 28, 1964

Damage to J.C. Penny Building, Anchorage

[OTHER BUILDING DAMAGE] This slide shows the five-story J.C. Penney Building at 5th Ave. and Downing Street in Anchorage where two died and one was injured. Concrete facing fell on automobiles in front of the building. Although the building was approximately square, the arrangement of effective shear-resisting elements was quite asymmetrical consisting principally of the south and west walls that were constructed of poured concrete for the full building height. The north and east sides of the building faced the street. The north side of the building had no shear wall but was covered by a facade composed of 4-inch (10.2 cm) thick precast nonstructural reinforced concrete panels. The east wall, also covered with the precast panels, had poured-concrete shear walls between columns in the two northerly bays and in the bottom three stories of the two southerly bays. The rotational displacement induced by the earthquake apparently caused failure of this east-wall shear-resistant element, the building became more susceptible to rotational distortion, and the south and west shear walls failed. Photograph Credit: NOAA/NGDC.