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From left to right, Allison Pyrch, Ed MacMullan, Jay Raskin, and Brian Knight, of Salus Resilience. / Courtesy, Salus Resilience

Betting on a seismic shift New earthquake building codes and rating system, crumbling US infrastructure combine to create enticing market in resiliency.

By RICHARD MASSEY Managing Editor W ith a new business segment opening up in the world of seismic assessments and resiliency planning, four firms in the Pacific Northwest have formed a partnership to capture a piece of what’s expected to be an emerging, and even gainful, mar- ket in earthquake and disaster preparedness. Salus Resilience (Portland, OR) is comprised of four people who bring four disciplines to the table – geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, economic planning, and architecture – or enough to do the assessment, planning, and design of a re- siliency model for a company, town, city, or county, and set up the finances to make it work. The four firms are Hart Crowser , Jay Raskin Ar- chitect , WRK Engineers , and ECONorthwest , and the respective associates are Allison Pyrch, Jay Raskin, Brian Knight, and Ed MacMullan. “This is an upcoming market,” says Pyrch, a geo- technical engineer who has toured Chile and Japan in the wake of monster quakes.

The opportunity in resiliency planning is expected to be aided in part by the U.S. Resiliency Council, which officially launched in November 2015. The organization will essentially function like the U.S. Green Building Council, which certifies buildings for LEED. The USRC will credential engineers who wish to rate buildings for their clients, using a sys- tem based on a scale from one to five that measures safety, damage, and recovery. The opportunity in resiliency planning is expected to be aided in part by the U.S. Resiliency Council, which officially launched in November 2015. Like LEED, a building with a five-star rating brings value to the market. It’s the financial incentives that could bring resilience into the mainstream. “This is creating an economic driver behind resil- iency,” Pyrch says.

Evan Reis, Co-founder, US Resiliency Council

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