Retrofitting and Recommitting

Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the university evaluated all campus buildings for seismic vulnerability, and Wurster Hall rated seismically “very poor.” For a short time, it seemed that CED’s building might not have a future, but the university and the CED recommitted and embarked on a seismic retrofit of the building.

In fall of 1997, the firm Esherick, Homsey, Dodge, and Davis (EHDD), Joseph Esherick’s successor firm, began design for the seismic strengthening of the building. As in the original design process that began nearly fifty years earlier, EHDD considered multiple schemes for the retrofit. Ultimately, they settled on the “east-west buttress” scheme, which provided structural bracing at either end of the building’s north tower. This scheme was favored not only for its relative cost effectiveness, but also for the minimal impact it would have on the building’s original design.

In 1999 the building’s occupants moved out to temporary homes elsewhere on campus. When they returned in 2003 they found the building strengthened and enhanced. The east buttress had been widened to allow the addition of new seminar rooms, each one designed by a different alumni firm.

Other enhancements addressed some of the design team’s earlier disappointments: Joseph Esherick’s regret that the original project lacked funds to make the library more special and Vernon DeMars’ disappointment that the building’s entry sequence was so unwelcoming. The Library’s old book stacks were removed and replaced with a new double-height atrium. The main entry stair was reconfigured to accommodate the massive new structural wall to its north. In the process, the stairway’s heavy concrete surrounds were replaced with a light metal balustrade.