Memphis, TN

St. Mary's Catholic Church located in downtown Memphis is the one of the oldest churches in the state of Tennessee.When the church decided to renovate, questions about the structural integrity of the building were raised. A2H was asked to provide seismic retrofit options to the church with special consideration to the historical preservation of the existing building. The building was originally constructed in 1860 and was comprised of non-reinforced brick masonry with interior timber floors and columns. The roof structure consisted of simple timber triangular trusses. A2H provided an earthquake risk assessment for the 5,640S.F. building and determined that the exterior brick masonry walls could not provide adequate resistance to meet the requirements of today's applicable codes. A2H determined that the use of exterior concrete buttresses would be used to brace the building walls for out-of-plane resistance. For resistance to in-plane seismic loads,clear fiber-reinforced polymers were placed on the exterior and interior of the masonry without taking away from the aesthetic elements of the structure. Interior floors were replaced with lighter floor systems to reduce seismic loads and to insure proper wall to floor connections.

The seismic retrofit consisted of only five percent of the overall construction cost and met the owner's defined objectives for the seismic retrofit.

Completed