Historical Significance:  Mudd Hall, constructed around 1929, is a historic landmark building on the USC campus. The building consists of a tall clock tower and a two-story main building constructed of concrete frame and brick façade/infill wall. Seismic strengthening consisted mainly of shotcrete over existing brick walls and a foundation upgrade.

Historic Repair and Reuse Services:  Saiful Bouquet was able to strategically pinpoint the areas requiring seismic strengthening in order to minimize the impact to the existing buildings’ operation, particularly in the historic main library where the interior finish was elaborately decorated. Additionally, SBI identified key areas for strengthening to minimize the extent of the foundation excavation.

Another challenge of the project was time. The entire seismic strengthening project had to be completed over the three month summer break. Close collaboration between the contractor and every consultant, together with timely resolutions to field conditions were key to the projects’ success. The retrofit scheme was selected such that at the conclusion of the project, the users would not even notice the additional shotcrete walls, except for the fresh paint inside the building. The project construction cost came well under budget.