13-27 Manners Street

13-27 Manners Street is a modern 15-storey commercial tower building in the heart of downtown Wellington.

The reinforced concrete tower building was built in the 1980s, and its primary weaknesses were the pre-cast floor units which lacked strength and were vulnerable to building deformation. Miyamoto provided seismic rehabilitation services to address the building deficiencies.

Miyamoto’s approach was to incorporate fluid viscous dampers into the existing concrete frame.

In the design, Miyamoto employed sophisticated structural analysis and laboratory testing, and was actively engaged with the contractor to develop a resilient retrofit solution with a performance objective above Life Safety.

By adopting a higher performance criterion, the client can minimise time for re-occupancy and functional recovery, as well as direct financial losses following a seismic event.