Planning for resilience
The safety of our students, faculty, and staff is UBC’s first priority. Since 1994, UBC has been actively working with external engineering partners to assess, plan, and improve the Vancouver campus in preparation for a major seismic event.
Since 2012, UBC has invested over $200 million in seismic upgrades. During this time there have been significant new scientific developments — including the increased understanding of the active faults in the Pacific Northwest — as well as a number of global earthquakes that have revealed previously unknown building deficiencies resulting in new, enhanced building codes. Along with this evolution of seismic science, best practice thinking around resilience, risk assessment, and the ability of a major public institution like UBC to respond to a natural disaster like an earthquake has evolved. Bringing the plan to a level that reflects this best practice is a primary consideration.
Seismic projects
Seismic projects, retrofits, and rebuilds are ongoing on the UBC Point Grey campus. Below are a few of the projects that are ongoing or have recently been completed:
Jack Bell Building for the School of Social Work
In construction
The project will mitigate deferred maintenance and seismically upgrade the building, while also reconfiguring its existing spaces to support state-of-the-art learning and teaching environments.
Anthropology and Sociology (ANSO) Renewal
In design
The project includes seismic, code, fire, mechanical and electrical upgrades as well as the reconfiguration of the interior to support programming.
Douglas T. Kenny Building Phased Seismic Upgrades
In design
The next phase of seismic upgrades for the building are in design. Previous upgrades to L1-L3 have been completed.
UNY Substation Renewal
Completed in 2023
This renewal of the UNY Substation completed several structural upgrades to improve the station’s post-earthquake resilience.
Macleod Building Renewal
Completed in 2022
This building renewal was structurally designed to achieve a high resilience level of Immediate Occupancy after a major earthquake event.
New Water Pump Station
Completed in 2021
This station reduced the campus’ vulnerability in regards to water outages post-earthquake and increased water pressure in the academic core to aid fire fighting.
Hebb Building Renewal
Completed in 2019
This renewal was a full seismic upgrade of the existing six-story Physics and Astronomy Building as well as a refresh of interior spaces.
View the Seismic Planning Timeline
Working with ARUP, a world leader in resilience
In 2016 UBC hired ARUP, a multi-national professional services company, to provide a comprehensive review to inform the best next steps for the university. The goal was to create a prioritized action plan for the buildings, utilities, and operations of our campus using the work of UBC’s preeminent seismic researchers as well as the most current thinking in seismic engineering, building resilience, and business continuity.
The the seismic resilience project team’s vision is to partner building efforts with the Emergency Management efforts of Safety & Risk Services and leading researchers at UBC to pursue the creation a disaster-resilient university, one that is able to withstand impacts of possible hazard events without harm to people, unacceptable losses to property, or interruptions to our mission.
The UBC Board of Governors approved the updated road map and vision in June 2016. In April of 2017, we provided the Board with a progress report outlining activities to date. We returned in September 2017 with a detailed report outlining a recommended approach for buildings, operations, and utilities. In 2019, we returned to the Board with a more detailed picture and a conceptual plan for the long term upgrading and renewal of highest risk campus buildings, non-structural upgrading, utilities, and various operational matters.
Read the 2019 Board Report for Seismic Resilience Plan
There has been significant progress on the majority of the key actions noted in the 2019 Seismic Resilience Plan Report to the Board of Governors, aimed to improve UBC’s seismic resiliency within its logistical and financial constraints across the short, medium and long-term planning horizons. A detailed progress update was presented to the Board of Governors in September 2022.