The Center for Disaster Resilient Communities (CDRC) is hosting a virtual seminar on Tuesday, April 22^nd from 12 – 1 p.m. to hear Amanda Hertzfeld’s (Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections) lecture on “Fixing the Bricks: Developing Seattle’s URM Retrofit Program”.

Seattle has over 1,000 Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings that pose a collapse hazard in earthquake. In this session, Amanda will discuss the recent adoption of Seattle’s code recognition for URM retrofits, updates to the city’s official URM database, statewide URM efforts, and existing and proposed incentives to make these life-saving improvements more affordable. Learn more and RSVP here.

Amanda Hertzfeld is the URM Program Manager at the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections and Co-Chair of the Earthquake Engineer Research Institute (EERI) Public Policy and Advocacy Committee. Amanda is responsible for the identification and development of supportive resources for Seattle’s URM building owners and the development of the City’s future policy development for mandatory retrofit requirements. Prior to joining the City in 2022, she spent 12 years with the Federal Emergency Management Agency supporting multi-hazard risk reduction, analysis, and mapping. She led efforts to update the structural seismic retrofit module of the agency’s benefit-cost analysis module and supported response and recovery efforts to the 2018 Anchorage earthquake, 2014 Oso Mudflow, 2012 Hurricane Sandy, and 2011 Tohoku tsunami.