Building Types in Manhattan Neighborhoods

BUILDING TYPES IN MANHATTAN NEIGHBORHOODS

W WOOD Determining what level of damage buildings experience is the essential component and S STEEL heart of the loss estimation process. M UNREINFORCED MASONRY

C REINFORCED Knowing what buildings are made of is a key CONCRETE factor in predicting the level of damage they might Washington Heights sustain in an earthquake. This information is also 1895 Inwood Morningside Heights 35 109 88 useful in predicting damage patterns; for example, Hamilton Heights 1592 the most vulnerable building types in a region, or the Manhattanville W S M C 21 84 184 areas expected to have the most damaged buildings W S M C Central Harlem in different scenario earthquakes. In fact, determin- Polo Grounds ing what level of damage buildings experience is the 2097 essential component and heart of the loss estimation 6 72 525 process (which is later used to predict other losses, Lincoln Square 3129 such as cost and casualties). Upper West Side W S M C Manhattan Valley 572 168 4 Building Distribution in Manhattan W S M C East Harlem The figure on this page shows the relative distribution of the number of buildings in each of these 1627 14 84 344 Flatiron four categories within 12 different neighborhoods in W S M C Midtown 1605 Manhattan. The predominant building types by count 1331 are these: 2 150 W S M C 3885  Unreinforced masonry (M on the bars Upper East Side to the right, totaling 29,352 buildings) Yorkville 739 Carnegie Hill Chelsea 1 348 Steel (S) Clinton 2684 Lenox Hill W S M C Reinforced Concrete (C) 0 385 210 Wood (W) W S M C

Gramercy 2358 Problem with Unreinforced Masonry Murray Hill Turtle Bay The results indicate that most buildings (in 9 of 640 1 221 Tudor City 12 Manhattan neighborhoods) are constructed of 4044 Soho W S M C unreinforced masonry; whereas, there are few wood Greenwich Village Chinatown buildings. Unfortunately, buildings made of unrein- 335 7 151 Little Italy Financial District forced masonry (URM) are the most vulnerable to W S M C Noho Tribeca 3258 East Village 1178 Seaport Lower East Side damage during an earthquake because URM is brittle 3 333 160 Battery Park 336 Tomkins Square 125 and does not absorb motion as well as more ductile W S M C 12 wood and steel buildings. W S M C

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