Building retrofit

Existing buildings make up the vast majority of our building stock and are a cornerstone of existing community resilience. However, many of these structures do not meet current building code requirements and require strategic upgrades. To address this vulnerability, NIST is actively developing best practices, design recommendations, and guidelines for utilizing building retrofit systems to improve the performance of existing structures.

Beyond individual structures, it is critical to understand how different retrofit schemes and targets impact the community recovery. NIST is leading ongoing projects to quantify and measure the impact of various retrofit strategies at the community level. By developing the fundamental measurement science needed to assess retrofitted building performance, this work directly supports the long-term resilience and rapid recovery of communities following natural hazards.