Tours

  • Napa Earthquake and Winery Field Trip, 9:00am-6:00pm (Tuesday, April 5)

    Leader: Michael Germeraad/Josh Marrow
    Room: Meet in the lobby of the Park 55 Hotel
    Cost: $100


    The August 24, 2014 M6.0 South Napa Earthquake showcased fault rupture, building damage, and social and economic impacts in the nation’s most prominent wine region. A tour bus will pick up attendees at the hotel and drive to three Napa stops. A discussion of the region's geologic history will be presented at Saintsbury Winery, one vineyard that experienced visible fault rupture. The group will be treated to lunch followed by a walking tour of downtown Napa where repair and reconstruction continues. The day will end with wine and views of the Napa Valley before the bus returns to the hotel. Number of participants capped at 45.

  • Downtown San Francisco in Earthquake, Fire and Recovery Walking Tour,
    2:00pm-5:30pm (Tuesday, April 5)

    Leader: Stephen Tobriner, UCB
    Room: Meet in the lobby of the Park 55 Hotel
    Cost: $20


    This walking tour will highlight the buildings that survived the earthquake and fire of 1906 and those built during the early reconstruction of San Francisco. We will be looking at steel-frame and brick load-bearing masonry buildings, primarily on Market and Mission Streets, examining damage from the 1906 earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. We will tour the interiors of the old Call (Claus Spreckel’s) Building that survived the earthquake and fire and the Humboldt Bank Building, regarded as one of the most earthquake resistant and fire-resistant buildings of 1906 San Francisco. Our tour will be passing or touring through important pre- and post-earthquake buildings including the Atlas Building, the Wells Fargo Building, Burdette’s Building, the Rialto Building, the Chronicle Building, the Aronson Building, the Phelan Building, Hoffman’s Grill, the Sharon Building, and the Palace Hotel. Number of participants capped at 25.

  • Geotechnical/Geologic Overview of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill and Waterfront,
    2:00pm-5:30pm (Friday, April 8)

    Leader: Frank L. Rollo
    Room: Meet in the lobby of the Park 55 Hotel at 2:00pm
               or 1500 Sansome Street at 2:45pm
    Cost: $20 (includes $2.25 transit fare if leaving from hotel)


    This is a walking tour of the San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill and vicinity. The tour will encompass Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower, the surrounding waterfront, and a trek up the Filbert Steps. Frank Rollo is a San Francisco native, raised in North Beach, and a geotechnical engineer with fascinating tales of San Francisco’s slides, settlement, slips, quarries, faults, and fractures and their notorious past.

  • Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge Boat Tour, 3:00pm-7:30pm (Friday, April 8)

    Leader: Rafael Manzanarez, Design Manager
    Room: Meet in the lobby of the Park 55 Hotel
    Transportation: SF Muni F Line Street Car ride and Boat Ride on Hornblower Hybrid
    Cost: $80
    Number of Participants: 40 min, 60 max


    Boat trip from San Francisco Pier, stopping at the Bay Bridge to hear about the new signature bridge and some of the construction/design issues affecting the potential seismic performance of the bridge. It also includes travelling to the Golden Gate Bridge to hear about the seismic retrofits that were carried out there. The boat will pass by Alcatraz and will arrive back at the pier near sunset.
    Raphael Manzanarez was the Design Manager for the replacement of the 2.25 mile long East Span of the Bay Bridge. He was also responsible for the Seismic and Wind Retrofit of the Golden Gate Bridge.