Seismic standards make refits too expensive
Montreal has many disused older buildings which could be converted for residential purposes, but in 2006 Quebec adopted stringent seismic guidelines which render repurposing too expensive in most cases for anyone to take them on.
DeWolf 09:27 on 2025-04-19 Permalink
Interesting. Considering we are in a pretty active seismic zone it makes sense to have stringent standards, but the story notes that this only applies to new construction and a change of use in old buildings, which means very few people in Quebec are spending time in buildings that meet the seismic standards.
It’s a bit of a double standard when you can renovate a century-old building without bringing it up to code but you can’t convert a century-old dormitory for nuns into apartments for regular people without spending tens of millions to meet these very exacting seismic requirements. Given the potential for new housing (and for saving historic buildings from decrepitude) it seems like a good idea to exempt heritage buildings from this.
Ian 10:21 on 2025-04-19 Permalink
Also following the old construction adage “if it stood this long, it will likely keep standing”.
Kevin 10:46 on 2025-04-19 Permalink
We may be in an earthquake zone but only something very poorly built would be susceptible to a quake here.
It’s odd that our standards for tremors are so high considering that other standards (like for roads) are some of the worst on the continent.
Kate 12:39 on 2025-04-19 Permalink
I seem to recall the brick façade dropping off an older Plateau row house during one of our occasional Richter 4 shakes, but nothing worse.
In 1732, we had what’s been rated retrospectively as a 5.8 magnitude quake but nothing like it since. Of course, that’s a blink of an eye in geological time.
And then our buildings can fall down for no reason at all.
Ian 13:02 on 2025-04-20 Permalink
I’ve seen the brick facing fall off Plateau buildings after a heavy rain, that’s not much of a metric.