Shiling Pei, assistant professor of civil engineering at Colorado School of Mines, was recently interviewed by the Weather Channel regarding an ongoing experiment to design tall wood buildings that can sustain minimal damage during strong earthquakes. From the interview: “The argument and purpose is to be able to design a tall wood building, maybe up to 20 stories, that will sustain minimal damage after a big earthquake like Northridge. Which means better to protect people’s lives and also their property so they don’t see so much economic loss — they can go back to their building right away.” ....