Fife City Hall and Vertical Evacuation Structure and Evacuation Planning

This student team worked on programming and preliminary design of a new City Hall and sitework, to include a vertical evacuation structure for potential lahar and tsunami events. The City of Fife lies in the Puyallup River valley and has, over geological time, been subject to both lahar and tsunami events. Seismologists state that such events could occur again, including some risk that a major earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone could trigger both a tsunami and a lahar. In such a case, the tsunami might hit Fife ten to fifteen minutes after the earthquake and the lahar less than an hour after that. Despite this risk, the City's proximity to the Port of Tacoma and Interstate 5 has led to substantial development of the city, which now hosts over 20,000 employees and 10,360 residents. The team prepared conceptual plans and documents for a new building or buildings to house City Hall, police, and court functions, as well as to serve as a vertical evacuation structure that will protect occupants in the event of a lahar.

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