Field Act

The Field Act was one of the first pieces of legislation that mandated earthquake resistant construction (specifically for schools in California) in the United States. The Field Act had its genesis in the 6.3 magnitude 1933 Long Beach earthquake which occurred on March 10 of that year and destroyed or rendered unsafe 230 school buildings in Southern California.

Many school buildings had completely collapsed due to unreinforced masonry construction and/or shoddy workmanship. Fortunately, the earthquake occurred at 5:55PM on a Friday, just a few hours after school had let out. Had the earthquake occurred while school was in session earlier that afternoon thousands of casualties, mainly children, would have likely occurred. Public awareness of this narrowly averted tragedy led to passage of the Act within 30 days of the quake by the California State Legislature. The Act was named after California Assemblyman Charles Field, the key sponsor of the legislation. The act was based on the research done by San Diego architect Louis John Gill, then president of the California State Board of Architectural Examiners, who traveled to the stricken area within hours of the quake and analyzed the structural failures which had caused buildings to collapse.

The Field Act was introduced with other laws that banned the construction of unreinforced masonry buildings, and required that earthquake forces be taken into account in structural design (specifically, a new requirement for a base shear calculation, and that school buildings must be able to withstand lateral forces equal to at least 3% of the building total mass).

The Act also established the Office of the State Architect (now Division of the State Architect or DSA) which developed design standards, quality control procedures, and required that schools be designed by registered architects and engineers. These professionals must submit their plans and specifications to the State Architect for review and approval prior to construction. The same professionals were also required by the Act to periodically inspect the construction while underway and verify that the actual work completed is in compliance with the approved drawings. Peer review was also introduced as another quality control procedure.

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