The Collapse of the Alto Río Building during the 27 February 2010 Maule, Chile, Earthquake

The Alto Río Building, a 15‐story building located in Concepción, Chile, collapsed during the 2010 Maule earthquake. Construction of the building was completed in 2009 following the Chilean building code of 1996. The building was provided with reinforced concrete structural walls (occupying nearly 7% of the floor area) to resist lateral and vertical loads. The walls failed in the first story, causing the overturning of the entire building. This paper provides detailed field observations and discusses plausible causes of the collapse.