Northern California structures

[Tom]

A lot of the buildings in the Napa downtown areas (Yountville, Napa, Santa Rosa, Sonoma) are actually DPM style brick buildings, but they have been reinforced for Earthquake preparedness via several methods. It looks a lot like typical small town USA. Yeah, a lot of California is earthquake country, but not all of it. I live in Stockton, in the San Joaquin Valley and the only reason a lot of the old brick buildings are going away is modern reconstruction and revitalization in our downtown, but not just because brick isn;t earthquake safe. There are ways that engineers have found to make brick more earthquake safe. Stockton has an earthquake fault running through it, but it has been stable since the 1840's. Ironically, it's down on the south end of town near all of the rail yards. The area you're modeling has the occasional shaker and is siesmically active, but you'll find a large variety of construction techniques around there. A lot of it though is old fashioned because afterall, it is the wine country.