Heather Sustersic, Arezu Feizolahbeigi, Patrick Dillon, and Teagan Allen-Raffetto
i Senior Structural Engineer, Colby Company Engineering, Portland, Maine, United States, hsustersic@colbycoengineering.com
ii Researcher, University of Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal, a.feizolahbeigi@ut.ac.ir
iii Senior Engineer/Architect, WDP, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, PDillon@wdpa.com
iv Project Engineer, WDP, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, TAllen@wdpa.com
ABSTRACT
In March, 2024, the Existing Masonry Guidelines (EMG) task group of The Masonry Society (TMS) convened a design summit to advance the creation of a new consensus standard for the assessment and rehabilitation of existing masonry structures, TMS 405. The summit brought together a diverse group of technical experts from the United States and Canada, encompassing academia, industry, and professional engineering practice. The initial draft provisions developed during this summit have been entrusted to the newly formed Existing Masonry Standards Committee (EMSC) of TMS, which will oversee their further refinement, review, and balloting. A key objective of the EMSC is the development of detailed worked examples that apply the new standards to representative case study projects. These examples are essential in demonstrating the practical application of the proposed standards while also serving as an important tool for identifying areas that may require further modification prior to codification. Specifically, the examples highlight potential gaps, ambiguities, and instances where the provisions may result in overly conservative or insufficiently rigorous outcomes. This paper presents these case studies, offering an analysis of the draft standards in action, and providing a roadmap for refining the guidelines to ensure their robustness, practicality, and effectiveness for use in professional practice.
KEYWORDS: Codes and standards, evaluation standards, existing masonry, historical constructions, repair design, The Masonry Society.
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