Masonry Magazine April 1986 Page. 38
MEXICO EARTHQUAKE
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FIG. 10: Lasca Building at the corner of Reforma and Marne Streets is a six-story structure with a set-back of two stories plus a two-story penthouse. It appears badly damaged. The steel-framed penthouse was an addition to the concrete-framed lower six stories.
Nuevo Leon housing structure in Tlatelolco complex (Figs. 7-9). Hundreds of people lost their lives in these 14-story buildings. The collapsed buildings in the northern two-thirds of the Nuevo Leon complex are shown in Fig. 8. Collapse evidently was triggered by compressive failure of columns in the center of the eastern side of the structure. As shown in the photo of the remaining one-third of the building, that eastern side had open areas in the framing at the 3rd, 7th, 10th and 13th stories. The compressive failure of the central columns on the east side was produced by overturning moments acting at the vertical discontinuities at the open areas. A detail of one of the central columns is shown in Fig. 9. Note the buckling of longitudinal bars and fracture of ties.
FIG. 11: View of the 22-story frame building that fell over an adjacent 14-story steel frame at Pino Suarez.
Structural Steel
The Ministry of Foreign Relations. This structure tilted 16 in. towards the north and east, due to foundation settlement plus permanent deformations in frame.
Lacsa office, corner of Reforma and Marne Streets (Fig. 10). This building has six stories of reinforced concrete frame, topped by a two-story structural steel penthouse. Heavy concrete floors caused sideways collapse of relatively light penthouse columns.
Pino Suarez Complex. This five-building complex (Fig. 11) originally consisted of two 14-story buildings flanking three 22-story buildings. All were of structural steel. The southernmost 22-story building collapsed to the south, on top of the adjacent 14-story building. The other two 22-story buildings and the northern 14-story building were left standing. The remaining central 22-story tower is now leaning 3 ft. out of plumb to the south (Fig. 12). The columns on the south side at the third floor are buckled.
Masonry
Old two-story masonry building on the corner of Berlin and Londres, office of Afianzadora Insurgentes, S.A. (Fig. 13). No damage was observed to window glass nor masonry walls. There were a number of damaged and collapsed buildings on Berlin.
Brick apartment building, four stories high, located on Abraham Gonzales Street (Fig. 14). This building is 73 years old. It had significant cracks, but remained standing.
Brick apartment building, two stories high, located on Abraham Gonzales Street (Fig. 15). This building is 72 years old. Sections of the delicate balustrade were lost, but the building remained in service.
Old masonry building, located at the corner of Berlin and Hamburgo (Fig. 16). No damage was observed to the elaborate balustrade-type parapet wall, but there were some diagonal shear cracks due to hammering between this building and the adjacent five-story building to the left (Fig. 17).
Secondary School Ing. Jorge Quijano #14, just east of the Televisa building, near the Balderas metro station. The older four-story portion of the school, built in 1934. is of brick shear wall construction, and performed very well. Close inspection revealed that some of the exterior