Why the plant is the hard case
A boiler plant is dense with heavy equipment, tanks, headers, switchgear, and miles of piping, all of it needing to stay anchored and operational through a seismic event. For a hospital, the plant is classified as a Critical or Essential facility, which means the bar isn't "don't collapse." It's "keep working." That's a different, higher standard, and it's the one the VA Seismic Design Handbook (H-18-8) and ASCE 41 hold these buildings to.
Step one is evaluation, not steel
You can't reinforce what you haven't measured. At the Reno VA Medical Center, Alares performed a comprehensive seismic evaluation of seven buildings (1D, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12) to ASCE 41-13 and H-18-8, assessing both structural and non-structural components and engineering retrofit recommendations for each.
At scale, that work demands discipline. On a portfolio of 45 VA buildings across California, our team ran Tier-1 and Tier-2 assessments on a wide range of structural types and ages, using a tablet-based field application to catalog deficiencies in structure, MEP systems, architecture and even medical equipment, then engineered building-by-building retrofit recommendations for life-safety compliance.
What an actual reinforcement looks like
The East Orange VA boiler plant in New Jersey is a clean example. Alares evaluated the existing frame and non-structural components, then designed the upgrades to bring it into full compliance with current seismic codes and the VA Seismic Design Guide. That meant buttress walls supported on piers for lateral stability, structural steel reinforcement at the roof, and seismic bracing on all piping and conduit so the systems survive the shaking, not just the structure.
The constraint nobody sees in the drawings
The hard part at East Orange wasn't the wall, it was where it had to go. The footing for the south wall sat right next to the subsurface tunnel connecting the plant to the main hospital. We made a site visit, worked the problem with the contractor, and developed a footing detail that cleared the tunnel without interrupting hospital operations. Seismic upgrades on a live campus are full of these, and they're where experience earns its keep.
Sometimes the answer is consolidation
Not every aging plant should be braced in place. At the Mather VA in California, the right move was to consolidate aging steam and hot water boilers into a single central steam plant, demolishing twelve boilers, replacing the domestic hot water system, and running an ASCE 41 Tier-3 seismic evaluation that included bridge modifications to optimize how the buildings interact during an event. The seismic work and the mechanical modernization were one project, because on a plant this old, you can't responsibly separate them.
The takeaway
If your central plant predates current seismic code, start with an evaluation to H-18-8 and ASCE 41. It tells you whether you're looking at targeted bracing, a structural reinforcement like East Orange, or a consolidation like Mather, before you spend a dollar of construction money guessing.