Elena leaned against her car, exhausted, and looked up at the two towers against the dark sky.

The north tower’s shear demand exceeded its capacity by 40%. The short columns in the garage would fail in brittle shear before the building could even sway. The soft first story would collapse like a house of cards.

“The evaluation shows significant seismic deficiencies,” she said at a public hearing. “I cannot sign a statement of compliance without retrofits.”

Now she had to decide: were they safe? That evening, Elena opened her worn copy of SEI 31-03 — Seismic Evaluation of Existing Buildings . The document was thick, dense, and unforgiving. It wasn’t a design guide for new buildings. It was a screening tool for old ones.

Elena nodded. “Check Tier 2.”

It looks like you’re asking me to prepare a “complete story” based on the title — but you’ve only given me a filename, not the actual PDF content.