"All the plans were preapproved before we did the first shovel of dirt," said Gormley, who still works in Chengdu as a consultant. When the quake hit, he said, some ceiling tiles fell, but the 88,000-square-foot facility held up well.
Many other U.S. companies have operations in Chengdu, including Intel, Motorola and Microsoft. Both Microsoft and Motorola reported minor damage to their facilities.
Construction engineers said many high-rise buildings in Chengdu have earthquake dampers -- internal pendulums with heavy weights that damp movement in a quake.
But it was a different story in the remote towns to the north. In Dujiangyan, blocks of apartment buildings were flattened. Farther east, in Beichuan County, the official New China News Agency said 80% of the buildings were toppled.
Gormley, an engineer by training, remembers visiting those areas to cool off and fish in the mountain waters during Chengdu's hot summers.
"There're lots of unregulated buildings, many two and three stories with masonry construction, lots of brick," he said. "You don't find out how many until a tragedy like this happens."
--
don.lee@latimes.com
