To dik: Thanks for the response! I definitely do agree with your conclusion.
To Lomarandil: I work primarily in downstate NY. Lots of old buildings in the metropolitan NYC area, and not so good record keeping. Following your recommendations, I'll do some analysis of lateral loads on footings...
I work at a firm where we design crane plans (mainly mobile cranes, however we do some tower crane, suspended scaffolds, mast climbers, and pile drivers) and one of the main design considerations is the presence of voided/vaulted spaces below grade. We usually follow the 1:1 (also known as 45...