rackers are not bad, although hard to work around, you might try internally braced assuming your excavation plan dimensions are not to large, either way it is a pain.
you can freeze the ground big bucks....
soil nails may be an option depending on the geotech conditions, unless your right...
I find it really hard to beleive that a school official would "wash" their hands of the problem. Bringing the comments of this post also seems like a waste of time.
All you need to do is politely meet with the school and inform them that holes in GLB's don't work well even in the best...
Portland, Oregon allows 5 story under the UBC and IBC. Special inspection is required for nailing, stapping, holdowns.
Studs on the lower two floors will be 4x or 3x's depending on the wall layout, height. Regardless the shearwalls will require a wider nailing to work with the tighter nail...
If I am not mistaken you are limted to 65 feet in building height if you are using a sheating or straps for a LFRS as defined in ASCE7-05. I assume you could go to concrete shearwalls, but seems like a mismatch of systems, beside, what size studs do you end up with on the lower floors, 14 gauge.
there is a product call FUKO that is a square pvc sectiont that has injection ports extending from it that rise above the slab. The idea being that if you do have a leak post construction you can come back and inject a special flowable grout that will expand upon contact with water.
about two...
How many buildings have we seen that have failed due to global instablity from overturning, assuming no foundation issue such as liquefaction? Or for that fact how about sliding? Both in terms of earthquake forces. Uplift is a good mode of failure if you think about... why?
What happens when...