The Masonry Society presented the first Haller Award in 1993 to VSL Corporation for their seismic renovation of the Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz, California. VSL Corporation used a unique system of inserting and applying new post-tensioned tendons into the buttresses of the church to provide greater seismic safety. The photographs show various aspects of the project in the planning and renovation stages.

Above: Front and side views of Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz, CA. Note the significant cracks in the Bell Tower and the removed steeple. Below: A plan view and elevation of the Church, showing the proposed post-tensioning of the buttresses.
Above: Repairs begin. Below left: Drilling operations. Below right, post-tensioning.

The award is named after Professor Paul Haller, who started a renaissance in the use and design of structural masonry. Haller, a civil engineering graduate from the Federal Technical University in Zurich, Switzerland in 1924, was responsible for testing over 1600 brick masonry walls, and based on the results of those experiments, designed an 18-story building with no structural frame. The tall load-bearing walls of this structure were only 12 to 15-in. thick, causing nothing less than a revolution in the structural use of masonry. From this design and his experimental research, rational structural design of masonry became possible.