The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss problem areas that exist in the earthquake resistant (aseismic) design of building structures and to determine the most effective methods for obtaining the necessary information to resolve them. The identification of research needs is done by reviewing some of the general aspects involved in achieving an economical, serviceable and 
safe design for buildings located at sites with high seismic risk. These aspects, summarized in Table 1, may be classified in two groups: design and construction. For
 a more comprehensive list, see Ref. 1.