In view of the large damage suffered in recent earthquakes and hurricanes,
building design criteria are developed to protect life and reduce damage an
d loss to an acceptable level. The problem is minimizing the expected total
life-cycle cost with respect to the design load and resistance. Load uncer
tainty includes occurrence time, intensity, and duration. The costs of cons
truction, maintenance, and failure consequences, including deaths and injur
ies, as well as discounting cast over time, are considered. Optimal values
are obtained of design variables and target reliability under single and mu
ltiple time-varying loads. Also investigated is sensitivity of the optimal
design to important loading and structural parameters. The optimal design i
s found to depend primarily on the limit state consequences (costs), and to
a lesser degree on the structural life. For multiple hazards, the optimal
design is controlled by the hazard with large uncertainty and severe failur
e consequences. In a companion paper applications are given of the method t
o design multistory office buildings against earthquakes and winds.