Four Seasons Apartment Building — 1964 Earthquake Damage, Anchorage
The six-story Four Seasons apartment building in Anchorage was completely destroyed by the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. The building was unoccupied at the time of the earthquake.
About This Photograph
This photograph documents the complete destruction of the Four Seasons apartment building in Anchorage, Alaska, following the magnitude 9.2 Good Friday Earthquake on March 27, 1964. The six-story structure was among the most dramatic examples of the building collapses that occurred in Anchorage during the earthquake, serving as a powerful visual record of the event's destructive force.
The Four Seasons building stood in a district of Anchorage that was severely affected by ground failure caused by the liquefaction of the Bootlegger Cove Clay, a sensitive marine deposit that underlies much of central Anchorage. When subjected to the intense and sustained shaking—which lasted nearly five minutes—this clay lost much of its structural strength, causing the ground to flow toward the surrounding lower terrain and taking buildings with it.
Fortunately, the building was unoccupied at the time of the earthquake, preventing casualties from this particular collapse. Across Anchorage, however, the combination of structural collapses and landslides caused by ground failure was responsible for the majority of the city's earthquake-related deaths and injuries.
The destruction visible in this photograph and others like it led directly to major revisions in Alaska's building codes and in the geological assessment of urban land-use in earthquake-prone areas. Subsequent construction in Anchorage and other Alaskan cities was required to account for the presence of sensitive soil deposits and potential ground failure hazards, fundamentally changing the approach to urban development in seismically active regions.
Historical Context
The 1964 Good Friday Earthquake struck at 5:36 PM on March 27, 1964—Good Friday, an important Christian holiday. The timing meant that many schools, offices, and public buildings were closed or had reduced occupancy, significantly reducing the potential death toll. The earthquake, measuring magnitude 9.2, remains the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America and the second largest in world history.
The rupture zone extended approximately 800 kilometers from Prince William Sound southwest to the tip of Kodiak Island. The earthquake caused ground deformation across an area of 250,000 square kilometers, with some coastal areas uplifted by as much as 9 meters while other areas subsided up to 3 meters. This vertical deformation permanently altered Alaska's coastline.
For a comprehensive account of the earthquake, its causes, damage, and legacy, see the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake page.
