SUMMARYThis paper analyses earthquake ground motion spatial variation effects on relative linear elastic response of adjacent building structures. It studies the relative importance of ground motion spatial variations and dynamic characteristics of adjacent structures in causing relative responses. Random vibration method is used in the study. It is found that, besides ground-acceleration-induced dynamic responses, quasi-static responses induced by spatially varying ground displacements also contribute significantly to the relative structural responses. The effects of spatial ground motions are very pronounced to the relative displacements of adjacent low-rise structures, and to those of high-rise adjacent structures with similar vibration characteristics. The effect of vibration properties of adjacent structures are, however, more significant to those of high-rise adjacent structures if they poses noticeably different vibration periods.