“…It is clear nowadays that a proper assessment of the behavior of cast in situ and precast RC‐framed structures, whose safe behavior can generally be ensured by limiting the P –Δ effects and controlling the displacement demand, requires beam–column joint behavior to be explicitly accounted for. This is widely recognized for dynamic/cyclic loading but it is equally true for quasi‐static lateral loading (e.g., see References ). Recent earthquakes in New Zealand (on September 4, 2010, with M w = 7.1, and on February 22, 2011, with M w = 6.2) and in Italy (on 20 and 29 of May 2012, with M w = 5.9 and 5.8, respectively) have highlighted the fact that the main failure modes, due to the main earthquake and following aftershocks, experienced by reinforced concrete (RC) flexible structures were related to failures in beam–column joints, giving rise to soft story mechanisms (e.g., see References ).…”