International House is a great place to live at, with an amazing diversity of students from many countries (typically more than 80 different countries).
International House Council
Earthquake safety of International House
Jawahar Gidwani's engineering firm, ISEC, modeled International House under seismic forces of 2.2 G, and concluded that there would be no lives endangered, but some structural damage. 2.2 G corresponds to an earthquake of magnitude about 8.3, the same forces were considered in modeling the Golden Gate Bridge for the San Andreas fault, where an earthquake of that magnitude is possible in standard earthquake behavior.
The Hayward fault is the fault posing a threat to International House, and is 20 m away, running through the nearby stadium. The Hayward fault can only generate an earthquake of up to about 7.2 to 7.3 on the Richter scale in standard behavior. Mike Forbes' company, FFW, has confirmed that International House is fine under a different 1.5 G seismic model used for Berkeley, which corresponds to an earthquake of this magnitude on the Hayward fault. There will be some structural damage, but no life endangerment, and structurally it will be solid and will not move with respect to its position before the earthquake.
Seismic improvements at International House encapsulated the hollow clay tile walls with new "wallpaper" that prevents those tiles from penetrating the walls and causing injury. The windows have been treated with film to avoid dangerous breakage and injury in the event of an earthquake.
International House is rated good for earthquake safety in the UC Berkeley seismic report.
There are details of expected structural damage depending on the earthquake magnitude for different building strengths. Magnitude 8 earthquakes can cause partial collapse of masonry of ordinary workmanship, but the largest earthquake recorded in California was the Fort Tejon earthquake of 7.8 along the San Andreas fault. International House would be of ordinary or better workmanship, with some reinforcement.