Clayton Pettit joined Dr. Cruz’s research team while completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. Since then he has been enrolled in the MSc program and has been conducting research into the effective stiffness shallow foundations provide on masonry walls. Currently, CSA S304-14 conservatively requires all slender masonry walls to be considered as pin-pin, which ignores any stiffness provided by the foundation. Clayton will test a series of masonry wallets and will examine the effects that a rigid base have on the strength, deformation, and failure mode.