SUMMARY Many branches of engineering, mathematics, and sciences, have relied on benchmark problems as a standard means to compare different solution techniques. Since 1996, the ASCE Structural Control and Monitoring Committee and Task Group on Benchmark Problems, the U.S. Panel on structural control, and IASCM have developed a series of benchmark control problems that offer a set of carefully modeled real-world structures in which different control strategies can be implemented, evaluated, and compared using a common set of performance indices. First-, second- and third-generation benchmark problems focusing on the response control of seismic and wind-excited buildings, and seismically excited long-span cable-stayed bridges have been developed and evaluated. The U.S. Panel on structural control and monitoring (currently chaired by Professor Satish Nagarajaiah, Rice University, Houston, TX), IASCM, and the ASCE structural control and monitoring committee have developed a new benchmark study to compare control strategies designed for a base-isolated building subjected to strong near-fault pulse-like ground motions. The special issue on phase I smart base-isolated building benchmark problem with a linear isolation system was successfully completed and published. This special issue focuses on the phase II smart base-isolated building benchmark problem with nonlinear isolation systems—friction or elastomeric system. Copyright r 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.