SUMMARYThis paper offers a guided tour through the various ways, used in practice, of accounting for soil–structure interaction in design and analysis, ranging from a complete analysis of the total combined system of foundation, soil and structure to approximate models of the system. The focus is on three types of structures: bridges on pile foundations, tall buildings with several levels of underground parking and large basement slabs with shallow embedment. The paper also reports on preliminary results from the study of seismic pressures against deep basement walls commissioned by the Structural Engineers Association of British Columbia. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.