The seismic capacity curves of three types of buildings including frame, frame-shear wall and shear wall obtained by pushover analysis under different lateral load patterns are compared with those from nonlinear time history analysis. Based on the numerical results obtained a two-phase load pattern; an inverted triangle (first mode) load pattern until the base shear force reachesβ times its maximum value, Vmax, followed by a (x/H)α form, hereβ and α being some coefficients depending on the type of the structures considered, is proposed in the paper, which can provide excellent approximation of the seismic capacity curve for low-to-mid-rise shear type buildings. Furthermore, it is shown both the two-phase load pattern proposed and the invariant uniform pattern can be used for low-to-mid-rise shear-bending type and low-rise bending type of buildings. No suitable load patterns have been found for high-rise buildings.