There are a number of multi-storey buildings on shallow foundations in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand that have performed satisfactorily during the Christchurch Earthquake of February 22, 2011. A structural assessment of one such building following the earthquake concluded that the structure had performed significantly better than would have been expected given the intensity of the recorded ground motions in and around the Christchurch Central Business District. The building is an 11 storey steel-framed structure with one level of basement, 46m by 26m in plan, having a raft foundation the underside of which is approximately 4m below street level. The raft foundation bears on a layer of dense gravel. A post-earthquake survey of the building showed that the tower was a maximum of 0.07° off vertical. Soil-foundation-structure interaction (SFSI) provides a possible explanation for the good performance of this building. SFSI incorporates nonlinear geometrical effects and nonlinear soil deformation effects into earthquake analysis of structure-foundation systems. For shallow foundations, this involves uplift of the foundation from the supporting soil and plastic deformation of the foundation soil during large earthquake shaking. These effects can have a significant influence on the earthquake response of buildings, potentially reducing the forces transmitted to the structure and improving performance. A structure-foundation model on a bed of nonlinear springs has been developed for the multi-storey building being considered. Structural analysis software that has facilities for detaching and reattaching springs was employed to model the integrated system and existing features of the software were used to capture the nonlinear effects of foundation uplift and plastic soil deformation in the springs. Time history data from the Christchurch Earthquake was used to investigate the earthquake response of the building. The results of the analysis showed that uplift and associated Housner-type damping were likely contributors to the good performance of the building.