This study describes the seismic performance of an existing five storey reinforced concrete building which represents the typical properties of low-rise non-ductile buildings in Turkey. The effectiveness of shear walls and the steel bracings in retrofitting the building was examined through nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. By using the nonlinear static analysis, retrofitted buildings seismic performances under lateral seismic load were compared with each other.Moreover, the performance points and response levels of the existing and retrofitting cases were determined by way of the capacity-spectrum method described in ATC-40 (1996). For the nonlinear dynamic analysis the records were selected to represent wide ranges of duration and frequency content. Considering the change in the stiffness and the energy dissipation capacities, the performance of the existing and retrofitted buildings were evaluated in terms of story drifts and damage states.It was found that each earthquake record exhibited its own peculiarities, dictated by frequency content, duration, sequence of peaks and their amplitude. The seismic performance of retrofitted buildings resulted in lower displacements and higher energy dissipation capacity depending mainly on the properties of the ground motions and the retrofitting strategies. Moreover,severe structural damage (irreparable or collapse) was observed for the existing building. However, buildings with retrofit alternatives exhibited lower damage levels changing from no damage to irreparable damage states.