[en] A procedure is illustrated in this paper for deriving (estimating) from a free-field record the horizontal base motions of a building, including horizontal rotation and translation. More specifically the goal was to compare results of response calculations based on derived accelerations with the results of calculations based on recorded accelerations. The motions are determined by assuming that an actual recorded ground wave transits a rigid base of a given dimension. Calculations given in the paper were made employing the earthquake acceleration time histories of the Hollywood storage building and the adjacent P.E. lot for the Kern County (1952) and San Fernando (1971) earthquakes. For the Kern County earthquake the derived base corner accelerations, including the effect of rotation show generally fair agreement with the spectra computed from the Hollywood storage corner record. For the San Fernando earthquake the agreement between the spectra computed from derived base corner accelerations and that computed from the actual basement corner record is not as good as that for the Kern County earthquake. These limited studies admittedly are hardly a sufficient basis on which to form a judgment, but these differences noted probably can be attributed in part to foundation distortion, building feedback, distance between measurement points, and soil structure interaction; it was not possible to take any of these factors into account in these particular calculations