What design and structural factors make a building more 'earthquake-safe' -- rather than less so?

Earth quake resistant design as per governing code and Ductile detailing enables the Structure to withstand the quake ( lateral loads ) .

Earthquakes cause the soil to move through ground motion which shakes or "excites" buildings. This excitation is primarily horizontal in nature, but there is also a vertical movement component. If you are in a building and it happens to be right over the fault of an earthquake (the point where the ground actually fissures open or bulges upward (depending on the type of fault) there is little you can do but pray. No building is designed to withstand having its base ripped 100 feet apart, and if it does survive, it will be through sheer luck. This is akin to being one of the poor unfortunate souls that happens to be sitting in a taxi cab that is right over the spot where a giant sink hole opens up in the ground and swallows half a city block.