For buildings with few accelerometers, the accelerometer layout should be able to account for various possible inelastic deformation modes (i.e., total-yield or soft-story). Two criteria are proposed for evaluating the suitability of an accelerometer layout: (i) maximum recorded floor displacements should vastly differ for different deformation modes, and (ii) the maximum representative building-level displacement should be accurately estimated. The application of these criteria was demonstrated using a case study of a 12-story building with different accelerometer layouts.