Los Angeles County recently purchased one of L.A.’s tallest skyscrapers, the Gas Company Tower, and after doing so, officials launched an investigation into the building’s ability to withstand an earthquake.
The findings of that investigation, however, aren’t being made public, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A report published by the Times early Monday states that, in the wake of the purchase of the 52-story tower located at 555 West 5th Street in the heart of DTLA, “questions have mounted over whether the building could be vulnerable to major damage in the event of a massive earthquake.”
“County officials agreed to study the matter. But officials are now refusing to disclose a preliminary report that could shed light on the seismic safety question of whether the county should embark on costly retrofits to make it more reliable after a big earthquake,” the Times report states.
The cost of retrofitting the 749-foot skyscraper, which is planned to be the county’s new headquarters, would actually cost more than what the county paid for the building itself – it was purchased for $200 million and the estimated cost of retrofitting is $230 million – but the lack of transparency from county officials leaves the public, and those who work in the Gas Company Tower and adjacent buildings, “in the dark,” the Times said.
The county has previously stated its intention to have 300 employees working in the building by the end of the year.
“The County Counsel on Sept. 5 denied The Times’ request for a seismic report on the Gas Company Tower, citing exemptions listed under the California Public Records Act,” the outlet reported. “The head of the county’s Department of Public Works, Mark Pestrella, said at a public meeting this summer he expects the tower would survive even the most powerful earthquake and the supervisors have said they believe it exceeds safety requirements. But there remain real questions from others about whether the skyscraper suffered undiscovered damage during the Northridge earthquake in 1994, and whether another earthquake would render the tower so damaged that it would be unusable as the headquarters for the nation’s most populous county.”
It should be noted that, in a motion to officially suspend the retrofitting process filed on Aug. 12, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, officials explicitly stated that the Gas Company Tower “in its current state, meets the County of Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles seismic retrofit ordinance requirements.”
The retrofitting suspension was recommended mainly due to financial challenges the county is facing in the wake of the January wildfires, the AB 218 settlement payout and potential cuts in federal funding.
The motion did not, however, go any further into detail on the building’s integrity or ability to withstand an earthquake. According to the United States Geological Survey, there is a 60% chance L.A. experiences a quake with a magnitude of 6.7 or higher within the next 30 years; the chance of a 7.5 or greater is 31%, USGS says.
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