I love it when I find a shot by a photographer who has taken some time to line up an interesting angle. In this particular case, the photographer was standing in the forecourt of what was then the brand-new Los Angeles City Hall, which opened in April 1928. That double line of arches stand at top of the steps that lead down to Spring St. On the other side of the street, beautifully lined up through the arches is the old LA County Courthouse. It’s long gone now, of course, which is a shame, but it probably wouldn’t have survived any of LA major earthquakes.
Here are those same arches in June 2022.
Speaking of earthquakes, when I took a walking tour of Los Angeles City Hall a few years ago, they said the 1994 Northridge earthquake took such a huge toll on the building there was actually consideration of tearing it down. (!) Egads! The building had to be evacuated and people moved to another building while plans were developed of how to save it. It was not easy and it took years. I do not remember hearing any news at the time about City Hall being in danger.
One thing I remember them telling us was that part of the plan for this building to withstand a future earthquake was that a moat (!) would be added around the foundation. (I looked the following up to make sure I have it right.) “A four-foot-wide underground moat will surround the foundation to provide room for earthquake movement in any direction. Steel sliders will be placed intermittently to act as bearings for the concrete above and below. The moat will be covered by such things as planter boxes for safety reasons. Shear walls and reinforced concrete walls will replace hollow clay block walls, which have been loosened by decades of temblors.” Yes, I doubt the old County Court House would ever had withstood these things.
From what our iconic City Hall has been through to keep it there, I look at it nowadays with a new sense of awe and respect.
Was it an LA Conservancy tour you did? A few years ago, I did one too and was amazed to hear all that. Actually, I was amazing by the whole building, inside and out.
Yes, it was an LA Conservancy tour! Maybe we were on the same tour!
I had the same thought! Wouldn’t *that* have been ironic after all this time!
I can confirm that there was a (mercifully very brief) discussion of tearing down City Hall after the Northridge quake. I worked in the personnel office of the Department of Public Works from 1988 until I retired in 2014. AS part of my duties, I regularly appeared before the Board of Public Works, representing management in discipline cases. On one such occasion, the proposal for repairing City Hall’s damage from the Northridge quake was before the Board, which included the plans for earthquake retrofitting the structure. The Assistant City Engineer from the Bureau of Engineering who was in charge of the project was explaining its cost to the Board, who would decide whether or not to approve the proposal. One of the five Board members, who was notorious for being a dunderhead and who usually appeared to be asleep during Board meetings, suddenly perked up and asked the Assistant City Engineer, “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to tear down City Hall and build a new one?” There was what I can only describe as an embarrassed silence in the Board room, until the Assistant City Engineer finally explained, as politely as he could, that City Hall was an historic, beloved building which the public would not want to see torn down. The Board member harumphed and returned to his usual semi-oblivious state and the planning for the repairs and retrofit continued, thankfully.
As far as the retrofit itself is concerned, the description here is accurate. Having been in my office on the 18th floor when a fairly substantial earthquake hit, moreover, I can attest to the effectiveness of the retrofit. The building swayed noticeably, and in fact continued rocking back and forth for some time after the earthquake stopped, but there was no structural damage at all. (The rocking sensation was due to the fact that the building sits on gigantic ball bearings, each approximately the size of a car, which allow the energy of the quake to dissipate without damaging the building itself.) There was a slight feeling of seasickness shared by most of my fellow employees, but that seemed like a small price to pay for both our own safety and the survival of this historic building.