Church Turns to New Technique in Quake Salvation

The Rev. David Reed faced a predicament. The venerable Gothic church housing Reed’s 770-member flock, the First Congregational Church of Long Beach, had been deemed an earthquake hazard by city building officials.

What to do? None of the options seemed very palatable.

The red-brick building, completed in 1914 and long considered a Long Beach landmark, could be demolished. Reed and his congregation quickly dismissed that notion, but then discovered it would cost upwards of $1 million to make the Cedar Avenue church seismically safe. Worse still, the tedious reconstruction job would require that the congregation relocate for nearly two years.

Just when the situation appeared hopeless, the church was blessed by something of a godsend: A trio of local engineers, led by former city building director Edward O’Connor, developed a technique of earthquake restoration that promises to make reconstructing the church both easier and cheaper.

The new technology, called the centercore system, is expected to be used to upgrade the First Congregational Church sometime during the coming year, probably after the chance of winter rains subsides.

If it works, experts predict the centercore system should prove a useful technique for bolstering some of the thousands of old, potentially hazardous buildings dotting California’s earthquake country.

But the promise has limits. Even the staunchest backers of the new technology acknowledge that it may not be effective for the types of older, multi-story structures that are common in big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and, to a lesser degree, Long Beach.

Other engineers, however, have begun perfecting techniques that should fill that gap. Among them is a futuristic concept called the earthquake barrier system, which could get its first test on two residential high-rises in Long Beach, the Villa Riviera and the Cooper Arms.

Such developments in the brave new world of earthquake technology are good news for Long Beach, where 640 buildings remain classified as earthquake hazards and face either restoration or the wrecker’s ball. Since the mid-1960s, when the city began cracking down on such buildings, some 46 structures have been rehabilitated to meet seismic standards while another 242 have been demolished.

Most of those hazardous buildings are unreinforced masonry structures erected prior to the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, a disaster that killed 127 people and prompted state officials to begin upgrading California’s building codes.

Built before modern construction practices were in vogue, such structures come in all shapes and sizes, from urban flophouses to brick-and-mortar movie theaters to architectural masterworks like Long Beach’s First Congregational Church. These old buildings, more than any other type, have been red-flagged as earthquake death traps by seismic experts.

O’Connor maintains that the centercore system is the answer for unreinforced masonry buildings. By using the new technique, he says, such structures can be buttressed to greatly improve their chance of withstanding a major earthquake--such as the recent Mexico City disaster--without collapsing.

“Buildings aren’t like whiskey,” O’Connor said, “they don’t get better with age.”

Indeed, the technique should give the walls of old masonry buildings 10 times their original strength, said Joseph Plecnik, a professor of structural engineering at Cal State Long Beach who is working on the project with O’Connor and David Breiholz, a Lomita-based civil engineer.

“It’s a very simple technique,” Plecnik said. “But we have to prove it will work, and that’s what we’re trying to do right now. The proof in the pudding, both dollar-wise and technology-wise, will be the church.”

Holes Drilled in Walls

Instead of ripping away a building’s interior or exterior to install reinforcing columns and beams, the technique uses a diamond-bit coring drill to bore 4-inch holes in each wall from top to bottom at intervals of about 6 feet.

A length of steel rod is placed in the hole. Construction workers then pour a liquid mix of polyester and sand into the hole. When the mix hardens around the steel bar, it forms a column that reinforces the brick wall.

But the polyester mix should do even more. While being poured into the hole, it percolates through cavities in the wall to fill pockets untouched by cement or grout, stitching the bricks together and giving the wall added strength.

O’Connor said he began considering the new technique more than five years ago. After some gentle prodding, he convinced Plecnik, a longtime friend who had been conducting tests on the use of epoxies and resins to shore up buildings, to join him in the research.

In 1983, the two were awarded a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct experiments on the new technique. Those tests, which the two men will continue next year using another $200,000 foundation grant, proved what the engineers had theorized all along: the centercoring greatly improves the strength of typical masonry walls.

Occupants Not Disturbed

But the technique has other benefits too, the engineers boast. For one, the work can be accomplished with little disturbance to the occupants of a building.

“There will be no scaffolding and little site disturbance,” said Breiholz, who is drafting the engineering design for the church project. “They may not even know we’re on the roof coring the walls.”

That wouldn’t have been the case if Reed and his congregation chose a more traditional method. The church group would have been forced out while workmen stripped the outer layer of bricks from the church, erected a gridwork of steel rods, sprayed liquified concrete on the building, then replaced the brick.

The centercore technique could prove effective for many other historically significant buildings in the area.

While traditional earthquake reconstruction methods generally require that a contractor cut into the ornamented exterior of a historical building, the centercore system does not. By limiting the need to make costly repairs to the building’s facade, money can be saved, the engineers say.

Cost Cut in Half

For the church, that cost savings should be significant. Reed predicts the centercoring project will cost about $500,000--roughly half the estimated price to restore the church using traditional earthquake reconstruction methods.

Since the congregation had already raised more than $1 million for the project, Reed said the balance of the funds will be used to further bolster the church’s roof and 100-foot-high tower.

With its obvious benefits for old buildings, local historical preservation buffs are eagerly awaiting the verdict on the new technique.

“We’re just waiting and hoping everything will go well,” said Karen Clements, a member of the Long Beach Cultural Heritage Committee.

Clements and other historical preservationists have long pointed to the church, with its 18-foot circular rose windows and other stained-glass panes, richly ornamented mahogany and oak interior as well as its massive, 4,074-pipe Moeller organ, as one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.

Civil engineers in the area also are anxious to see if the technique proves effective.

A Leap in Technology

“It’s a leap in technology for sure,” said Ray Steinberg, a Van Nuys engineer who heads a Structural Engineers Assn. of Southern California committee studying the safety of unreinforced masonry buildings. “Whether it will prove cost-effective in all applications remains to be seen. That is really the primary problem with it at this point.”

Steinberg acknowledged that the centercore technique should work well “in special cases” such as historical buildings or those with very slender walls that need reinforcement.

In many instances, however, engineers have found that the walls of unreinforced masonry buildings are not the weak link in the structures, Steinberg said. Instead, it often is the connections between walls and the floor or roof that need to be reinforced, he said.

The technique probably will be ineffective for some of the taller buildings in Long Beach, such as the 16-story Villa Riviera and the Breakers Hotel, a 13-story Ocean Boulevard fixture.

Instead, other forms of technology are being considered for such structures. Among those is the earthquake barrier system, which is being weighed by owners of the Villa Riviera and the 12-story Cooper Arms building.

Teflon Plates at Base

Instead of bolstering a structure with new columns or steel reinforcing rods, the earthquake barrier is designed to actually reduce the shock of a temblor on the building, according to Marc Caspe, a San Mateo-based civil and structural engineer promoting the concept.

At the base of supporting columns in a structure, engineers would install several Teflon plates. The building would sit solidly during high winds and small earthquakes. But when a large temblor hits, the plates would give, allowing the structure to float atop the shuddering earth until the shock waves subside.

So far the new technique has been used on only one building, an airport control tower in Tokyo, Caspe said. Nonetheless, he predicts it will ultimately prove to be viable and cost-effective.

Long Beach building officials, while enthusiastic about the idea, are not yet sold on it.

“We’re going to take a lot of care with that,” said Eugene Zeller, city Building and Safety Department superintendent. “I find the concept rather exciting, but we’ll have to be convinced it will function properly before it will be approved.”

Case-by-Case Review

Such questions do not remain, however, for the centercore system. After months of review, Zeller said his department decided recently to grant final approval for use of the concept on the church. Other buildings will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis before being approved for the new technique, he said.

Besides the church, Breiholz said the new technique is being considered for the Enloe Building, a six-story Pine Avenue structure that in recent years housed a Bank of America branch, and a one-story auto repair garage that is being converted into a boutique.

Despite all the progress, final proof that the centercore system works will only come when the earth begins to shudder and shake.

Marvin Hopewell, a senior engineer with the city building department, says the church should do just fine.

“With what they intend to do, it should be able to take anything the rest of the buildings in town can take,” Hopewell said. “With what has been proposed, it’s going to be very good.”