The Region : Sabbath for an Old Hotel

The main building of Pasadena’s Huntington Sheraton Hotel will be closed at 7 p.m. Sunday, hotel executives and safety experts told a press conference called to discuss the shutdown of the 280-room, six-story building because it probably could not withstand a major earthquake. Three quake faults, including one that bisects the hotel property, threaten the 1906 building, they said. Hotel General Manager Denis H. McDowell said that last month’s Mexico City quake, which damaged two Sheraton hotels there, may have speeded up the decision to close in Pasadena. But structural studies were so clear-cut that the building would have soon been vacated, anyway, he said. Meantime, Sheraton, manager of the hotel for its Japanese owner, and Keikyu USA Inc., will decide whether to tear down or strengthen the structure, McDowell said. Early estimates place the cost of making it quake-safe at a minimum of $20 million.