City Approves Demolition of a Landmark : Architecture: The council says efforts to save the 63-year-old Public Services Building are ill-timed. Replacement is nearly complete.

Despite protests by preservationists, the Glendale City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to raze the 63-year-old Public Service Building.

After four hours of testimony, council members concluded that efforts to save the antiquated, six-story concrete building are ill-timed, coming five years after the city decided to replace it with a $26-million, four-story structure, now nearly complete.

“The bottom line is that there are overriding considerations that I cannot ignore,” said Councilwoman Eileen Givens, who cited safety, cost and a lack of parking as obstacles to saving the building.

The council accepted an environmental impact report, which is required before demolition permits are issued. The building is to be torn down after completion in September of the adjacent Perkins Building, named after former City Manager C. E. (Gene) Perkins.

Representatives of several preservation groups, including the Glendale Historical Society, the Los Angeles Conservancy and a taxpayers organization, said they may sue to stop the razing.

No objections were raised to the city’s plans to raze the building at 119 N. Glendale Ave. when it awarded a construction contract in October, 1990, to build a replacement twice the size of the old structure.

The new structure--the Perkins Building--is only 20 feet away, closer than permitted by safety codes, because the city planned to tear down the 1929 structure to make room for an expanded civic center plaza.

Preservationists argued that the building, designed by 1920s-era architect Alfred F. Priest, is historically and architecturally significant. But council members said the Art Deco/Moderne-style structure is no longer compatible in its setting. “It doesn’t fit now,” Councilman Larry Zarian said. “Aesthetically, it is not that pleasing.”

Curtis Kendall, leader of a group called Taxpayers to Save Glendale $Millions, argued that the city should renovate the building and lease it as office space. Zarian, however, pointed out the city has a glut of office space.

City Manager David Ramsay said studies indicate that renovation of the old building, changes to the new adjoining structure and construction of parking facilities could cost $16.5 million. City officials said the building--with a single stairwell, one elevator that frequently stalls, and outmoded plumbing, heating and air conditioning--is dangerous.

Michael P. Hopkins, public service director, said many of the 175 city employees who work in the building remember the extensive damage it suffered in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, when it was empty. Although seismic safety measures have since been taken, Hopkins said workers “suffer psychological stress every time there is a shaker.”

Glendale architect Charles Walton called the structure “a workhorse of an office building,” but concluded that demolition “will not have a significant effect on the cultural and historic resources of Glendale.”