Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Surveys Reveal Heavy Damage to Landmarks : Quake: Repairs to historic L.A. buildings could cost more than $30 million, not counting the Coliseum.

The Northridge earthquake damaged at least 171 officially designated landmarks and other historic or architecturally significant buildings in the city of Los Angeles, according to preliminary surveys. Repairs and seismic strengthening could cost more than $30 million, not including massive work needed at the Coliseum and UCLA, the studies suggest.

“That’s a fairly hefty bite,” Rodney Punt, assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, said of the surveys’ findings.

Much of the harm appears cosmetic, such as cracked plaster at the Shrine Auditorium, the 1926 Moorish-style theater on Jefferson Boulevard, and some damaged molding below dome-like astronomical murals in the 1935 Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park.

Yet, 60 landmark or historic buildings will each need at least $100,000 in repairs, says the survey by the Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit preservationist group. That report looked at buildings within city limits that were on or eligible for city, state or federal landmark lists before the Jan. 17 temblor and now are tagged by city inspectors with yellow or red warning notices about possible structural danger.

“Certainly the magnitude is severe, but we are grateful that it is not worse,” said Linda Dishman, conservancy executive director.

A separate assessment was provided by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department. It found some quake damage at 122 of the 588 buildings or sites designated by the city as “historic-cultural monuments.”

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Only two of those city-designated landmarks are red-tagged for structural danger--the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood and the vacant Fire Station No. 27 in Hollywood. The red tag indicates that the building is unsafe for occupancy in its present condition. Jay Oren, staff architect with the cultural affairs department, believes that both sites and most other landmarks can be saved.

The El Portal on Lankershim Boulevard, a former vaudeville house and cinema built in 1926, was recently renovated as a live theater auditorium. With its ceiling fallen, the El Portal suffered an estimated $1.5 million in damage.

The 64-year-old fire station, a two-story brick building on North Cahuenga Boulevard, was once the largest firehouse west of the Mississippi. Since its 1992 closing, it was slated to become a Fire Department museum. City inspectors initially estimated that the station needed $1.4 million in seismic repairs. Terry Wong, a city building engineer, said Friday that “a million is a little more than is necessary” to fix a separated wall and strengthen the station.

Other heavily damaged landmarks, the conservancy report found, include the Andres Pico Adobe in Mission Hills, an 1834 house built by a Mexican general that inspectors say needs $500,000 in repairs; the Hollywood-Western Building, a four-story Art Deco landmark built in 1928 that for many years housed the famed Central Casting offices and now may require $4 million in seismic fixes, and the Egyptian Theater, the 1922 Hollywood-on-the-Nile-style movie palace that has been empty since last year and may need $260,000 in repairs to its broken rear wall, among other damage.

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The heavy losses in Santa Monica, Fillmore and other areas were not included in the surveys. Within the city of Los Angeles, two prominent landmarks were not cited because both are either wholly or partly state-owned--Royce Hall at UCLA and the Coliseum. Royce’s twin Romanesque towers suffered structural damage and, as a result, its auditorium cannot be used until repairs are made. The Coliseum’s extensive damage may wind up costing $35 million or more to fix.

Nonprofit institutions, city-owned buildings and private homes are eligible to receive federal grants or loans for repairs; some commercial structures might receive low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration.

In addition, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and First Interstate Bank of California announced Friday a low-interest loan pool for owners of damaged historic buildings. The maximum loan amount is $20,000 and the conservancy and the Getty Conservation Institute will provide technical advice.

Most experts consider the damage surveys and repair estimates to be very tentative so soon after the quake. That was the case in Northern California after the 1989 Loma Prieta temblor, said Lisbeth Henning, assistant director of the National Trust’s regional office in San Francisco.

What’s more, it is difficult to separate quake repairs from recommended seismic strengthening.

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The city-owned Watts Towers suffered only a few new hairline cracks in January’s shocks. “None of them is what I would call overly critical,” city official Punt said. Yet, the glass, concrete, steel and tile towers--considered a triumph of folk architecture--previously developed some base cracks that could cost $900,000 to probe and fix, he estimated.

“It’s not primarily caused by the quake, but it could be aggravated by aftershocks,” Punt said. “We are worried about the future.”

Similarly, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park may require about $600,000 in work, both for general strengthening against temblors and for repairing cracked rooftop spires and weakened library walls, Punt said.

Of the 171 buildings on the conservancy’s survey, 56 were estimated to require $20,000 or less in repair.