Demolition of Press Box at Coliseum OKd

With the scheduled reopening of the earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum a month away, Coliseum officials Wednesday resolved the last major historic-preservation issue holding up the mammoth repair effort.

Don C. Webb, who is directing the project, told a meeting of the Coliseum Commission that state preservation officials--who have veto power over modifications of the historic landmark--have agreed to allow demolition of the facility’s ramshackle press box.

“That’s a big step,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, president of the commission, which in the long term hopes to build a modern press box as part of a series of improvements to keep the Los Angeles Raiders at the Exposition Park stadium.

For the upcoming football season, however, only part of the press box will be demolished and a temporary facility erected, Webb said.

“We will begin demolition immediately,” he said. “We’re not going to let the moss grow under anything around here with only 31 days remaining.”

The Coliseum is scheduled to reopen Sept. 3 for a USC-Washington game. The Raiders open their home season eight days later, playing Seattle.

Though many repairs remain to be done and hundreds of workers continue to toil around the clock, officials on Wednesday celebrated completion of one large part of the project: Concrete was poured for the last of 56 seismic reinforcement beams ringing the stadium.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan joined representatives of the commission, the state Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency--which is paying 90% of the quake repair costs--in etching their names in the wet concrete.

Estimated costs of the project have risen steadily, from $35 million shortly after the Jan. 17 quake to $58 million as of last week. The increases have been attributed to new damage discovered and to required city building code upgrades, including new electric power facilities.

“It’s really a race toward finishing at this point,” Webb said.

Cherilyn Widell, the state’s historic preservation officer, said she and other preservation officials agreed to allow demolition of the press box in part because it falls far short of meeting current building and safety codes.

The press box, built in 1948, “definitely has history,” Widell said. But she noted: “When you’re doing preservation, you have to make sure the building is still viable.”

Preservation officials will keep photos of the press box and carefully review “anything new that may go in its place,” she said.