Cost of St. Vibiana Quake Safety Work Put at $20 Million : Landmarks: Study suggests result would be a rebuilt replica, not merely a restoration. Report will fuel debate over building’s future.

A study commissioned by Catholic church leaders to determine whether the historic St. Vibiana’s Cathedral can be saved concludes that without a $20-million seismic overhaul the cathedral could collapse in a major earthquake. Although aimed at offering compromises between preservationists and those favoring demolition, the long-awaited engineering report released Monday is certain to stoke the fires of debate over the building’s future.

The report strongly suggests that St. Vibiana’s could emerge from seismic retrofitting more like a reconstructed replica than a restored original.

The report could bolster Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s contention that the earthquake-damaged church should be razed and replaced with an elaborate, $45-million cathedral complex. Church leaders have said area Catholics deserve a headquarters more representative of the archdiocese’s status as the most populous in the nation.

The seismic report was commissioned by the archdiocese in part to quell controversy that erupted in January when Mahony announced plans to raze the 119-year-old cathedral. The archdiocese hired structural engineer Nabih Youssef, who drew praise even from opponents of the demolition for his independent viewpoint. Youssef has worked on such prominent seismic retrofit projects as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, City Hall and St. Monica’s Church in Santa Monica.

Both preservationists and proponents of a new cathedral stressed a willingness to compromise in the wake of the report. But the archdiocese’s appointed project executive, Downtown developer Ira Yellin, has openly questioned the wisdom of gutting the church and then rebuilding a nearly identical one.

“The questions will be: ‘How much money will it cost?’ and ‘Are you saving the historic building or are you replicating it?’ ” Yellin said. “I don’t believe in reproducing the past.”

William Delvac, an attorney prominent in efforts to save the cathedral, reacted with caution Monday.

“Our initial reading of it is it provides a lot of useful information which will be a starting point for dialogue,” Delvac said. “I am personally confident that St. Vibiana’s can be saved and will be saved.”

Whether all or part of the cathedral is preserved, the project would have the potential of transforming a section of Downtown Los Angeles that has long suffered the classic symptoms of urban decay--rising crime, homelessness, drug trafficking and deteriorating abandoned buildings.

“The decision of the cardinal to build the permanent cathedral of the archdiocese in the old historic core is an extraordinarily important one,” Yellin said. “In that one act, I believe he has done more to give a future to all the buildings in the historic core than all of us working all these years.”

Over the next few years, Yellin noted, as much as 5 million square feet of new or renovated government office space is planned for the area surrounding the church, including a massive Caltrans building and other state offices.

In August, the archdiocese named Yellin manager of the overall project, in conjunction with Keller Construction Management Services. Archdiocese officials referred questions on the report to Yellin on Monday.

An attorney by trade, Yellin has been a major player in redevelopment of the Broadway corridor, including the Million Dollar Theater, Bradbury and Grand Central Market buildings.

Yellin released the report to the Los Angeles Conservancy late last week before making it public Monday.

The cathedral has been closed since May, after a preliminary seismic report concluded that another temblor would topple the cathedral’s cracked, 83-foot-high bell tower into the sanctuary.

The 200-page report details the extent of damage to the church that resulted from a series of earthquakes in the region, most notably the Northridge temblor of Jan. 17, 1994. Despite the fact that it experienced a relatively low level of ground shaking during the Northridge quake, “the cracking to unreinforced masonry walls is extensive and penetrates the entire wall thickness,” the report concludes. In addition, those walls rest on “rubble with questionable support capacity.”

In addition to steel bracing and injected concrete, repairs would require new foundations and some new walls across the church’s width, according to the report.

Although razing the structure would require an environmental impact study and city review, Mayor Richard Riordan supports the demolition, as do key financial backers of the new cathedral complex. The building, at 2nd and Main streets, was declared a Los Angeles historic cultural monument in 1963--a designation that does not protect it from demolition. At most, the city could delay demolition by a year.

The biggest benefactor of a new church complex Downtown, the Dan Murphy Foundation, has promised $25 million but made it clear it wants a completely new cathedral. The foundation is named for the late Daniel Murphy, an early California oilman and the founder of California Portland Cement. Its assets are reported at $176 million.

In addition, $10 million has been promised from the Dorothy Leavey Foundation and another $10 million from unnamed Catholic families. The Leavey Foundation was formed by the founders of Farmers Insurance Group Inc. and donates primarily to medical, education and Catholic church projects.

St. Vibiana’s was built in 1876 and contains the relics of a 3rd-Century martyr whose remains were unearthed in Italy in 1853 and brought to Los Angeles, then a city of 9,000.

The Vatican has approved tearing down the church on two occasions. Both times, the demolition was interrupted by the outbreak of world wars. It was renovated in 1922.

The archdiocese has plans to save at least the cathedral’s marble and onyx altar, stained-glass windows and extensive statuary.