Safety Officials Find Their Building Violates Quake Inspection Mandate

When the city’s Building and Safety Department sets out this week to crack down on buildings that have not been inspected for earthquake damage, one structure will not be hard to find.

It’s the department’s own facility in West Los Angeles, one of 61 structures that officials say have not undergone the mandated inspections.

Inspection of the two-story, 3,800-square-foot building at 1828 Sawtelle Blvd. was required by December 1995.

City officials are not sure why the inspection has not been completed, but suggest that it may have been a bureaucratic oversight.

The situation came to light when Building and Safety officials launched a crackdown on the owners of buildings who have failed to inspect the steel-frame joints as required by law.

The city building turned up on that list.

Commercial building owners and industry representatives say the high cost of inspections and repairs as well as a weak rental market have made it difficult to afford the earthquake work.

To prod building owners to act, city officials began to mail letters to them this week, giving them 30 days to submit an inspection report.

Those who fail to complete the report will be issued a notice of noncompliance, which acts much like a property lien, making it difficult for the owner to sell or refinance the building.

The damage inflicted on steel-frame buildings by the Northridge earthquake surprised many structural engineers who had believed that the frames were virtually immune to seismic forces.

An ordinance requiring inspection and repair applies only to those 259 steel-frame commercial buildings in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, where damage was most widespread.

Richard Holguin, building and safety supervisor, said he recalls seeing the building on the list of uninspected structures but assumed that the city was simply leasing the property from a private owner.

He said he assumes that a notice about the required earthquake inspection was sent to the registered owner--in this case, the General Services Department, which is responsible for all city buildings.

But Dan Rosenfeld, who is in charge of managing the city’s real estate, said the oversight may be an example of a diffuse system for managing and maintaining city property.

“Until there is some integration on this building management system, we will continue to have important work fall through the cracks,” Rosenfeld said.