Building Kept in Wraps During Hazardous Cleanup

It may look as though the building at 4th Street and Broadway has been tackled by the artist Christo, famous for encasing large objects in fabric, but in fact it has been shrink-wrapped during the hazardous-materials removal phase of its renovation, a representative for the building contractor said.

The future state office building was the flagship of the Broadway department store chain when it was built in 1914, but it has been vacant since the Broadway closed the outlet in 1966.

When the $69.9-million renovation project is completed in December 1998, 1,700 state employees from more than 30 state agencies will move in, and the building will be renamed the Junipero Serra State Office Building.

The state is leaving the current Serra building, at 1st Street and Broadway, because it needs earthquake retrofitting.

White plastic less than a 16th of an inch thick covers all 10 stories. Project manager Curt Jennings of the building contractor Swinerton & Walberg said the plastic will keep particles of lead paint and asbestos out of the air during removal.

Beginning in April, he said, workers covered three or four floors at a time with the plastic, known as Hipp Wrap, and aimed blowtorches at the plastic from inside the building’s gutted interior.

“The heat shrinks it and keeps it in place,” said Larry Ball of Johnson Fain partners, the project architects.

The shrink-wrap will probably remain until September, the contractor said.