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GREATER
AVENUES COMMUNITY COUNCIL Minutes
September 6, 2000 ~ Page 5
DAVE
HART: The Capitol really is falling apart. Half way though
the session a member brought this chunk of granite that fell
about 80 feet and hit right where the Governor gets out of his
car every day. There have been many such events after a heavy
rainstorm. It was a huge leak, the skylights are 85 years old,
have corroded from both the inside out. It is ponding and seeping
through the ceiling. There is a flange of a beam that goes into
the dome, which is starting to deteriorate. We want to tell
what we have been doing so far.
We
hired the firm of Cooper-Roberts architects to do an analysis
of the different components of the building. They have a lot
of building-over expertise with historic buildings. They prepared
the Historic structure report and gave it to us today. We focused
on three areas. #1) is Life Safety of those who work there,
the legislators, school children who visit regularly, etc. They
were asked to consider the Uniform Building Code for new buildings.
They are prescriptive codes; they tell what you can do in a
building. For example, we have an atrium. The codes talk about
anything over 2 stories, and say we have to do certain things.
This is not possible in a new building, so we have to go from
a Prescriptive code to a Performance code - what is possible
and doable in this building. #2) Seismic considerations: An
Earthquake is long overdue. During California found that the
seismic waves travel in zones depending on strata. The US Government
has re-contoured the US according to soils, and so we know what
is the Capitol is 72 on a scale of 100. Los Angeles is 85. After
reviewing all the options, we have a model to show how the building
will move in a lateral earthquake. It will sustain a lateral
amount of 4 inches at the parapet walls. Any more than that
it becomes deformed out of space and will collapse. We have
found that given its construction, if it moves more the dome
would collapse. To make it safe we have to put the building
on rubber base isolators. Then we have to put in sheer walls.
And then we have to tie the dome to the building so it won't
sheer off independently. Then we have the problems of fire safety:
The only exit path is through the rotunda. If the dome doesn't
fall on you, the rotunda is a return air plumb. It sucks all
the air out of the building and exhausts it out through the
top. If there is any smoke it in the building, it will all go
through the rotunda, and people would suffocate as they tried
to get out. All the electrical stuff has to be updated as well,
as it is a fire hazard. Basically, we have to gut the building.
It is dangerous.
Even
if we left it alone it is not, it is not functional as it should
be, for we are short of space. Many offices are in cubicles
that are no bigger than a closet, and it makes functioning very
difficult. Under a guide for space utilization, if we used all
that is there right not, it 45,000 square feet space short.
You find basically 2 people working in a closet. We are also
short of meeting space, and it affects that quality and function
of the laws being made.
We
also need to improve utility lines; much of it is in clay pipe
that is cracked and leaking. There is lead in the water, it
barely passes the legal limits now, but it may get worse as
the pipes further corrode.
There
is also the question of Landscape features. In our research,
we currently have some very interesting finds. There is a fellow
named Fredrick Lomstead (sp?) who was the best landscape architect
the world has seen in the past 200 years. (He also did Central
Park in New York City.) He was hired in 1880 to do landscaping
plans for the capitol and made beautiful plans, only some of
which were used at the time. (Richard Cletting also drew up
plans and they are quite similar to Lomstead's.) Lomstead knew
there would be expansion to the Capitol one day, so he added
buildings around. It looked like a quad, as an organizing principle.
It is quite amazing that every thing lines up to give us guidance
in future. He had wanted to put the building on a platform.
There is an attempt to do that already.
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