If you own a soft-story building in Southern California then you are well aware that the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood legally require seismic retrofits for soft-story buildings. The distinctive design of tuck-in parking on the ground floor makes soft-story buildings especially vulnerable during seismic activity, making them prone to collapse. The first kind of soft-story retrofit ordinance was passed by the city of Los Angeles in 2015, Santa Monica quickly followed suit in 2016, and West Hollywood joined the efforts in 2017. This year both Beverly Hills and Pasadena have begun to count how many at-risk buildings can be identified within their municipalities.

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Ordinance No. 7345 passes First & Second Reading.

California is the land of many faults, earthquake faults that is. That's why so many cities in Southern California have recently passed local ordinances to require the seismic retrofit of vulnerable "soft story" apartment buildings. We now have another city that has navigated the gauntlet of public scrutiny and passed a mandatory earthquake retrofit ordinance, the city council of Pasadena officially adopted Ordinance 7345 on May 20, 2019. The ordinance is set to go into effect on June 24, 2019. Pasadena joins the city of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood in passing a seismic retrofit ordinance. These types of laws stir up controv...

What are the biggest mistakes contractors, engineers, and building owners make on their retrofit project?

Soft Story Retrofit Mistakes in Los Angeles

What are the biggest mistakes people make when dealing with soft-story buildings? They try to solve the wrong problem – But How? When the city of Los Angeles passed ordinance 183893 and 184081 to require seismic retrofit for older buildings with ‘tuck in’ parking, many property owners described it as an “unreasonable burden”.

Property owners think that they have a ‘compliance problem’ and that they must comply with the retrofit ordinance, when in fact they have a ‘health and safety problem’...

Ordinances Might Get Tougher in 2019.

The entire soft-story retrofit process is long, complex, and involves several people. You’ll encounter structural engineers, draftsmen, city engineers, city clerks, general contractors, and other construction professionals. As a professional general contractor, I’ve made the commitment to give all my customers the best service in Southern California, and in order to do so I’ve attended several seminars and symposiums. This week I want to share the experience I had this summer at the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) Convention in beautiful Palm Desert, CA. SEAOC is the premiere professional association for struct...

The Soft-Story retrofit boom is attracting some shady folks!

The soft-story retrofit programs of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood are well underway and property owners are now in a rush to meet deadlines. Hiring a contractor is hard enough, but finding a reputable soft-story contractor is becoming a bit more difficult

Are you afraid your seismic retrofit is going to be too expensive? Have you developed some anxiety about how much your soft-story retrofit is going to cost? I am not just talking about the cost of retrofit engineering plans, I am talking about construction costs. In the past two years, I have spoken to hundreds of property owners from Los Angeles and Santa Monica ...

Seismic activity in Los Angeles is nothing new, Southern California has been expecting “The Big One” for years. It’s something that Californians have to deal with, but in 2015 the City of Los Angeles passed Ordinance 183893 and Ordinance 184081 to establish mandatory standards for soft-story buildings that are considered at risk of structural failure during an earthquake.

The purpose of these ordinances is to promote public safety and reduce structural deficiencies caused by earthquakes in the most economical and feasible methods The City of Los Angeles Department of Building Safety, (LADBS), spent over two years compiling a list of soft-story buildings that will need som...