Los Angeles County plans to raze historic state capitol building

As the ink dries on the County of Los Angeles’ $200-million purchase of downtown’s Gas Company Tower office building, a battle rages over what to do with the 1960s-era headquarters it plans to leave behind.

Supervisor Janice Hahn and preservationists backtracked on a plan to move workers to newly purchased land on Bunker Hill and razed the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which was named after Hahn’s father and is the centerpiece of the Civic Center’s government-focused area.

“I was very shocked when I saw what was happening,” he said, accusing the district administration of quietly pushing through what he called a close-knit plan to remove the seat of the district government and thousands of workers, and then demolish them. a prominent public building.

“I thought it was a secret plan, they knew a little bit what they were doing, but they didn’t reveal it properly,” he said.

County officials, however, plan to begin moving employees from Administration Hall and other county buildings to the downtown building next summer, the start of a process that could take three or four years.

The district’s initial plans call for the demolition of the Administrative Hall but the preservation of the building where the Board of Directors meets during public meetings. That building is connected to the Administration Hall but is a separate building that does not stand alone.

The plan to demolish the Administration Hall has not been set in stone, district officials said. Official planning for the future of the site will begin in early 2025 and the master plan should be completed in about a year, followed by an environmental review of the plan which could continue in 2027. But keeping the building will raise budget challenges because a large part of the money used to buy the Gas Company Tower came from the money earmarked for earthquake restoration and other necessary repairs to the Administration Hall and other district buildings.

Hahn cast the lone “no” vote on the county’s purchase of Gas Company Tower last month. When he first heard about the proposal to buy the 52-story building, which was facing foreclosure, he thought it was an opportunity for the district to make a good investment in a down market. The district may consolidate many of its other offices there and sell them later at a profit when the office real estate market recovers.

Then, he said, it was “revealed” that the plan was to move the offices of the Board of Supervisors and regional services to the Gas Company Tower, and eventually demolish the Administration Hall.

“It still really shocks me, and it’s shocking that this was their plan all along,” Hahn said. “I think the public is still a little bit in the dark about what the plan is.”

Administration Hall was a source of community pride when it was built and other important buildings in the Civic Center, including the Los Angeles County Superior Court – Stanley Mosk Courthouse, were built from the 1950s.

“What the Acropolis was to Ancient Greece in its Golden Age, the new Civic Center now carved into the dirt slopes of Bunker Hill will be to Los Angeles,” wrote the Times in 1957.

It was reported that the Administration Hall was built to last for 100 years. A capital projects analyst in the district’s chief administrative officer’s office “is willing to bet Administration Hall will still be operational in 2059,” The Times said.

The building was renamed the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in 1992 in honor of Hahn’s father, a longtime county administrator and former Los Angeles city councilman.

Hahn said he is not driven by his legacy to save the building.

“Well, if you want to remove the name, if that makes you feel better about keeping it,” he said, “I’m fine with that.”

The head of the Los Angeles Conservancy, which advocates for the preservation of meaningful local architecture, said Administration Hall is “definitely historic” and important. It was designed by a distinguished team of mid-century architects including Paul R. Williams, the first licensed black architect west of the Mississippi, who designed homes for movie stars and prominent public buildings.

Tearing down Administration Hall would be “the wrong move for many reasons,” said conservancy President Adrian Scott Fine.

Among the reasons for keeping it, he said, is that it is across the Gloria Molina Grand Park from Mosk Courthouse. The two are the pairs that break up the park that connects City Hall and the Music Center.

“These two buildings are important” to the Civic Center, Fine said. “You can’t lose one without losing the job you were meant to do.”

The Public Areas Management Hall is filled with light brown marble and terrazzo that gives the halls a sense of place. There are spots in the building that appear to need painting, patching and other repairs.

“It’s a dark place,” admits regular visitor Will Wright, director of government and public affairs for the LA chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “Which tells me you really need to invest in maintaining it.”

With the investment the district can “restore and elevate” the interior to make it more attractive to employees and visitors, he said.

Ideally, the county would own the Gas Company Tower and the restored Administration Hall, Wright said, a position supported by Hahn.

“I believe the amount of money that would be needed to restore this is still the amount of money that we could easily find in the $50 billion budget,” Hahn said in an interview in his office. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask what this means for decades to come for the people of Los Angeles County.”

Los Angeles County oversaw the renovation of the Hall of Justice over the past decade. The historic building was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Administration Hall is less flashy than other downtown landmarks like the Walt Disney Concert Hall, City Hall and LADWP headquarters, but it doesn’t need to be eye-catching to be important, housing and conservation developer Dan Rosenfeld said.

“Not all public buildings need to shout to get attention,” he said. “It would be a very divided city if they did.”

Rosenfeld worked to preserve some of the city’s most important historic buildings that were unsafe from earthquakes and threatened by the wrecking ball, including City Hall and the Hall of Justice, both of which date from the 1920s and are still in use after renovations.

“It would be relatively easy to seismically strengthen the building and modernize the interior,” Rosenfeld said of the Administration Hall. “The building can and should be saved.”

Administration Hall is part of the Civic Center with public spaces and federal, local and state buildings that “define Los Angeles,” he said, and should not be abandoned by the county. The Civic Center is “a symbol of our democracy,” he said, a place where citizens gather to celebrate, protest and mourn.

“A community center is more than a collection of buildings,” Rosenfeld said. “It’s a symbol of what the community believes in.”

The district will not ignore the Civic Center, said CEO Fesia Davenport.

“We understand the importance of an effective and efficient Community Center and are committed to maintaining the District’s presence in this important community center,” Davenport said in a statement. “As we begin our master planning process for the Civic Center next year, we will invite more public input to help shape our recommendations to the Board of Directors to help guide their decisions about how best to reimagine our Civic Center buildings to become a more holistic community. use it.”

The 52-story Gas Company Tower at 555 W. 5th St. it was widely regarded as one of the city’s most prestigious office buildings when it was completed in 1991. He owns about 1.5 million on 1.4 acres of land at the base of Bunker Hill.

Just over half the building is let to a diverse mix of tenants including law firm Latham & Watkins and actuarial firm Deloitte, real estate agents JLL said. Its title tenant, Southern California Gas Co., said in September it will move from the tower where it has been the primary tenant since the building was completed to another high-rise building to the north at 350 S. Grand Ave.

Times staff writer Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.