If you live or work in Beverly Hills, and your building was built before 1978, chances are it may need seismic reinforcement.
Recently obtained data on 229 low-rise buildings in the city shows that 42 have yet to undergo seismic retrofitting. These buildings are currently included in a searchable Times map tracking earthquake retrofitting efforts in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Pasadena and West Hollywood.
The 13 unrenovated buildings are also located in liquefaction zones, where the ground could collapse during an earthquake.
The city of Beverly Hills passed a retrofit program in December 2018 for soft-story buildings, such as low-rise apartment buildings that can house a few dozen people and have flimsy ground floors for carports. The city’s program applies to wood-frame buildings built before January 1978 that have parking spaces under the building’s second floor.
In total, about 6,000 buildings in Los Angeles County may need retrofitting, according to city records analyzed by The New York Times. Retrofitting strengthens weaker buildings, making them more resistant to earthquake shaking and less likely to collapse or be damaged. In December 2023, The New York Times published a searchable database of about 17,000 buildings to help readers determine the condition of the buildings where they live or work.
Over the past six months, The Times has continued its pursuit by making public records requests, reviewing building permits and talking to Los Angeles engineers and residents.
The Times received updated data from West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Pasadena, and added new data from Beverly Hills. Culver City is providing data to the Times and will be added to the map at a later date.
Through its continuing reporting, The New York Times has learned that data provided by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety is inconsistent with the department’s permit website, which contains detailed information about all permits attached to a building, including maintenance, safety complaints and seismic retrofit history.
After interviews with building owners and residents, The Times found that technical issues caused a mismatch between the city’s permit database and the Department of Building and Safety’s renovation records. City building officials responded to The Times’ inquiries and are working to update their database. The map will be updated once The Times receives the corrected data.
The Times asked all cities with seismic retrofitting ordinances to report on their progress, and since the first version of the map was published, Pasadena building officials have been updating their database, digitizing paper permits and checking building owner records.
As a result, 38 more buildings have been marked as renovated. The total number of renovated soft-story buildings in Pasadena is 98. Another 404 buildings are in the process of being renovated.
Most of the buildings awaiting renovation in Los Angeles are soft-story condominiums and apartments, and while many of the deadlines for renovations to the largest soft-story buildings have passed, some have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the South Bay, Torrance officials passed the ordinance in March 2023, but letters have not yet been sent to all building owners. As officials identify buildings, The Times plans to add those locations to its map.