It’s been just one year since the City of Los Angeles enacted its earthquake retrofit ordinance. At the time, there were just a handful of seismic retrofit companies doing business locally. Today, there are many.
This sudden influx of startups has led to concern among those in the industry that some […]
Optimum Seismic was recently asked to make a formal presentation about earthquake retrofits and building safety at a meeting of CALBO, the California Building Officials association. The organization was curious to learn more about process, various laws already in place, financing options and the impacts on insurance and tenant habitability.
Based […]
Insurance of Older Buildings Made Easier with Earthquake Retrofits
Last fall marked a brief period of heightened anxiety for us here in Southern California, when scientists announced that a swarm of seismic activity at the Salton Sea dramatically increased the risk of a major quake along the San Andreas fault.
Newspaper headlines […]
Following the adoption of a Los Angeles ordinance requiring landlords to seismically retrofit their buildings over the next seven years, a small group of local property owners has taken the initiative to boost the safety of their own buildings ahead of the next major earthquake.
While there’s no retrofitting requirement on […]
Having your apartment building retrofitted to withstand an earthquake can seem like a major undertaking.
But surprisingly, it’s not always the cost of construction that has apartment owners concerned. Quite often, it’s the Tenant Habitability Plan required by the City of Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department that worries people […]
There is no local ordinance requiring seismic retrofits of buildings, but many are having their soft-story apartments stabilized anyway, for safety’s sake.
Earthquakes don’t heed the jurisdictional boundaries that define a city’s limits. So, when the City of Los Angeles this year started rolling out the nation’s most sweeping seismic regulations […]
There’s a lot of information out there right now – booth good and bad – regarding the City of L.A.’s new earthquake retrofit requirements for wood-frame, soft-story apartment buildings.
City officials have reported an almost alarming number of business license applications from new start-up retrofit companies, and with them, […]
Every building is different, and the approaches to safeguarding a structure against earthquake damage remain as diverse as the 13,000 soft-story apartment complexes needing retrofits in the city of L.A.
In our public exchanges at community workshops, professional expos […]
The roll-out of the City of Los Angeles’ new earthquake retrofit ordinance has prompted the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles to schedule a series of community seminars designed to help inform building owners about the law, the time frame to get things done, and the basic principles behind retrofit […]
Ever since the first notifications were sent out by the City of L.A., property owners have been contacting us seeking answers to various questions regarding the earthquake retrofit process.
The most frequently asked question has been, “Where do I start?”
A couple of owners shared with us their frustration over contradictory information […]
