Happy Building Safety Month! This low-profile, international observance for safe and sound structures, rarely gets noticed outside the industry. It’s the unsung understudy to fun causes nearer and dearer to people’s hearts – taking a back seat to ice cream, talking like pirates, even clowns.
But buildings play an ever-present and […]
I recently ran across the following question in a social media post:
Q: Is there a way to know how safe your apartment building is in case of an earthquake?
One person answered that if the apartment is still standing, it has survived everything until now — wrongly implying the building […]
About 15 million years ago, the Los Angeles Basin was underwater. Over the span of many millennia, surrounding mountain ranges rose, releasing molten rock into the underlying crust to create an immense geologic bowl that time filled with sand, silt, and clay from ancient rivers.
Today, the basin is home to […]
A worry apartment owners may face when doing earthquake retrofits, major renovations or repairs is the impact that construction could have on their tenants — and whether their Tenant Habitability Plan will add significant expenses to their project.
Extra costs might include precautions to minimize impacts, such as establishing alternative parking […]
Apartments and other buildings in the Los Angeles region, sit in the crosshairs of what experts agree could be the nation’s worst earthquake disaster.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency uses Geographic Information System technology to estimate physical, economic, and social impacts of disasters such as earthquakes. This nationally applied standard, called […]
Nearly everyone has experienced some of the widespread economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic — business closures, loss of income, unemployment, working remotely, or unavailability of services we have come to depend on.
And many of us know someone who has been personally impacted by illness or death.
COVID-19 raged into our […]
Last winter, an alarming quake on the Puente Hills fault in the Los Angeles area had locals concerned with the potential death and destruction this previously underrated earthquake fault could bring.
Since then, the temporarily overshadowed San Andreas – like a fallen prizefighter – has become the center of attention as […]
The benefits of making buildings and communities more resilient to better withstand powerful earthquakes will be discussed during “The Resilience Advantage,” webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
To register, visit optimumseismic.com/the-resilience-advantage/. There is no fee to sign in.
A coalition of leading business organizations […]
Half a century ago – on Feb. 9, 1971 – a 6.6-magnitude earthquake rattled the San Fernando Valley, killing 65, injuring 2,500, and causing $505 million in damage ($3.2 billion in today’s dollars).
Forty-seven people perished at one site alone when the San Fernando Veteran’s Hospital crumbled into a heap of […]
Asbestos and lead, once touted as miracle materials for construction, now stir feelings of dread among owners of older apartment structures.
The discovery of these substances in the stucco, walls, paint, ceilings and other components of a building can substantially increase the cost of any demolition or reconstruction project.
Once found, state, […]
