flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

The pride of Pasadena

The pride of Pasadena

The utmost care and supervision went into a seismic retrofit, restoration, and M/E/P upgrade for the stately rectangular edifice that has served as an icon in the city of Pasadena for eight decades.


By By Barbara Horwitz-Bennett, Contributing Editor | August 11, 2010
This article first appeared in the 200709 issue of BD+C.

As a shining symbol of civic pride in Los Angeles County, Pasadena City Hall stood as the stately centerpiece of Pasadena's Civic Center since 1927. To the casual observer, the rectangular edifice, designed by San Francisco Classicists John Bakewell, Jr., and Arthur Brown, Jr., appeared to be aging gracefully.

However, that placid exterior masked deep cracks within two of the hall's stair towers, extensive water damage, decaying art stone exterior features, and significant seismic defects.

Consequently, seismic strengthening, an M/E/P systems and ADA upgrade, restoration of internal and external areas, and landscaping were the main program elements that the Building Team, headed by the Clark Construction Group, Costa Mesa, Calif., was charged with handling.

Recent studies showed that a future earthquake could destroy portions of the building, so the decision was made to separate the historic structure from the ground through seismic isolation. The original basement floor slab was removed, a new foundation was excavated and installed, a new basement floor transfer system was put in place, and 240 friction-pendulum isolators were installed.

“This was an extremely complicated project,” said BD+C Reconstruction Awards judge K. Nam Shiu, P.E., S.E., MISE, VP, Walker Restoration Consultants, Chicago. “Installing a base isolation system on an existing building is difficult work.”

Interior walls were replaced, the hall's plaster ceilings were restored, and new finishes were applied. All the building's marble, light fixtures, quarry tile, wood doors, and woodwork were preserved, protected, or restored.

On the exterior, historical cast stone elements were refurbished, as well as exterior plaster and copper cladding on the dome and stair towers. The grounds were spruced up with new site paving, landscaping, planters, and decomposed granite walkways.

With such attention dedicated to preserving historic elements, the design and installation of new M/E/P systems had to be carefully woven into the architecture. Systems had to be integrated above existing plaster ceilings, within wainscots, and through existing structural beams in line with specific guidelines in extremely confined spaces. The Building Team had to do a significant amount of coring through concrete and steel to run utility lines; in some cases, soffits were created to conceal M/E/P components.

The Building Team benefited from expertise lent by the City Hall Restoration Oversight Committee, a team of 13 outside professionals appointed by the Pasadena City Council to monitor this important civic project. City of Pasadena officials often attended weekly meetings with subcontractors.

Not only did the design need to be tight, but the actual construction had to be extremely well coordinated, particularly in the basement, where multiple trades had to work together in limited space. Because the basement slab was a honeycomb pattern of holes and structural openings, guardrails and hole covers had to be constantly relocated and replaced during different phases of the project. The team had to exert extreme diligence to prevent any workplace incidents.

This effort paid off. Not only was the work successfully completed two months ahead of schedule, but during more than 541,000 man-hours under difficult work conditions, the project reported zero lost time incidents—an impressive feat when compared to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2005 national average rate of 2.6 lost time incidents per project.

Related Stories

Building Enclosure Systems | Oct 30, 2024

Winners of Building Envelope Innovation Prize focus on secondary glazing

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the winners of the first phase of the Building Envelope Innovation Prize. The prize targets high-performance, cost-effective secondary glazing systems to improve efficiency of commercial windows.

M/E/P Systems | Oct 30, 2024

After residential success, DOE will test heat pumps for cold climates in commercial sector

All eight manufacturers in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge completed rigorous product field testing to demonstrate energy efficiency and improved performance in cold weather.

Engineers | Oct 23, 2024

Navigating battery energy storage augmentation

By implementing an augmentation plan upfront, owners can minimize potential delays and unforeseen costs when augmentation needs to occur, according to Burns & McDonnell energy storage technology manager Joshua Crawford.

3D Printing | Oct 9, 2024

3D-printed construction milestones take shape in Tennessee and Texas

Two notable 3D-printed projects mark milestones in the new construction technique of “printing” structures with specialized concrete. In Athens, Tennessee, Walmart hired Alquist 3D to build a 20-foot-high store expansion, one of the largest freestanding 3D-printed commercial concrete structures in the U.S. In Marfa, Texas, the world’s first 3D-printed hotel is under construction at an existing hotel and campground site.

Brick and Masonry | Oct 7, 2024

A journey through masonry reclad litigation

This blog post by Walter P Moore's Mallory Buckley, RRO, PE, BECxP + CxA+BE, and Bob Hancock, MBA, JD, of Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC, explains the importance of documentation, correspondence between parties, and supporting the claims for a Plaintiff-party, while facilitating continuous use of the facility, on construction litigation projects.

AEC Tech | Sep 25, 2024

Construction industry report shows increased use of robotics on jobsites

Nearly two-thirds of contractors surveyed, who cited use of robotics on jobsites, are either using monitoring and/or service/labor robotics.

3D Printing | Sep 17, 2024

Alquist 3D and Walmart complete one of the nation’s largest free-standing, 3D-printed commercial structures

Walmart has completed one of the largest free-standing, 3D-printed commercial structures in the US. Alquist 3D printed the almost 8,000-sf, 20-foot-high addition to a Walmart store in Athens, Tenn. The expansion, which will be used for online pickup and delivery, is the first time Walmart has applied 3D printing technology at this scale. 

Building Technology | Aug 23, 2024

Top-down construction: Streamlining the building process | BD+C

Learn why top-down construction is becoming popular again for urban projects and how it can benefit your construction process in this comprehensive blog.

Curtain Wall | Aug 15, 2024

7 steps to investigating curtain wall leaks

It is common for significant curtain wall leakage to involve multiple variables. Therefore, a comprehensive multi-faceted investigation is required to determine the origin of leakage, according to building enclosure consultants Richard Aeck and John A. Rudisill with Rimkus. 

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category



Engineers

Navigating battery energy storage augmentation

By implementing an augmentation plan upfront, owners can minimize potential delays and unforeseen costs when augmentation needs to occur, according to Burns & McDonnell energy storage technology manager Joshua Crawford.


3D Printing

3D-printed construction milestones take shape in Tennessee and Texas

Two notable 3D-printed projects mark milestones in the new construction technique of “printing” structures with specialized concrete. In Athens, Tennessee, Walmart hired Alquist 3D to build a 20-foot-high store expansion, one of the largest freestanding 3D-printed commercial concrete structures in the U.S. In Marfa, Texas, the world’s first 3D-printed hotel is under construction at an existing hotel and campground site.

halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021