As the ink is dry on Los Angeles County’s purchase of the Gas Company Tower office building downtown for $200 million, a fight is brewing over what to do with the 1960s headquarters that he plans to leave behind.
Supervisor Janice Hahn and environmental advocates oppose a plan to move workers to the newly purchased high-rise on Bunker Hill and raze the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which was renamed in honor of Hahn’s father and is a centerpiece of the government-oriented Civic Center district.
“It was a big shock to me when I realized what was happening,” she said, accusing county administrators of quietly pushing through what she called a closely negotiated plan aimed at moving the seat of county power and thousands of workers, then toppling a major public building.
“I thought it was a bit of a secretive process, they kind of knew what they were doing, but didn’t reveal it exactly,” she said.
County officials, however, plan to begin moving staff from the Hall of Administration and other county buildings to the downtown skyscraper next summer, the start of a process that could take three or four years .
Los Angeles County’s $200 million purchase of the Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles is complete, and county employees are expected to begin moving in next summer.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The county’s preliminary plans call for razing the administration room but retaining the building where the board of supervisors meets in public sessions. This building is connected to the Administration Hall but is a separate structure that could stand alone.
The plan to raze Administration Hall is not set in stone, county officials said. Formal planning for the site’s future will begin in early 2025 and a master plan is expected to be completed in about a year, followed by an environmental review of the plan that could last until 2027. But retaining the building would raise budgetary challenges because a large portion of the funds used to purchase the Gas Company tower came from money that had been set aside for seismic retrofits and other necessary repairs to the Hall of Administration and other county buildings.
Hahn cast the lone “no” vote on the county’s purchase of the Gas Company tower last month. When she first learned of the proposed purchase of the 52-story building, which was at risk of foreclosure, she thought it was an opportunity for the county to make a beneficial investment in a growing market. drop. The county could potentially consolidate some of its many offices there, then resell them later at a profit when the office real estate market recovers.
Then, she said, “it was revealed” that the plan was to move the board of supervisors offices and county departments to the gas company tower, and ultimately demolish the administration lobby.
“It’s really still annoying to me, and a little shocking, that this was their plan all along,” Hahn said. “I think the public is still a little in the dark as to what the plan is.”
The Hall of Administration was a source of civic pride when it and other key buildings in the Civic Center, including the Los Angeles County Superior Court – Stanley Mosk Courthouse, were constructed beginning in the 1950s.
“What the Acropolis was to ancient Greece during its golden age, the new civic center now carved into the crumbling slopes of Bunker Hill will be to Los Angeles,” the Times wrote in 1957.
The Hall of Administration was built to last a century, it was reported. The capital projects analyst for the county executive’s office was “willing to bet that the Hall of Administration will still be in use by 2059,” the Times said.
The building was renamed the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in 1992 in honor of Hahn’s father, who was the longest-serving county supervisor and former Los Angeles city councilman.
Hahn said she was not motivated by her heritage to save the building.
“Hey, if you want to take the name off, if it makes you feel better and preserve it,” she said, “I’m OK with that.”
The director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, which advocates for the preservation of locally significant structures, said the Hall of Administration is “definitely historic” and significant. It was designed by a prominent team of midcentury architects, including Paul R. Williams, the first licensed black architect west of the Mississippi, who designed movie star homes and prominent public buildings .
Dismantling Hall of Administration would be “a misstep for many reasons,” said conservatory President Adrian Scott Fine.
One of the reasons it is preserved, he explained, is its position across from the Great Gloria Molina Park, from the Mosk Courthouse. The two form a pair that frames the park connecting city hall to the music center.
“These two buildings are an integral part” of the civic center, Fine said. “You can’t lose one without losing the function they’re intended to perform.”
The public areas of the Hall of Administration are filled with light brown marble and terrazzo which can give the rooms an institutional look. There are areas in the building that appear to need painting, repairs and other maintenance.
“It’s a pretty dark place,” agreed frequent visitor Will Wright, director of government and public affairs for the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “Which tells me that we really need to invest in its maintenance.”
With investment, the county could “restore and modernize” the interior to make it more attractive to employees and visitors, he said.
Ideally, the county would own both the gas company tower and a restored administration hall, Wright said, a position supported by Hahn.
“I believe the amount of money it would take to renovate this place is still an amount we could easily find in a $50 billion budget,” Hahn said in an interview in his office. “I don’t think it’s too much of an ask as to what this has meant for decades for the people of Los Angeles County.”
Los Angeles County oversaw the renovation of the courthouse a decade ago. The historic building was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The Hall of Administration is less flashy than other downtown landmarks such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, City Hall and the LADWP headquarters, but it doesn’t need be eye-catching to be important, said real estate developer and environmental advocate Dan Rosenfeld.
“Not every public building needs to attract attention,” he said. “If they did, it would be a very divisive town.”
Rosenfeld worked to preserve other historically significant downtown buildings that were seismically hazardous and at risk from the wrecking ball, including City Hall and the courthouse, both dating from the 1920s and remaining in use after renovations.
“It would be relatively simple to reinforce the building for lateral seismic resistance and retrofit the interior,” Rosenfeld said of Administration Hall. “The building can and must be saved.”
The Hall of Administration is part of a civic center with public spaces and state, local and federal buildings “that defines 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 come together to celebrate, protest and mourn.
“A civic center is more than a collection of buildings,” Rosenfeld said. “It’s a symbol of what a community believes in.”
The county won’t neglect the civic center, said Executive Director Fesia Davenport.
“We understand the importance of a vibrant, functioning civic center and are committed to maintaining the county’s presence in this vital public space,” Davenport said in a statement. “As we begin our Civic Center master planning process over the next year, we will solicit extensive public input to help us shape our recommendations to the Board of Supervisors to help guide its decisions on the best way to reimagine our civic center buildings for optimal audiences. to use.”
The 52-story Gas Company tower, located at 555 W. 5th St., was widely considered one of the city’s most prestigious office buildings when it was completed in 1991. It has nearly 1 .5 million square feet of space on a 1.4-acre site at the base of Bunker Hill.
A little more than half of the building is leased to a diverse mix of tenants, including law firm Latham & Watkins and accounting firm Deloitte, real estate brokerage JLL said. Its namesake tenant, Southern California Gas Co., said in September it would move from the tower where it has been the main tenant since the building was completed to another high-rise a block north at 350 S. Grand Ave.
Times staff writer Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.
