LA's Gas Co Tower Could Face Collapse in Major Quake as County Withholds Seismic Report

A 749-foot-tall Gas Co Tower in downtown Los Angeles could be at risk of collapse in a major earthquake, according to structural engineers and local officials. The 52-story building, the fifth tallest in the city, sits at the heart of a controversy after Los Angeles County bought it last year with plans to house hundreds of county employees. County officials suspended a proposed $230 million retrofit that would have updated the structure to modern earthquake-resistant standards. Built in 1991, the skyscraper uses a steel-moment-frame design—horizontal beams and vertical columns forming its skeleton—that has drawn renewed scrutiny after the Northridge quake.

The Northridge earthquake, which struck Southern California in 1994 with a magnitude of 6.7, damaged many steel-moment-frame buildings and exposed vulnerabilities in connections between beams and columns. State officials did not require Gas Co Tower to be inspected after Northridge, leaving open questions about damage that could lie hidden inside the structure. As a large earthquake remains a constant fear in California, engineers warn that without upgrades, the Gas Co Tower could threaten thousands of lives if the worst-case scenario comes to pass.

LA County officials say the seismic report on Gas Co Tower is being updated and that the building already exceeds safety requirements. 'Safety is nonnegotiable, and my understanding is that the building already exceeds safety requirements,' Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said during a county counsel meeting. 'In fact, it would have the highest standards of any county building at this present moment.' County counsel noted that the original report was 'being updated with new findings.'

Structural engineer David Cocke, who has reviewed the county's approach, cautioned that while he doesn't predict an imminent collapse, 'in a major earthquake, they're not going to be able to use the building unless they do the retrofit.'

Officials in Torrance, another city within Los Angeles County, said many steel-moment-frame buildings have not been retrofitted and may be susceptible to similar damage or collapse in a major quake. USGS simulations in 2008 of a hypothetical 7.8-magnitude quake along the San Andreas fault projected hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries and up to $200 billion in damages, with up to two million buildings affected and about 50,000 destroyed or red-tagged. The report warned that older, unreinforced structures and high-rises with brittle welds faced heightened risk during such an event.

County officials have said financial constraints influenced the decision to pause the retrofit, with state agencies weighing costs against adherence to modern seismic codes. The Daily Mail, which first highlighted the controversy, said it had reached out to LA County and the USGS for comment on Gas Co Tower and the broader risk posed by a major California quake.

This case underscores ongoing concerns about the safety of aging high-rise stock in earthquake-prone California, even as officials defend current safety standards and continue discussions about retrofits and disclosure.