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# Apartment residents quaking in their shoes
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/shopgirl-scores-good-performances-but-bad-score/
- Published: 2005-10-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:01:15.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Schools keep children on solid ground* thousands of aging concrete buildings represent the state’s largest remaining risk of serious damage in a major earthquake, seismic safety officials said in a recent report. Constructed as department stores, schools, parking structures and office buildings from the 1930s through the early 1970s, these buildings typically consist of large, open lower stories held by non-reinforced or poorly reinforced concrete pillars, experts say.

Many seismic experts say these structures — known as non-ductile concrete buildings — need to be brought up to current standards.

Yousefi said there are perhaps 50 to 60 such buildings in Santa Monica, only a handful of which have been retrofitted to the latest standards.

Of even greater safety concern, according to Yousefi, are steel moment frame buildings, which consist of beams and columns of steel welded together. During the 1994 quake, as many as 100 such structures suffered the most damage. They were a popular form of construction during the 1980s boom in office buildings and many still need to be brought up to code.

Another problem are tilt-up buildings, Yousefi said. These are generally one-or two-story commercial or industrial warehouses that have concrete around the perimeter and have been popular since the 1970s.

“The main problem with those is in the connection of roof framing,” Yousefi said. “It was not strong enough in the old code and a lot of these buildings suffered substantial damage in Northridge.”

Yousefi said there could be more than 100 of these buildings in Santa Monica, many of which still need top be retrofitted.

Although there is a mechanism in place for City Hall to begin greater enforcement of its seismic standards, Yousefi said city officials have relented due to the enormous costs for property owners to be associated with the improvements. Instead, the most recent standards are generally grandfathered in, so only major renovation to buildings or their replacements require the latest seismic retrofitting, he said.

City Hall has been most effective at retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings. Following the ’94 quake, three quarters of them were brought up to the standards of the day.

SOME WONDER ABOUT ROOF OVER HEAD Residents attending a Tuesday tenants’ association meeting at the Shores — two high-rise luxury apartment towers built in the 1970s and located at 2700 Neilson Way — began debating the safety of their buildings in the event of a major earthquake during a presentation by Paul Weinberg, City Hall’s emergency services coordinator. While some residents at the meeting were concerned the buildings they occupy may have trouble holding up after a major shaker, others felt such concerns were exaggerated.

Jack Neworth, a 30-year Shores’ tenant, said the debate has flared up from time to time since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. During that shaker, Neworth said he braced himself against a chin-up bar inside his apartment. Afterward, there was a loud creaking sound that occurred for several minutes throughout the building. It made Neworth and others question the stability of their towers’ home, he said.

Concerned Shores’ tenants raised money to hire an engineer to determine the seismic safety of the buildings. Their efforts were thwarted, however, by then-owner Larry Kates, according to Neworth. When tenants sought to obtain copies of blueprints from City Hall for their engineer to review, Kates refused to grant the tenants’ permission to obtain the copies.

Yousefi didn’t know the details about the Shores site, but said it’s true the law is such tenants need owner permission before accessing blueprints at City Hall.

As a result, some tenants on Tuesday said they still wonder if the Shores are built to withstand a major quake.

At the same time, some residents at Tuesday’s meeting felt the suspicions were unfounded, that the towers have since changed hands and the new owner, Douglas Emmett, would have had to exercise due diligence in showing city officials the structure was up to code at the time of the purchase.

Neworth said Shores tenants haven’t made any formal request for the blueprints under the new ownership. However, he believes such a request should be honored if it were made.

“If this building has asbestos, we’d have the right to know about it,” Neworth said. “Residents should be able to know what the owner knows about the building, since we live here.”

Calls to Douglas Emmett — a real estate management company based in Santa Monica — were not returned.

CITY, SCHOOLS NOT ON SHAKY GROUND Dave Britton, city engineer, said Santa Monica has retrofitted several public buildings since the Northridge quake. In doing so, the city has opted to re-build most of them in order to be more cost effective. The new retrofit-ted city structures include the public safety building, the new main library and Fire Station No. 2.

According to Britton, City Hall used local taxpayer money to replace the buildings. Damage to other buildings which were not replaced, such as the Civic Auditorium, was paid for using federal emergency funds.

Britton said City Hall has long-term plans to retrofit the auditorium, but it’s not yet certain if there will be federal money to help pay for the project. Parking structures No. 5, 7 and 8 have already been seismically retrofitted.

Parking structures No. 2 and 4 are scheduled for retro-fitting next year, and it still hasn’t been determined whether No. 1, 3 and 6 will be upgraded or re-built entirely, Britton said, in part because sources to fund those projects have yet to be determined.

John Deasy, superintendent of the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District, said previous bond measures have helped to ensure all local public school facilities have been seismically retrofitted. Deasy said the district, currently developing a master facilities plan to be used for the next 20 years, would also ensure that all new buildings to be constructed in the foreseeable future are seismically retrofitted.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/102105-11_01.jpg)

Residents in the Shores apartments in Ocean Park fear their buildings won’t be able to withstand a massive earthquake. (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 21, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102105.pdf?ref=smdp.com)