Long Beach’s former city hall, a 45-year-old monument to brutalist architecture that made way for a more contemporary successor in 2019, is finally coming down.
The 14-story structure has been wrapped with a dust-dampening cloth, a crane has been erected and a construction elevator built. Marilyn Surakus, Project Management Bureau manager in the Public Works Department and the point person for the demolition, said the demolition work was set to begin in the coming days, with the schedule calling for the top four floors of the building to be gone by the end of this month.
And if everything stays on schedule, the entire building will be gone by the end of the year.
“We’ll be taking down the old City Hall in pieces, much like the old courthouse was demolished,” Surakus said Thursday, Sept. 30. “It’s been wrapped to control debris and dust. The asbestos abatement has been done, so we should be ready to go.”
Long Beach officials moved out of that building in July and August 2019 and set up shop in the new 11-story City Hall a couple of blocks to the west. Some material transfer took place in the rest of 2019, including reusing, donating or auctioning furniture and fixtures, depending on their condition.
The onset of the coronavirus pandemic, though, essentially halted the work of emptying and demolishing the building’s interior, Surakus said. But once that process resumed, workers were able to complete asbestos abatement and internal soft demolition by this June, which was the target.
That allowed for the crane to go up remove debris and a construction elevator to go in so crews and equipment could get to the floors being demolished.
Two mini-excavators — wheeled machines equipped with a jackhammer and a bucket to haul debris to containers for the crane — will be used to take down internal and external walls.
The old Main Library, next to Ocean Boulevard, has already been demolished to make way for a rebuilt Lincoln Park.
The brutalist city hall, with its concrete wings protruding from each corner of the dark, square, steel-and-glass building, was dedicated on July 4, 1976, as part of the national bicentennial celebration. Its amphitheater-style City Council chambers was cutting edge for the time and was featured in a “Star Trek” movie.
But more than 30 years later, a seismic study showed people in the building could be in danger if an earthquake hit. Then-Mayor Bob Foster started talking about replacing the building— as well as the library — but the 2008 Great Recession ended those discussions.
Talks resumed in 2013 with an updated seismic study and interest by private developers in the increasingly valuable downtown property. Foster was able to push through the concept of a public-private partnership before he left office in 2014 that included a new City Hall, Main Library, Port Headquarters and a rebuilt Lincoln Park.
Plenary Edgemoor Civic Partners was the private part of the project, and it agreed to building the new Civic Center in exchange for land — including the area now occupied by the old city hall. A mixed-use residential or hotel building is planned for the site, although a final agreement hasn’t been reached, Surakus said.
Long Beach is leasing back the new City Hall and Billie Jean King Main Library for the next 38 years (originally 40), when it can buy the buildings for $1. The Harbor Department purchased its new headquarters building.
While the old building rises 14 stories above ground, it also has two stories below ground. Until the new Emergency Operations Center building was opened on Spring Street and Redondo Avenue, the police dispatch operation was located there.
“We’ll be doing demolition there, too,” Surakus said. “We’re hoping to complete the agreement for the new building, which includes two levels of underground parking. That way we can avoid filling it in and digging it out.”
One final concern raised when it was decided to tear the building down was the fate of peregrine falcons that had established a nesting site on the roof of the building. Surakus said that before demolition began, a new nesting platform had been built on the roof of the nearby public safety building.
Multiple nesting surveys have taken place over the last two years, most recently on Monday, Sept. 27, Surakus said.
“We did add bird deterrent on the (old city hall) building last year,” she said. “They haven’t established a nest on the public safety building, but we’re pretty sure they are still in the area.
“There are lots of tall buildings around,” Surakus added. “And they do like tall buildings.”
