Dan Rosenfeld’s op-ed argues that Los Angeles’ Civic Center, long the symbolic and functional heart of the city, is under threat as government agencies and institutions move out. He traces its evolution from El Pueblo through the iconic 1927 City Hall, the mid-century expansion across Bunker Hill, and the 1997 “Ten-Minute Diamond Plan” that reinvigorated the district. Recent departures—including the County’s decision to vacate the Hall of Administration based on inflated retrofit costs—risk hollowing out downtown and erasing the city’s shared civic space. Rosenfeld calls for independent, transparent assessments and warns against sacrificing public interest for short-term financial convenience.
"Exaggerating costs to justify moving County staff to 50th floor office suites across town is not in the public interest. It is our money, not theirs." - Dan Rosenfeld
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The Los Angeles Civic Center is falling apart.
The Civic Center is a group of public spaces and buildings gathered around City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It provides governmental and cultural services to our entire region. It is where we go to celebrate (sports victories and arts festivals), to contemplate tragedies (9/11), to speak out (anti-deportation rallies) and, of course, to create the rules and laws that make us civic and civil as a whole, becoming One Los Angeles. The Civic Center is truly the common ground that installs ‘unity’ within our community.
But our Civic Center is falling apart. One public agency after another – and some private entities – are contemplating leaving the Civic Center in search of plush surroundings or ‘better deals.’ As they leave, the center of our downtown is being hollowed out. When they go, an important part of the glue that holds our uniquely diverse and dispersed constituencies together will also be gone.
Every community needs a civic center. Often this is a public space (think Zocalo in Mexico City, Trafalgar Square in London, Tien An Mien, Place de la Concorde or Red Square) surrounded by dignified public buildings that express the permanence and highest aspirations of constituents. It is a place that we all share: common ground.
Our civic center was originally founded at El Pueblo, with a central square between symbols of secular authority, the alcalde or mayor’s house, and the church. As the city grew south along a narrow bench of land between the river floodplain to the east and steep hills to the west, City Hall moved with it, down Broadway to Third. Then, in 1927, our forebearers made the truly consequential decision to build a monumental and inspirational - and truly outstanding - City Hall at First and Main, halfway, not coincidentally between the new, Anglo Historic Core and the original, Hispanic El Pueblo.
Other public buildings followed: The County Courthouse, Hall of Justice and Hall of Records, Law Library, State of California office building and Federal Courthouse, designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, architect of the Ahwahnee Hotel and other famous park lodges. Together, they effectively formed a government center.
In the 1950s, however, construction of the 101 freeway cut the link between the Civic Center and El Pueblo. Planners at that time, led by visionary County Chief Administrative Officer Arthur Will, envisioned a new configuration for the Civic Center, turning it east/west and up Bunker Hill. The landmark Water and Power Building at one end and City Hall at the other anchored the composition. Two well-designed Mid-Century Modernist buildings, the Stanley Mosk Courthouse and Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, formed a perfect frame for a large public gathering place in the center, now Gloria Molina Park. An acropolis-like Music Center added world-class cultural dignity (the fountain near the top of the park is named for Mr. Will, apt recognition for someone who knew how to get things done).
This is the Civic Center we remember. An uninspired zoning plan was adopted by the City in 1959, documenting what was there, but it remained until 1997 for a major new plan to emerge. A Joint Powers Authority of City and County representatives was formed under Councilmember Jan Perry and Supervisor Gloria Molina, with participation by five other governments: federal, State, School District, Metro and the Metropolitan Water District. This unique collaboration of public agencies was tasked with rethinking the Civic Center and searching for efficiencies in shared facilities (for example, the team quickly discovered 11 vehicle maintenance shops, four day care centers and multiple other redundancies). I joined City Architect Bill Holland to assemble an ‘all-star’ team of local planning experts including Doug Suisman, Bill Fain, Steve Lewis and Charles Loveman. Legendary State Historian Kevin Starr advised.
But first, the team asked: Do we really need a Civic Center ? Once, in historic times, a central meeting place served as venue for sharing news and gossip (think Piazza Signoria and evening passegiatas in Renaissance Florence). In a modern city, however, as large as ours, with instant electronic communications, do we still need a shared common space to gather?
After much study, the conclusion was yes, we did. Perhaps more than ever, in fact, we needed a spot where we could come together as a whole. 9/11, Laker victories, and ICE have confirmed this need.
The next question was: Where?
Doug Suisman perceptively noted that the symbolic focus of our Civic Center remained City Hall, and that a ten-minute walk around it prescribed not a circle in our gridded streets, but a diamond. Thus, the Ten-Minute Diamond Plan was born.
The plan suggested that other civic functions should concentrate in this space. Disney Hall, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Geffen Temporary Museum of Contemporary Art joined the mix. So did affordable housing. The City retrofitted City Hall and its appendages, City Hall East and City Hall South, the County restored the Hall of Justice, Caltrans built a new headquarters and Metro and MWD followed suit. A new, revitalized Civic Center was born.
That progress lasted until this year.
The last few months have witnessed a discouraging exodus of public users away from the Civic Center. The federal courts have quietly explored demolishing the Mosk Courthouse. The federal government has announced that its historic courthouse - our Ahwahnee - may be put up for sale. And most dispiriting, the County itself has purchased a newer office tower outside the Civic Center and indicated it will move most of its staff.
The County decision was underwritten by an internal study which concluded that the cost of staying in the Hahn Hall of Administration was excessive, and that a new high-rise near Pershing Square was a “better deal.” The numbers in this study were cooked. Analyses like these are made occasionally by public staff to justify upgrades in their personal working conditions. For example, the City recently concluded that the former, arguably historic – and very usable - Parker Center building had to be torn down immediately rather than retrofitted for continuing use. It was demolished, and weeds now grow on the site. The City Engineer once told me that restoring the Hall of Justice would cost $300 million and should not be done. The County soon received a qualified bid for $98 million, and the work was completed. The same story held true for the former Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in Willowbrook and the Lennox Civic Center, both of which County staff wanted to demolish; both were cost-effectively restored and are being used today.
In the case of the Hall of Administration, the County study – called by some an “infeasibility study” – concluded that it would cost over $700 million, or about $700 per square foot, to bring the building into compliance with our Life Safety Code. This is preposterous. City Hall, a much older and more complicated structure, was fully retrofitted for less than $300 per foot, the Hall of Justice cost about $200 per foot, and the State Office Building at Fourth and Broadway, also a much older and more challenging building, cost only $125 per foot. I know; I worked on all of them (a big part of the County’s overestimate appears to be their inclusion of a ‘base isolation’ seismic safety system). This is not necessary to bring the Hall of Administration up to Code; what is needed are a few minor shear walls in the building’s short dimension and some building system upgrades.
County General Hospital, dating from the 1920s, is currently being retrofitted for housing by a private team for $125 to $150 per foot.
Exaggerating costs to justify moving County staff to 50th floor office suites across town is not in the public interest. It is our money, not theirs.
At the very least, the County should obtain independent, objective assessments of its buildings’ structural safety and modernization needs. And a fair estimate of costs. And a consideration of what else is at stake: the loss of our Civic Center and our common ground.
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Dan Rosenfeld has served as Chief Building Officer for the State of California and City of Los Angeles, and as a Senior Deputy for Economic Development at the County of Los Angeles. He has a structural engineering degree from Stanford University.
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