The City of Culver City conducted an inventory of buildings that are most vulnerable to serious earthquake damage based on age, construction, and materials.
By Optimum Seismic Staff
The Culver City Chamber of Commerce has forged a new partnership with a private company to conduct seminars and webinars on the importance of earthquake retrofits for owners and managers of apartment and commercial buildings will be co-sponsored by the Culver City Chamber of Commerce and Optimum Seismic, Inc. on April 18.
Culver City Chamber of Commerce has also arranged for member Optimum Seismic, Inc. to offer free preliminary earthquake retrofit engineering services for apartment building owners and managers during April and May. This special offer includes: a site visit / initial consultation; engineering analysis and design alternatives; an in person meeting to present Optimum Seismic’s findings and a fixed construction estimate; and preparation of a soft-story screening report as required by the Culver City ordinance.
“We recommend apartment owners and managers to be proactive in protecting their business, building, employees and tenants from earthquakes and other natural hazards,” says Culver City Chamber of Commerce President Maria Jacobo. “We look forward to assisting local apartment owners in the future to make Culver City an even safer place to work, live, and play.”
“We appreciate the Culver City Chamber of Commerce being proactive in arranging this webinar to help our community become more resilient to earthquakes,” says Göran Eriksson, Culver City Council Member. “Every apartment building that complies with the City’s retrofit ordinance makes Culver City an even safer place to live and invest.”
The City of Culver City conducted an inventory of buildings which are most vulnerable to serious earthquake damage based on age, construction, and materials. The City adopted a Seismic Retrofit Ordinance in 2021 to make these buildings and their occupants safer from earthquakes.
Culver City houses a large number of older apartment buildings that may have structural issues related to soft-story construction. These buildings feature tuck-under parking spaces that frequently have weak supports for overhead units and may be subject to failure in earthquakes.
“Earthquakes will happen, but they don’t have to be disasters,” says Ali Sahabi, co-founder of Optimum Seismic, Inc. “Proven safety measures such as seismic retrofits protect the local economy, safeguard the public, and preserve buildings in the event of earthquakes. Seismic retrofits have also been shown to be very cost effective in numerous studies.”
In recent years, Culver City Chamber of Commerce has actively participated in numerous educational seminars and webinars led by Optimum Seismic to advance the business community’s understanding of the importance of earthquake resilience.
The Culver City Chamber of Commerce has been supporting efforts by the City to make these buildings more secure in earthquakes, and arranged for Optimum Seismic to conduct complimentary informational workshops for local apartment owners and managers.
The expert team at Optimum Seismic has been performing seismic engineering and earthquake retrofit construction in California since 1984. Apartment owners and managers interested in arranging a consultation for preliminary earthquake retrofit engineering may contact Jonathan Salazar at (323) 412-4233 or via email at JSalazar@optimumseismic.com and mention the Culver City Chamber of Commerce.
