L.A.‘s Hall of Justice: doomed?

15 June 2009 |permalink | email article

A cornerstone of Los Angeles County’s criminal justice system for almost 70 years, and a venue for some of the city’s most notorious trials involving high profile defendants like Bugsy Siegel, Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan, suddenly faces an uncertain fate.

The Beaux Arts style building once housed under one roof the courts, the headquarters of the Sheriff and District Attorney. But it became vacant after being badly damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The Board of Supervisors in 2006 authorized $14.6 million in interior demolition and retrofit work on the building in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The proposed rehabilitation is to convert the building to office space, including five top floors that formerly served as the county’s main jail facility, for use as the new headquarters of the Sheriff’s Department and to include the District Attorney’s office.

The initial phase in preserving the Hall of Justice, long a concern of local preservationists, was completed well over a year ago. But a proposal by Sheriff Lee Baca and William T. Fujioka, the County’s chief executive officer, for perhaps 200 million in federal stimulus money has been rejected.

What’s ironic is that three blocks away the Grand Avenue Project, a $3 billion effort to transform the city’s downtown civic and cultural districts into a vibrant new regional center is, after six years, close to kickoff thanks to support from the city, county, numerous foundations, and private funding.

A third generation Angeleno, I find it hard to believe that the Grand Avenue Committee, given its zeal to create more exotic venues to complement recently established cultural attractions, will not help find ways to save the oldest surviving government building just blocks away where real history was made.

 

 

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