Building Codes

Activists and Los Angeles city officials questioned Thursday how it was possible that an apartment building that collapsed Sunday was deemed in compliance by the housing department within the last year. "It's mind-boggling to me how it could have been passed just a few months earlier and now it has collapsed," said Albert Lowe of the tenants' rights group Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.

Urging the government to "lead by example," President Obama ordered federal agencies on Monday to set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, cut energy use, save water and recycle more. The order calls for a 30% cut in vehicle fuel use by 2020, a 50% increase in recycling by 2015 and the implementation of high-efficiency building codes. It also instructs agencies to set goals within 90 days to reduce the heat-trapping gases scientists blame for global warming. The measures echo a Los Angeles sustainability program launched under the direction of then-Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley, who now heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Los Angeles, known for its choking smog and fuel-burning gridlock, is poised to adopt one of the toughest green building ordinances in the nation. Two city council committees voted Friday to require that all major commercial and residential developments slash projected energy and water use and reduce the overall environmental footprint, placing the city on the cutting edge of an international movement to address the global warming effects of buildings.

New state building code regulations aimed at protecting homes in wildfires are expected to result in a modest increase in construction costs. The new codes, which went into effect Jan. 1 in the 31 million acres of privately owned wild lands served by the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), will become effective July 1 in municipalities served by their own fire departments.

Since more than 240,000 people were killed in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, Beijing has adopted building codes that analysts say are no less stringent than those in place in California and Japan. But what's on the books here, and what gets followed and enforced, are sometimes two different matters, especially in poor rural areas. Engineers who have worked in the mountainous region of the quake's epicenter, in Wenchuan County, say a lot of unregulated construction has taken place over the years.

Carol Evans remembers watching the sun sink into the ocean from her San Clemente sun room. "You could see the palm trees, beautiful oranges and golds. . . . It was gorgeous," she said. Until the neighbors added a second story. Now, most of her ocean vista is obscured by a house. Sometimes, she said, she can glimpse the water through their open doors.

It's an appealing idea: Order a prefabricated steel building, have it shipped to your home, bolt it together with a few buddies over a weekend -- and save over traditional construction. Many people have purchased a garage, barn or workshop from one of the nation's numerous sellers of such buy-and-build products with this scenario in mind. But, says John Knight, founder of Santa Clarita-based Knight Building Systems, some Southlanders end up disappointed.

A major effort to seismically retrofit hospitals has been repeatedly pushed back in recent years over concerns about costs. A campaign in Los Angeles to create a list of concrete buildings that would be vulnerable to major shaking faltered. An effort to better track high-risk buildings in San Francisco also stalled. "Any time you don't have an earthquake for a long time, peoples' concerns go elsewhere," said Kate Hutton, a staff seismologist at Caltech.

Seal Beach is small, and proud of it. The city's beginnings were modest -- an idyllic backdrop for silent films and a destination for thousands of Los Angeles pleasure-seekers riding the Red Car to the seaside amusement park. The roller coaster is long gone, but Seal Beach has steadfastly clung to its old-time character. There's hardly a chain store to be found on Main Street, where parking's still free.

The idea was simple: To avoid the kind of catastrophe that followed Hurricane Katrina, people rebuilding houses in New Orleans' flood plain should raise them 3 feet. In federal guidelines and in a comprehensive plan for the city's recovery, property owners are encouraged -- financially and rhetorically -- to rebuild higher.