Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles Announces Educational Workshops on Soft-Story Retrofit Requirements in L.A.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (PRWEB) June 07, 2016 -- The rollout of the City of Los Angeles’ new earthquake retrofit ordinance has prompted the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles to schedule a series of community workshops designed to help inform building owners about the law, the timeframe to get things done, and the basic principles behind retrofit engineering and construction.
The workshops are free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required at AAGLAseminars(at)gmail(dot)com. The first three scheduled workshops are:
- North Hollywood: 12 p.m. Tuesday, June 14 at the North Hollywood Recreation Center, 11430 Chandler Blvd. Lunch will be served.
- Koreatown: 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 12 at AAGLA headquarters, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles. Light refreshments to be served.
- Griffith Park: 12 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4 at Griffith Park Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles. Lunch will be served.
Over the course of this year, the organization expects to host meetings throughout the L.A. area. For more information, call AAGLA at 213-384-4131.
“Apartment owners from all over the city have been calling us, concerned and confused over the steps they need to take to comply with the law,” said AAGLA President Joe Patel. “We felt these workshops would be a helpful part of our mission to inform our members and the community-at-large about issues that impact apartment owners.”
Optimum Seismic, the organization’s preferred supplier for seismic retrofit engineering and construction, will be on hand to explain the general steps needed to complete a retrofit and to answer questions as they relate to the new law. Other experts will include representatives who can address legal liabilities and housing/tenant requirements.
Optimum Seismic President and Founder Ali Vahdani, a State of California Licensed Professional Engineer, said soft-story structures are notorious for collapsing during earthquakes.
“It is vitally important that these buildings be retrofitted properly and with minimal disruption to the people who live there,” Vahdani said. “It’s important that apartment owners educate themselves about their options regarding structural needs, costs, financing and project management.”
The City of Los Angeles last year enacted the nation’s most comprehensive seismic regulations, requiring earthquake retrofits of wood-framed, soft-story structures – a type of architecture commonly used in L.A. for apartment buildings, with parking situated on the ground floor, and dwelling units built above.
ABOUT AAGLA
The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) is Southern California’s leading advocate for affordable quality rental housing. AAGLA’s mission is to serve the interests of multifamily owners, managers, developers and suppliers with services and activities to maintain a high level of professionalism in the multifamily housing industry. AAGLA directly advocates for the rental housing industry locally in the city, county, state and federal government to better serve the rental housing needs of the public in a just and fair manner. Visit http://www.aagla.org.
ABOUT OPTIMUM SEISMIC
Optimum Seismic is the L.A. area’s leading retrofit company and AAGLA’s Preferred Supplier for earthquake retrofit engineering and construction. The Optimum Seismic team has more than 30 years of experience and has completed more than 1,600 retrofits throughout the state of California. For information, visit http://www.optimumseismic.com.
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Deniene Rivenburg, Optimum Group, http://www.optimum, +1 714-423-9753, [email protected]
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