Broadway Plaza Will Install Sprinklers

The Broadway Plaza, at 7th and Hope streets in downtown Los Angeles, will install a $5-million sprinkler system in the aftermath of the disastrous First Interstate Building fire two weeks ago, the complex’ management announced Tuesday.

“When word of the disaster reached the Japanese owners of the plaza, their decision to outfit the building with these safety measures was instantaneous,” said John England, vice president of Cushman & Wakefield of California Inc., managing agent of the Broadway Plaza.

The May 4 blaze at the 62-story First Interstate Bank building destroyed five floors and resulted in one death and 40 injuries. Fire officials have been unable to determine the cause of the multimillion-dollar blaze, but they have said it may have been due to an electrical malfunction.

Last year, a group of Japanese investors bought the Broadway Plaza which contains a 32-story office tower, a Broadway Department Store, a retail center with 26 shops and 17 restaurants and the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles Hotel.

Hotel to Follow Suit

The hotel will also install sprinklers in what the complex’ management is calling a major renovation.

In 1981, a fire swept the seventh and eighth floors of the plaza’s office tower, injuring one firefighter and causing $250,000 damage. The complex cost $150 million to build in 1973.

The spokeswoman said the complex’ owners hope that owners of other buildings will be encouraged by their decision and decide to retrofit their buildings with sprinklers.

But Geoffrey Ely, executive director of the Building Owners and Managers Assn., which represents most of the downtown high-rise owners, has warned that owners of many older high-rises will not be able to install sprinkler systems and may be forced to close if sprinklers are made mandatory.

Council Members Act

The First Interstate fire prompted City Council members Nate Holden and Ernani Bernardi to propose requiring sprinkler systems in hundreds of high-rises built before 1974. State law and local ordinances currently require sprinklers only in buildings more than 75 feet high and built after 1974.