LA Hall of Justice Restoration Project
Long it reigned as L.A.’s “Taj Mahal of Misdeeds”. It stood proudly since 1926, swathed in white Sierra granite, molded in the august beaux arts style. Then after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Los Angeles Hall of Justice was Red Tagged and abandoned due to structural damages. Its 14 floors of courtrooms, jail cells, and coroner tables mothballed till a plan of proper restoration could be funded
KLEEN BLAST is proud to be part of this historic project. Working with our distributor HD SUPPLY, we supplied Kleen Blast Engineered Abrasive (copper slag) and plastic blasting media, as well as six new Axxiom/ Schmidt portable blasting pots to MILLER ENVIRONMENTAL and LVI ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES.
Who would miss this landmark building registered as a national historic site, a place many hated and others cherished? The walls and halls where “Perps” were held till justice and punishment meted out held many famous and infamous memories. It was here that Robert F. Kennedy was officially declared dead after his assassination at the Ambassador Hotel. Where RFK’s killer, Sirhan Sirhan, was tried and convicted. Serial cult killer Charles Manson was said to have complained about his “Stone Age” cell. Actor Robert Mitchum (August 6, 1917– July 1, 1997) — being held after a 1948 pot bust— chose to spruce up his cell block, mopping floors for the news cameras. LA Justice Hall RestorationOutside, Harold Lloyd used the iconic buildings Italianate columns as a back drop in many of his one reel comedies; inside, Errol Flynn and Charlie Chaplin had slumped through sex and paternity cases.
Beneath the cellar of the hall lay sanctified criminal ground. The lot was known as “Pound Cake Hill” where bordellos stood in the late 19th century; in 1870 half the LA Police force was wounded or left dead in a gunfight on the site. It was said that and even the building’s mice were first class thieves, habitually entering the evidence room and consuming baggies of pot and contaminating evidence!
The $300 million restoration stripped the interior down to steel beams using full containment and media blasting.
