Los Angeles County's seat of government went dark to the public Tuesday after flooding tore through multiple floors of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, forcing officials to suspend all in-person services at the downtown complex. The shutdown hits a building already at the center of a years-long fight over whether it should be repaired, abandoned, or torn down.
County officials said the closure began Tuesday, October 13, after water damage impacted multiple floors of the building, according to CBS News Los Angeles. In-person public services at the Hall were suspended entirely, with affected departments including the Assessor, Consumer and Business Affairs, Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections, and the Treasurer and Tax Collector. Officials have not said how long the closure will last.
The county is directing residents to handle business remotely while the building remains shut. Consumer and Business Affairs can be reached at 800-593-822 from within Los Angeles County or 213-974-1452 from outside it, while Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections has set up its own line at 800-593-8222. The Treasurer and Tax Collector's office is taking calls at 213-974-2111 during business hours and is also accepting public inquiries submitted directly to its office, the station's report notes.
A 1960s Landmark Already Flagged as Earthquake Risk
The Hall of Administration has served as county government headquarters for roughly 66 years, built in 1960 as part of the 1947 Civic Center Master Plan. The Late Moderne complex was co-designed by a consortium of architects that included Paul Revere Williams, the pioneering architect who became the first Black member and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, according to Historic Memphis. The building is listed on the California Register and is considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, per the Los Angeles Conservancy.
Spanning nearly 980,000 square feet across two city blocks, the 10-story complex normally houses roughly 2,700 civil servants along with meeting chambers for the Board of Supervisors, according to the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration Wikipedia entry. The building takes its name from Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who served 40 years on the Board of Supervisors from 1952 to 1992, after originally opening as the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration. It also connects to neighboring Civic Center buildings through a network of underground pedestrian tunnels, allowing employees to move between structures without stepping outside, according to AroundUs.
Tuesday's flooding adds to a troubling pattern for the county's aging real estate. In October 2024, the Hall of Administration was listed as one of roughly 33 county-owned facilities that structural engineers identified as vulnerable to collapse during a major earthquake, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The building's non-ductile concrete construction, typical of its era, lacks the flexibility needed to withstand seismic stress. County water infrastructure has failed before, too: a pipe burst on January 29, 2018, flooding the Van Nuys East Courthouse from the fourth floor to the basement and forcing operations to relocate across the plaza, according to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise.
The $200 Million Tower Deal That Hasn't Solved the Problem
Those seismic concerns pushed the Board of Supervisors in October 2024 to take an initial vote to advance a purchase of the 52-story Gas Company Tower, capped at $200 million, aiming to move county staff out of Hahn Hall entirely. The tower had an appraised value of $632 million in 2020, while the county agreed to a $215 million foreclosure-sale price, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
But the relocation plan has stalled. In August 2025, the Board of Supervisors voted to suspend up to $297 million in voluntary seismic upgrades at the newly acquired tower amid mounting financial concerns, even though the building was already constructed to code standards in the late 1980s, according to Pasadena Now. That pause has left the county's timeline for fully vacating Hahn Hall uncertain, even as the building continues to show its age.
Preservationists Push Back on Retrofit Cost Estimates
Not everyone agrees Hahn Hall needs to be abandoned. In December 2025, structural engineering critics challenged the county's $700 million estimate for a base-isolation seismic retrofit, arguing that standard retrofitting techniques could make the building safe for under $150 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. County officials had cited the higher figure when justifying the shift toward the Gas Company Tower, making the dispute central to whether the Williams-designed landmark gets preserved or phased out.
The county's facility planning has also been squeezed by broader budget pressures, including more than $1.5 billion in projected federal funding cuts and $2 billion in storm and fire costs, as of August 2025, per LAist. Those trade-offs leave supervisors weighing building upgrades against direct public services at a moment when Tuesday's flooding has closed the building, with no announced duration for the closure.
