Implications of the foundation plan for renovations (Background Report)

LAST MONTH, we received a revised plan from our structural engineering consultant. One crucial aspect was their assessment of the concrete foundation that is needed underneath the basement floor, to support the loads from the structure above. 

The renovation plan, as submitted to the City for review, calls for demolishing the existing walls of the basement men’s room and its adjacent small corridor, in order to install three new strong structural walls atop new concrete footings.

Foundation plan around the basement men’s room

To produce this illustration, I have adapted the engineer’s drawing, by cropping a section and then simplifying the structural elements and adding the blue labels and lines for orientation. 

Below the jump, I interpret the illustration and discuss its implications for synagogue programs.… 

Summary status report on our facilities needs, 2026 (Speculation)

NEARING THE END of this fiscal year, with newly elected officers and directors, let me take stock of where we stand. From this vantage point, our recent accomplishments and imminent projects are taken as givens. What matters most are the challenges that we have yet to address.

The focus in this post is not on making improvements per se, but more simply on attending to what we currently have, beyond routine maintenance. I further restrict my focus here to items that are not obvious.

Below the jump, this post sums up the needs of our facilities’ major areas of concern. The list is not exhaustive. 

State regulations that apply to a stairway chairlift (Background Report)

INSTALLING A STAIRWAY CHAIRLIFT in a non-residential venue like Mishkon’s sanctuary building turns out to be much more complicated than in a private residence—even though the equipment would be exactly the same. The difference? It’s a matter of state law.

In order to make sense of a recent, cryptic email message from the City’s chief elevator inspector, today I read over the relevant provisions in the California Labor Code (namely, Division 5. Safety in employment. Part 3. Safety on buildings. Chapter 2. Elevators, Escalators, Platform and Stairway Chair Lifts,…and Other Conveyances [7300 - 7324.2]). 

I learned that the City’s elevator inspection folks are simply doing their best to follow state law. (Previously I had the impression that the LADBS was idiosyncratic in its regulation of stairway chairlifts — that it treated them as strictly as elevators whereas most other municipalities did not. However, that’s not correct.) It is the California Labor Code that covers the installation and inspection of stairway chairlifts. I.e., the L.A. Dept. of Building & Safety merely acts as the agent of the state’s Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health, better known as Cal/OSHA (ref.: Labor Code section 7310).

The following state regulations apply in our case.

Labor Code section 7301.1 

The applicant for a [stairway chairlift] permit under this section shall … hold a current elevator contractor’s license issued pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 7000) of Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code; [and] be a certified qualified conveyance company; [and] submit proof of [certain] types of insurance coverage.… 

Labor Code section 7301 

No [stairway chairlift] shall be operated in this state unless a permit for its operation is issued … in behalf of the division, and unless the permit remains in effect and is kept posted conspicuously on the conveyance. Operation of a conveyance without a permit or failure to post the permit conspicuously shall constitute cause for the division to prohibit use of the conveyance….

Labor Code section 7302 

The operation of a conveyance without a permit by any person owning or having the custody, management, or control of the operation of the conveyance, is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 10 days, or by both that fine and imprisonment. Each day of operation for each conveyance without a permit is a separate offense. Any person who has requested the issuance or renewal of a permit if the request has not been acted upon by the division may not be prosecuted for a violation of this section.

I’m looking forward to discussing the state regulations with our chosen vendor, Look Stairchairs, when its owner returns to town on May 27. Because stairway chairlifts are a borderline case, the state’s qualifications for an installer are not clear to me. It will apparently come down to how the Cal/OSHA Elevator Unit interprets the code, as it would apply in our case.