A CRACK RUNS THROUGH IT. The Mason’s building, at the corner of First and West J streets, is in need of major structural repairs, McKee says. (Photo courtesy of Steve McKee)

That scaffolding you see along the sidewalk at the corner of First Street and West J Street is extra strong with metal I-beams at the top for a special reason. The grey plastered brick “Mason’s” building that looms over the corner of that intersection has been red-tagged as unsafe and cannot be entered because deep cracks have been found in the structural brick of that building. The scaffolding has been placed there in order to keep passing pedestrians safe while the building’s owner ponders an engineering solution.
The cracks on the northeast corner were noticed some months ago by a local citizen who took photos of them and then returned for more photos many weeks later and compared the two and concluded that the cracks seemed to be worsening. Honestly, who does that?
Well, I just so happen to know the guy. I can tell you that he is a good citizen as well as a fine fellow of good cheer and an all around stand-up guy. I also know how correct it is that he gets to maintain his anonymity. I’ll call him “Citizen Q.”
After looking over what he saw, Citizen Q pointed out the worsening crack to the head of the Benicia Building Department Rachel O’Shea who then commissioned a structural report by an outside engineer. It was determined that the cracks run through multiple layers of the structural brick and that this is quite serious. (This report can be viewed on the city’s website as noted at the end of today’s column.)
Because the building is over a hundred years old, research into its history is difficult because there is almost no paper trail at all. Old photos have suggested that there may have been a key central column that someone removed some years ago. Yikes.
Unfortunately there is also the phenomena that mortar used in brick buildings in the 19th century grows weak with time. More yikes.
Even before these flaws became evident, the building’s safety was already an issue (in a general sort of way) because it is a “soft story” building. Like so many commercial buildings in America and throughout the world, soft-story describes a multistory building with nothing but posts and glass across the front of the bottom floor at street level. It’s right along the sidewalk where building owners want to have so much glass so stores there can attract customers. When earthquakes happen and these buildings sway from side to side, this wall of glass lacks the strength that a solid wall would have to resist these earthquake forces.
The fix for soft-story buildings is usually to add a rigid steel frame along the side and edges of the open span. The ends of this moment-frame are connected to strong new concrete footings. The idea is to place the frame into the building in such a way that it’s hidden from view. Ideally the building will look the same as before, but be strong enough to resist the sideway forces of a quake. All this is pretty involved and expensive.
We take it for granted that the structures we use in our daily lives will be safe enough that we need not give them a second thought. But then something happens in the news that rattles this notion.
Two years ago a cantilevered balcony collapsed in Berkeley at a fairly new building because the waterproof deck membrane failed and water had rotted beams embedded in the deck. I was surprised to learn the architect neglected to specify rot resistant pressure treated beams as a precaution. I would have done so, and have been doing so for decades in any application that is prone to water incursion. It’s a no-brainer in my opinion. Perhaps I’m more aware than most of how insidious dry rot can be because of my years spent personally doing the repair work flipping houses in the early ’90s.
A few months ago a warehouse used as an artist live-in studio in Oakland became a deathtrap for dozens when a fire broke out there. Calls for stricter enforcement of building codes such as fire sprinklers would seem to be the standard response after such a tragedy, but that’s not the position taken by the father of one of the victims. He’s calling for less strict enforcement because such compliance is so expensive that it ends up not happening and instead drives entire communities of people to make bootleg arrangements for their living and working spaces. It’s possible to require things like battery powered exit signs that stay lit when the power fails and panic hardware on doors, all at a fraction of the cost of a full fire sprinkler system.
Meanwhile back in Benicia, we seem to have caught a dangerous condition before it became a much bigger problem. This is the not the first time that Citizen Q used his keen powers of observation to benefit the townspeople of Benicia. A few years earlier, he noticed that a beam below the upper walkway at 920 First Street (above the outside patio at Matsuri Sushi) was starting to droop in an unnatural way. A mention of this by Citizen Q to the Benicia Building Department created an intervention that resulted in the replacement of the beam before a bad outcome resulted. It seems a drip irrigation system for a potted plant had gone wrong and was sending water into the floor framing for a good long time and the beam had rotted.
Even as I pledge to maintain the secret identity of Citizen Q, I will take it upon myself to reward him on behalf of the people of Benicia. Because I know he often reads my columns, I will take this opportunity to offer to buy him lunch somewhere on First Street. If he mentions today’s column, I will even let him choose where we eat, as long as it’s one of my favorite places.
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The engineer’s report about the condition of the Mason’s Building can be seen by
Googling “City of Benicia.” Go to “City Departments” and then “Building” and then “Public Information” to find the report about “106 West J Street.”

Steve McKee is a Benicia architect.
He can be reached on the web at: www.smckee.com or at (707) 746-6788
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