Consultants asked by California State University officials to suggest the best way to seismically upgrade the 12-story building have recommended that its top seven stories be removed. They claim the cost of retrofitting the structure, which sits atop the Hayward Fault, is prohibitive because of its height.
Offices now housed in the Warren Hall's top floors would be moved to a new building. Warren Hall now houses student services, as well as some university administration offices.
Millions of dollars were allocated for retrofitting the 34-year-old, 194-foot-high building as part of the Statewide School Repair and Construction Bond Act approved by voters in March. Norma Rees, the university's president, said the money would be better spent on new construction.
She added there would be a further savings of "at least tens of millions of dollars" because the seismic retrofit bond did not include the cost of removing asbestos from Warren Hall or improvements to its elevators and lighting.
Rees said she'd like to see the new building rise near the main entrance to the 342-acre campus, just east of the university's 67,000-square-foot Business and Technology Center currently under construction.
