Forest rebuilding Arcadia HQ

After a quarter-century of administering activities and oversight for the entire Angeles National Forest from portable modular units west of Santa Anita Avenue just south of the 210 freeway in Arcadia, the compound is getting a long ovedue makeover and permanent office housing.

Smokey Bear topiary next to new Forest Service HQ being built in Arcadia.

Observant passersby may also notice a giant Smokey Bear topiary standing guard.

Forest Service officials have contracted with PW Construction Inc., of Chino, Calif., to build a two-story 24,000-foot administrative building funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars. The new structure will house administrative offices and a training facility for the Angeles National Forest. The project budget is about $12 million and includes an atrium and the training center that will be available to local, county and federal fire personnel. Construction, which began a few weeks ago, is expected to take about a year before completion in summer 2012, during which many locals will be employed on the project.

View of new Forest Service Admin building from 210 Freeway at Santa Anita exit.

The deteriorating temporary modular trailers put in place in 1986 are not energy efficient, have inadequate lighting and ventilation, and annual maintenance is costly, according to Forest officials. The new building will house about 100 employees and will be certified as minimum Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), indicating various “green” features friendly to the environment that are still being planned. It will also be much closer to the Forest Service entrance gate, and thus more accessible to the public.

Warehouse being restored is visible from Santa Anita entry way.

A wood warehouse “A” that was built in the 1930s or 1940s — the first building on the left when entering from Santa Anita — will be restored and used as the training center, according to a forest spokeswoman.

Construction work is clearly visible from the freeway as you exit at Santa Anita, and also from Santa Anita Avenue itself at the low-key entrance to the complex but it is unrelated to all the bridge construction near the same location at the freeway, and unrelated to all the construction going on a couple blocks south on the new Campus Commons senior housing or the new performing arts center being built at the high school on the same Campus Drive.

— By Scott Hettrick