09-01-2010, 11:06 AM
LAJ runs primarily in a small group of cities. There is Vernon, City of Commerce, Maywood, and I think Cudahy. I'm not sure about the last one, and just recently found out that they ran into Maywood. Vernon is the oldest city and has the most brick buildings. What tilt up there is in Vernon is the result of demolishing brick buildings to replace with tilt up. I think the reason is that the owner or leaser needed more space than was offered in the original brick building, and it was less expensive or easier to demolish the old and build fresh from scratch. In addition retrofitting old brick to new earthquake standards may have been more expensive than doing demolition and rebuilding.
City of Commerce was a small farming area until after WW2 when it started to be built up. The result is that I don't remember seeing any brick buildings in the City of Commerce.
As far as whether the brick was painted or otherwise treated for cooling or heating in weather extremes. Most painting of the bricks is done for esthetic reasons only. If a building houses a wholesale or retail business or offices, it was probably retrofitted with air conditioning. Brick is a very good building material for high temperature application because of it's mass. It takes a long time for the brick to heat through, or to cool off. The result is that it tends to stay cooler in summer, and warmer in winter.
City of Commerce was a small farming area until after WW2 when it started to be built up. The result is that I don't remember seeing any brick buildings in the City of Commerce.
As far as whether the brick was painted or otherwise treated for cooling or heating in weather extremes. Most painting of the bricks is done for esthetic reasons only. If a building houses a wholesale or retail business or offices, it was probably retrofitted with air conditioning. Brick is a very good building material for high temperature application because of it's mass. It takes a long time for the brick to heat through, or to cool off. The result is that it tends to stay cooler in summer, and warmer in winter.