Smugly, many workers in this quake-conscious city boast about being protected by rollers under their office towers, swearing that the technology lets them sway harmlessly when the earth moves.
Truth is, there's no such thing as a high-rise on rollers.Sure, the top floors of the tallest buildings sway. But that's because they're put together with materials flexible enough to bend without snapping in strong winds.
And shock-absorbing technology does exist - laminated pads of rubber and steel that can keep a midsize building relatively stable in a quake. But only six buildings in the Los Angeles area have these "base isolators," with Los Angeles City Hall getting them soon, along with fluid-filled shock absorbers called dampers.
That's it for now. No rollers anywhere, despite what everyone says.
"I have heard people talk about rollers all over the place. All I say is simply, they're not on rollers," says structural engineer John A. Martin Jr. "But people don't believe me. Rumors get passed on, and nobody questions their validity."
While the largest office towers were built to withstand a major earthquake, many modern 20-story towers and older concrete buildings might crumble if a magnitude-7 quake hit a fault lying under downtown Los Angeles, according to study released in April by the California Institute of Technology.
John Hall, an associate professor of civil engineering at Caltech, recommended revising building standards to include larger beams, larger columns and more stabilizing walls.
Meanwhile, an unscientific survey of downtown denizens - from the parking garage to the executive suite - found blind faith in the imaginary.
Kathy Shilkret, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, which has a 54-story tower, says she has long believed "our building was on rollers and consequently could handle good-size quakes."