The complete restoration and rehabilitation of another Los Angeles landmark was undertaken due to substantial damage sustained following the Northridge earthquake of January 1994.

The earthquake severely damaged the 92,516 seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Restoration of the facility was critical as at the time the facility was home to both the Oakland Raiders and the USC Trojans. Only eight months remained between the time of the earthquake and the start of the fall schedules of both teams.

Between February 18, 1994 and September 3, 1994 the Coliseum Commission undertook and completed a $15 million dollar seismic repair and restoration program.

As part of the repair and restoration program a new 2 level press box with camera deck was constructed. The new 18,400 sf structure is more than double the size of the previous box. Within the press box is a sophisticated state-of-the-art T.V. broadcast capable facility which can handle feeds from various sources including live and closed circuit broadcasts.

A innovative feature at the time was theatre type self-rising chairs.

Another state-of-the-art improvement for the time was the 33’x44’ Diamond vision color video board by Mitsubishi, which provides game-in-progress information as well as pictures, messages animations and video projections all controlled from the press box.