A cherished landmark for Los Angeles’s Chinese American community, Castelar School is an unreinforced masonry structure that was given a rudimentary seismic upgrade in 1954. Since then, the school auditorium had been drastically remodeled and converted into a two-story library. However, by taking advantage of code provisions, the designers had avoided any further seismic retrofits of the original building shell. The end result of several remodeling efforts was a building which, while appearing thoroughly modernized, was extremely hazardous. In 2008, Miyamoto’s investigation into the history of the building brought to light its hazardous nature, and the Los Angeles Unified School District proceeded with a comprehensive seismic retrofit. The performance-based retrofit design, done in accordance with the provisions of ASCE Document 41, was completed in 2009.