A Blueprint for Happy Campers : Recreation: Volunteers rebuild Griffith Park's lodge for girls 58 days after arson claimed it. About 90 firms donated labor and materials.

A Blueprint for Happy Campers : Recreation: Volunteers rebuild Griffith Park’s lodge for girls 58 days after arson claimed it. About 90 firms donated labor and materials.

By BOB POOL

July 31, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The most important feature at a new $1.5-million Griffith Park camp lodge completed Thursday wasn’t its rustic stone walls or the huge dining hall windows that frame a nearby mountainside.

It was the fire sprinkler system discreetly hidden in the rambling new Camp Hollywoodland for girls, rebuilt by volunteers in a 58-day construction blitz after an arsonist destroyed the original building.

“Sprinklers weren’t required by the city, but we decided to put them in ourselves,” said Pete Beucke, project manager for Kaufman & Broad, the construction company that coordinated the rebuilding of the camp. “We felt it was worth the extra cost--$10,000.”

A May 3 fire destroyed the 66-year-old camp’s lodge. The arsonist apparently returned a week later to torch the camp director’s house. Kaufman & Broad has pledged to rebuild that too.

Los Angeles city officials praised the donation during dedication ceremonies Thursday afternoon--20 minutes after workers finished laying the carpet in the new building. Officials said they had no money to rebuild the lodge.

It’s “a miracle,” Mayor Tom Bradley said.

It’s an example of what the renewal of Los Angeles should be, said Jackie Tatum, general manager of the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

“When we talk about rebuilding, we’re talking about our children,” she told a crowd of about 100 people at the ceremony. “They’re the ones we have to build a better Los Angeles for.”

Kaufman & Broad President Bruce Karatz said carpenters, electricians and other workers devoted 15,000 man-hours and worked 14 hours a day to finish the 8,000-square-foot structure. About 90 companies contributed materials or labor.

“Once we got going, we began to really appreciate what a treasure this place is,” he said of the camp, which is hidden in a canyon beneath the Hollywood sign.

The 200-bed campground houses about 2,000 girls every summer from Los Angeles and neighboring communities. For the first part of this summer, the girls were housed at a Griffith Park boys camp.

This week’s campers were bused from the boys camp to attend Thursday’s ceremonies.

“After it was burned down, I was afraid I’d never be able to come back here again,” said returning camper Ayana Petteway, 12, of Windsor Hills.

Officials said it will be another two or three weeks before girls return to Camp Hollywoodland. That’s because doorknobs, locks and interior furnishings have not arrived for the new building.

Architect Mike Woodley said that aside from the sprinklers that workers added on their own, the new building was built strictly to city codes. “We designed it in two days,” he said. “But we didn’t dodge anything.”

Construction superintendent Doug Botten said workers spent $6,000 to air freight the camp’s new kitchen equipment from Louisville, Ky., over the weekend when it became clear that ovens, sinks and dishwashers would not arrive in time by truck.

Reminded that it took a construction crew only 48 hours to rebuild a Compton fast-food restaurant destroyed in the riots, Botten gazed proudly at his finished product, grinned and said: “I tell people this ain’t no Taco Bell.”