CSUN TO RAZE 2 FACILITIES : COMPUTER LIBRARY, FINE ARTS WING TO BE REBUILT.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

Cal State Northridge and federal disaster officials have decided to tear down a library and part of a fine arts building heavily damaged by the 1994 Northridge Earthquake rather than repair the structures, campus officials said Thursday.

Engineering studies determined it would be more cost-effective to demolish and replace than to refurbish both the three-story fine arts wing and the 37-year-old South Library, which had housed the university's computer system, CSUN spokesman John Chandler said.

The 90,600-square-foot South Library was the first major building erected on campus, he said.

``From a structural point of view, at least as far as South Library is concerned, it could theoretically have been repaired,'' Chandler said. ``But it gets to a point of diminishing returns.''

He said engineering consultants put the cost of repairing the South Library alone at $5.6 million, more than half the $9 million replacement cost.

Reconstruction of the two wings of the university's main library, the Oviatt Library, is now under way and is expected to be completed in the spring of 1998.

The university also has recommended that the entire fine arts center be torn down and rebuilt, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is paying for most of CSUN's quake repairs, has so far concurred only on the one wing, Chandler said.

``The university's feeling is that the building is sufficiently damaged to warrant demolition, and we are talking with FEMA about that,'' he said.

Demolition work on the two buildings, both closed since the quake, probably will begin sometime during this semester and be completed by early next year, Chandler said.

The university and FEMA decided some time ago that the seven-story University Tower Apartments, a high-rise dorm structure closed before the quake, will be demolished as well. That building will not be replaced, Chandler said.

No timetable has been set for replacement of the other buildings slated for demolition.

The Clinton administration has committed FEMA to paying 90 percent of the estimated $300 million it will cost to repair quake damage on the 367-acre campus, with the state assuming the rest.

But all damage claims and repair orders are subject to review by FEMA before money is granted. To date, FEMA has approved $260 million toward the effort, FEMA spokesman Wayne Ranick said.

Officials say they also plan to refurbish the main administration building, which has been closed since the quake, and turn it into a student services center.

Eventually, a new administration building will be constructed but there is no time set for completion.

MEMO: Dennis McCarthy has the day off.