Someone started a nasty rumor about the San Fernando Valley being an architecturally desolate strip of boxy shopping centers and cookie-cutter mini-malls. Not true. Well, not totally.

Some of the most interesting commercial complexes and office buildings in Los Angeles are right here in the Valley.

A few have caused headaches for homeowners, a few may be considered eyesores, but some are known nationally as historically significant structures.

"Marvelous architecture exists right here in the Valley," said architect Larry Robbins, a Sherman Oaks resident since 1980. "You have to make buildings more human, and commercial buildings in the Valley are turning that way. You don't need an architect to tell you if it works well as a building or if it's beautiful."

Longtime local activist Peter Ireland, president of the Reseda Community Assn., has closely monitored the aesthetic appeal and neighborhood impact of local projects before they are built.

"You can see the changes occurring in the Valley by looking at the buildings," Ireland said. "There are large office towers, but not far away are little patches of green with vegetable and fruit stands."

This list is an unscientific, non-judgmental selection of unusual commercial and public space in the Valley. It was compiled after conversations with architects, authors, activists, developers, teachers and designers who live here.

No churches or private homes are included, because in each of those categories there would be extensive lists.

The buildings are conveniently arranged for a New Year's driving tour that shows some of the history and character of the Valley.

* Teledyne Systems Co., 19601 Nordhoff St., northeast corner of Corbin Avenue, Northridge. Designed by Cesar Pelli with Anthony Lumsden, built in 1967.

It's best seen at night, when the mirrored oily-green windows gleam in the bright lights.

It is a fairly simple-looking, 1,000-foot-long, flat 25-year-old building. Facilities engineer Chuck Scott, who selected its plans, said he was "surprised that it won so many awards and got so much attention for its architecture." Scott still takes budding architects on tours of the building. He started working for Teledyne 29 years ago, when the company was relocating from Hawthorne, and he chose this site in the middle of a grapefruit grove. Remnants of the orchard still exist at one corner.