Michael Jackson transformed Neverland Ranch much as he did music

Jackson was happier playing video games in a large room overlooking his sunken tennis court, reading the volumes he stockpiled on trips to bookstores in Los Angeles or watching movies inside the free-standing theater he commissioned. Ultimately, of course, it became impossible to tell which of the amenities added to Neverland were designed to please the young cancer patients and other kids Jackson invited and which to please the kid-like Michael himself.

After he was twice accused of molesting boys at the ranch, the design touches Jackson added to Neverland could be seen in a darker, even menacing light. I found it impossible to look at the drawer pulls in the shape of baseballs and basketballs that I discovered on the second floor of the main house, or the invoice for an order of computer games (dated 1999) I found in the carpeted attic, and not think of those accusations.

At first it was odd to see Neverland at ground level. As the quintessential celebrity retreat for the age of 24/7 media, the architecture of Jackson's compound is familiar to most of us -- but only as pictured from the air.

The train station Jackson added to the property, with its twin echoes of Victorian and Disneyland architecture and its front lawn of manicured flowers in the shape of a clock face, is the most recognizable building on the property, even though it was seldom used by Jackson or his guests. It has become Neverland's one architectural landmark -- usually pictured in the three-quarter, slightly vertiginous angle produced when you photograph a building from a helicopter. It is also now viewable from above on Google Earth.

The estate's handsome main house, by contrast, is rarely photographed because it is shrouded from above by oak trees. On Thursday, its front steps were dotted with publicists, photographers and camerapeople discussing the best vantage point from which to shoot its multi-gabled facade.

The activity at the main house was a quieter version of the scrum of media and mourners outside Neverland's main gates. The scene there was a remarkable indication of the extent to which the celebrity-death media cycle has created its own forms of temporary architecture. The satellite trucks and their attendant equipment, lined up next to tents pitched by Jackson fans hoping for a glimpse inside the gates, created an instant city.