Barker Bros Furniture

There was a time when the Los Angeles Times' presence in downtown Los Angeles was a symbol of the possibilities of a burgeoning city. Ten-foot-high murals in the building's Globe Lobby, commissioned by the Chandlers, touted the role of industry and the newspaper in the life of great cities. "The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold," a caption underneath reads. "There is no dimming. No effacement."

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the El Capitan office building on Hollywood Boulevard was left red-tagged and uninhabitable. The quake's brute force had compromised the building's frame. Sprinklers flooded the structure's interiors. El Capitan's owner walked away, leaving Iowa-based CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Co. holding a very unpromising mortgage. But CUNA's officers decided they would not only keep the property, but give it a $9.8-million face lift.

The old warehouse at the corner of Industrial and Mateo streets in downtown Los Angeles had seen better days when Yuval Bar-Zemer and his partners at the Linear City development firm bought it in 2002. The 1924 structure, in a rundown section of downtown, was a World War II-era bomb shelter and later a toy factory. It was being used to store the plush shells of stuffed animals. The developers transformed it into 119 live-work units, with a rooftop pool and other communal amenities.

It took a couple of decades and $24 million, but Orange County's very own science center opens Saturday in Santa Ana. The Discovery Science Center's 3-D Laser Theater, live stage show and about 100 hands-on, play-and-learn exhibits aim to kindle the scientific curiosity of children--and maybe their parents, too. The two-story, 59,000-square-foot building can hold 1,000 visitors. Still, officials expect initial demand to be so intense they are requiring reservations through January.

One way to judge how well Krause's Sofa Factory is doing these days is to look at the employees' bright blue T-shirts. The shirts are emblazoned with the company's all-time weeklong sales record--$3.5 million--which surpassed the old record by $400,000. The figure itself is not as significant as when it was set: the first week of 1992. The week is usually pretty good in the furniture industry because many consumers delay making furniture purchases until after Christmas.