Buildings

Real estate broker Carl Muhlstein maneuvered his silver BMW convertible through downtown Los Angeles traffic, one hand steering the car and the other pressing a cellphone to his ear. "Come on," he teased. "Insult me with an offer." While some who swim the deep and often lucrative waters of commercial real estate have retreated to the golf course, Muhlstein is among those pushing on -- joking, nudging and networking in hopes of making deals in a time of no deals.

Moscow's $4-billion Crystal Island development won preliminary planning approval during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, just as Russians were beginning to need a glittering distraction from short, bleak winter days. Eye-popping images of the hugely ambitious project, designed for a site on the Moscow River by the British architect Norman Foster, more than fit the bill.

Before pro football came and went, before the Dodgers and Lakers left their hometowns to come here, boxing was the heart of the Los Angeles sporting world. From the early 1930s until the late 1940s, Jim Jeffries' Barn in Burbank drew boxing fans by the hundreds. Although it wasn't nearly as big as the 8,000-seat Olympic Auditorium, L.A.'s other storied boxing mecca, the musty pugilistic monument was as busy as it was beloved.

Those who have never seen Riverside may picture it in the language of L.A. drive-time radio: Triple-digit heat. Foreclosures. Traffic. But unlike some cities on the coast, its 312,000 residents started long ago to transform their downtown rather than dismantle it. Downtown's Mission Inn Avenue speaks to their powers of imagination. The gracious former YWCA, designed by Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan, is now the Riverside Art Museum.

Developer Wayne Ratkovich had little idea 30 years ago when he and his partners bought an unwanted office building in downtown Los Angeles that a forgotten gem lay waiting. The office market at the time was hot for glass and steel towers, and to hell with the old piles such as the Art Deco-style James Oviatt Building. The former UCLA football player in his 30s wasn't sure exactly what "Art Deco" encompassed. What he uncovered was an architectural treasure that he proceeded to bring back to life.

Two New York commercial real estate brokerages have been selected by Tribune Co. to market the Los Angeles Times' main office downtown and Tribune Tower in Chicago to potential buyers, the company said Tuesday. Cushman & Wakefield will look for buyers for The Times' historic headquarters at 1st and Spring streets, and Eastdil Secured will try to sell the landmark Tribune building overlooking the Chicago River, said Stephanie Pater, director of real estate for Tribune.

Across the city he represented for decades, building after building is named after Edward Roybal. And the reputation of Roybal, one of the most influential and trailblazing Latino politicians in U.S. history, reaches far beyond his political base in East Los Angeles, where there's the Edward Roybal Comprehensive Health Center. In Atlanta, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named its main campus after him. In downtown Los Angeles, there's the Edward R.

A downtown Los Angeles theater that has hosted some of the biggest names in entertainment since the 1920s but struggled in recent decades is once again in search of a white knight -- one who could pay $12.5 million to buy it. The Variety Arts Center was purchased in early 2007 by the former owner of the Pasadena Playhouse, David Houk, who hoped to stage plays and musicals in the historic five-story building at Figueroa and Ninth streets.

The Los Angeles area's new counter-terrorism center drew high marks Friday from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who toured the high-tech facility in Norwalk and pronounced it a model for federal and local cooperation. The Joint Regional Intelligence Center opened six months ago as a co-venture of the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other local law enforcement agencies as a hub for information gathering, analysis and sharing.

To some, the four sprawling three-story brick complexes may not look like real estate worth fighting over. But with inhabitable housing of any kind at a premium here, the fate of New Orleans' four largest public housing complexes -- St. Bernard, C.J. Peete, B.W. Cooper and Lafitte -- is at the center of another battle in the city's turbulent efforts to reshape its future. The U.S.