Dan Heinfeld

Office space is vacant. Cities have little money for public works. Retail centers have gone belly up. So how is an architect supposed to make it in these tough times? The Irvine office of LPA Inc., one of Orange County's largest architectural firms, has a portfolio of contracts ranging from city halls to churches, most of them with budgets much lower than they would have been three years ago.

Office space is vacant. Cities have little money for public works. Retail centers have gone belly up. So how is an architect supposed to make it in these tough times? The Irvine office of LPA Inc., one of Orange County's largest architectural firms, has a portfolio of contracts ranging from city halls to churches, most of them with budgets much lower than they would have been three years ago.

In a recent Los Angeles Times article, "Overbuilt to the Hilt" (Dec. 28), Michael Flagg paints a gloomy picture of the building industry's response to the downturn in the Orange County office market. While the article does state that diversification makes sense, I'd like to reiterate that the decision to diversify resulted from the lessons learned from the recession of the early 1980s. It is not a hasty decision resulting from the recent office market downturn. I find it difficult to understand Flagg's term of "taking up the slack," as architects are commissioned to design public buildings and these projects are "smaller and less glamorous."

In a recent Los Angeles Times article, "Overbuilt to the Hilt" (Dec. 28), Michael Flagg paints a gloomy picture of the building industry's response to the downturn in the Orange County office market. While the article does state that diversification makes sense, I'd like to reiterate that the decision to diversify resulted from the lessons learned from the recession of the early 1980s. It is not a hasty decision resulting from the recent office market downturn. I find it difficult to understand Flagg's term of "taking up the slack," as architects are commissioned to design public buildings and these projects are "smaller and less glamorous."

Building Blocs: Your average new city in south Orange County usually starts life with the bare minimum in the way of municipal government: Dana Point, for instance, housed its city manager in a trailer for the first few months of its municipal existence. Now the Orange County chapter of the American Institute of Architects wants to offer its members' expertise to municipal design review boards and planning commissions.

Architect Leason F. Pomeroy, founder of LPA Inc., one of the state's largest architectural firms and designer of such projects as the Tustin Market Place retail complex and the John Wayne Airport passenger terminal, has resigned as chairman. Pomeroy's departure is part of a planned succession program, said Robert O. Kupper, the company's chief executive and Pomeroy's likely successor as chairman when the private firm's board meets.

Eleven Southern California architects have been named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architect in recognition of significant contributions to the profession. The 1994 fellows, honored at the AIA's convention in Los Angeles, are: Edward C. Friedrichs, Frederic P. Lyman, John V. Mutlow, Victor A. Regnier, Ted Tokio Tanaka, James Leslie Tyler, Robert H.

Galleries at the Newport Harbor Art Museum will be closed until Jan. 21 for installation of "Success Is a Job in New York . . . The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol." The museum store and restaurant remain open. Pacific Bell has given Opera Pacific $5,635 to underwrite a signed interpretation of Verdi's "La Traviata" on Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will open a prototype superstore in Texas today that relies heavily on "green" technology as an experiment in resource and energy conservation. The project in the Dallas suburb of McKinney uses environmentally friendly features such as electricity-generating photovoltaic cells in the skylights. The store will collect rainwater from the roof and parking lot to tend the landscaping year-round. Wal-Mart will open a second green store in Aurora, Colo.

Dan Heinfeld, president of the Orange County office of LPA Inc., likes to quote his firm's motto: "We build places and spaces for people." That's places and spaces, he emphasizes. "Design doesn't stop at the front door. It goes on to landscape, graphics, environment and how you look at the world." The "for people" part counts too.