Demolition

UCLA's new "pistol" offense made its scrimmage debut Sunday, surrounded by unsure critics trying to forecast its odds of success/failure. And beneath clouds that couldn't decide whether to rain, the Bruins withheld a concrete answer as to whether that offense, which Nevada uses with great success, will misfire. The first few drives were messy, crammed with false starts and defense-initiated demolitions in the backfield. But by the time sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince and the first-team offense had their third series, that elusive groove was found.

For more than a decade, Los Angeles architect Dion Neutra has waged a personal battle to save his family's controversial legacy on the Gettysburg battlefield. Half a century ago, he worked alongside his world-famous father, architect Richard Neutra, on the Cyclorama Center, designed to house a massive circular painting depicting Pickett's charge. In 1999, the National Park Service announced its intention to move the painting and tear down the building -- which sits in the middle of the battle line where Union troops defended Cemetery Ridge -- to restore the landscape to its 1863 appearance.

Even brand new, it was little more than a shack, albeit one with an occasional gingerbread flourish. Its very nickname -- shotgun house -- evoked a Wild West spirit. And when the simple wood-frame structure was assembled in what is now the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica in the late 1800s, the area was a breezy, bucolic retreat where inland residents could escape the heat and relative bustle of Los Angeles. After years of deterioration and dislocation, the landmark shotgun house, regarded as the last remaining intact structure of its type in Santa Monica, will be rehabilitated by the Santa Monica Conservancy as its headquarters and "preservation resource center."

In the eight years he has hosted the hippest haunted house in Simi Valley, Kyle Killips has dealt with his share of monsters, bloody ghouls and even a sadistic clown. But his scariest encounter occurred Oct. 16 when a city code enforcement officer posted a notice ordering him to tear down his 1,200-square-foot "Haunted Hills" maze in 72 hours or be fined. "We thought, 'That's it, it's over,' " said Killips, 37, whose day job is running the family's plastics company in Burbank.

For years, the water stored by the Savage Rapids Dam has nurtured the green bean fields and grazing pastures of southern Oregon, turning them into a lush region of bounty. But there has been a price -- the death of thousands of fish, which slammed themselves into the concrete wall of the dam in a futile effort to head upstream. Scenes from years past now resemble a faded sepia-tone photograph. Many of the big farms have turned into 10-acre hobby ranches; the salmon are in danger of disappearing; and even the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that harnessed rivers and irrigated the West, began saying a few years ago it would be better to just tear down the dam once and for all. So they did. On Friday, a platoon of bulldozers and earthmovers tore away at the last of the temporary earthen berms holding water behind the dam. The Rogue River rushed free, flowing through its historic channel for the first time since 1921.

The Century Lounge, an LAX-area strip club that has titillated and disgusted tourists for decades with its blinking "Nude Nude Nudes" sign, will be demolished and replaced by a parking lot, officials said Thursday. The lease for the tawdry Century Boulevard landmark -- best known for its psychedelic, red-and-orange marquee -- expired at the end of August, according to John Day, general counsel for property owner L&R Group of Companies. The club will be razed next month and incorporated into L&R's adjacent WallyPark parking structure.

Curtis Forrester moved into a brand-new house in Victorville last week, but there was little time to enjoy the Jacuzzi and designer kitchen. He was there only to see it destroyed. Just a few days after his arrival, the two-story residence and three other luxurious model homes were crushed and hauled off for scrap, the latest fallout from Southern California's real estate crash. The homes were part of a planned 16-unit project in this community 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, who had an office in Century City, here we go again. In March, this column waved goodbye to the Robinsons-May in Beverly Hills. Up for the count this month is another monument in our dwindling legacy of under-appreciated midcentury modern. It is the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel at 2025 Avenue of the Stars. Long before Southern California was a land of houses, it was an eden of hotels.

Police in Jerusalem shot and killed a Palestinian man who tried to run over them with his car as heavy equipment nearby demolished an apartment, sparking clashes between Arabs and heavily armed riot troops. The destroyed home belonged to Hussam Duwayaat, 30, who killed three Israelis during a rampage with his construction vehicle in July. He was killed at the scene. Israel resumed destroying Palestinian attackers' homes several months ago as a deterrent. But the demolition of the top floor of a two-story building triggered its own violence.