High Rise

Police detained eight unlicensed welders Tuesday in connection with Monday's deadly apartment fire in Shanghai that left 53 people dead and at least 70 injured, city officials said. Investigators believe that the welders may have been using their equipment improperly, sparking a blaze that engulfed a 28-story building in the heart of the sprawling Chinese metropolis. About 17 people remain in critical condition, said Shanghai Deputy Mayor Shen Jun. Family members were reportedly scouring local hospitals for any information on missing loved ones, and aiming their frustration at authorities.

A high-rise apartment building under renovation in Shanghai erupted in flames Monday, killing 53 people and injuring 90, the official New China News Agency said. A witness said the blaze started when building materials caught fire and spread up scaffolding surrounding the 28-story tower, the news agency reported. Firefighters facing difficulty reaching the upper levels set up hoses on top of an adjacent building to finally contain the blaze, which raged for more than four hours.

The last decade's great condominium construction boom is over in downtown Los Angeles — with the exception of one battered builder still crawling toward the finish line. A 30-story condo development that Hassan "Sonny" Astani set in motion in 2004 is all but complete after surviving a series of setbacks, including the successive failures of two banks that were helping fund construction. In August, the city gave Astani the green light to let buyers move in to lower floors of his Concerto tower near Staples Center.

A triple murder late Thursday night inside a West Hollywood apartment building may be tied to a robbery attempt. The victims were identified as Pirooz Moussazadeh, 27; his brother, Shahriar Moussazadeh, 38; and Bernard Khalili, 27, said Craig Harvey, chief of investigations for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. According to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation but not authorized to discuss the attack, investigators believe the victims were targeted.

Israel and its image Re "Report: Threats against Jews on the rise," and "Israel razes Bedouin homes," July 28 The Times recently published an article regarding the rise of threats against Jews. In the same day's newspaper, you could find one of the contributing factors to the rise of those threats. Alongside an article describing the removal of Bedouin homes in long-disputed territory ran two pictures that once again make the Israelis look like bad guys and the Bedouins like victims — unless the reader takes the time to read the entire article, almost to the end, where it indicates that the Israeli government offered to have these Bedouins live in Israeli cities with water, electricity, sewers and schools.

The Art Deco-inspired Century City condominium tower expected to be the home of wealthy widow Candy Spelling and many other moneyed residents has been completed after nearly six years of planning, demolition and construction. With high-rise living still rarer in Los Angeles than in other international cities, the dramatic 41-story Century on Avenue of the Stars is targeted at a sliver of home buyers willing to spend as much for a condo as they would for a sumptuous home in an exclusive neighborhood such as Beverly Hills or Malibu.

Singer-songwriter Paul Anka has purchased a unit at the Carlyle Residences, a newly built 24-story high-rise along the Wilshire corridor. The condominium that Anka bought has two bedrooms in 2,800 square feet. The sales price was not available, but the unit was listed at $3.6 million. Condos with the same floor plan are priced from $2.7 million to $5.3 million. The tower has 78 units with 2,700 to 5,000 square feet of living space. All have private elevator entrances and access to amenities, including concierge service, fitness facilities and a dining room.

Hollywood's tallest tower has shed its bones and skin -- and hopefully its reputation as the most cursed building in town. The slender 20-story Sunset Vine Tower that was Los Angeles' first modern skyscraper when it opened to international acclaim in 1963 at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street has been converted into a luxury apartment building that will have its coming-out party Thursday. The skyscraper has been vacant since late 2001, when an electrical transformer exploded, plunging it into darkness and sending employees of 40 companies with offices there running down stairwells to safety.

Given the number of proposals for bold, expressive towers in downtown Los Angeles that have been splashed across newspaper and magazine pages in recent years, it's easy to forget that the area has not actually seen any skyscrapers completed since 1992, when the second of Arthur Erickson's California Plaza high-rises opened on Bunker Hill. That drought ends Tuesday, when a 54-story hotel and condominium tower, wrapped in a geometric pattern of glittering, blue-tinted glass, is formally unveiled at L.A. Live.

The latest addition to the downtown Los Angeles skyline is expected to debut with a big splash -- make that a big flash -- tonight, when lights in the city's newest high-rise snap on for the first time. Owners of the 54-story Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott tower are rigging lights on the top 27 levels to flick on floor by floor in a rising wave to celebrate completion of the hotel, the last piece of the massive L.A. Live entertainment complex. The attention-grabbing stunt will cost about $100,000; by no means a pittance but still a fraction of the $2.5-billion overall cost of L.A. Live, which sits next to Staples Center and is already home to Nokia Theatre and other attractions.