Monument

In your fine June 6 article regarding the unveiling of the "Go for Broke" monument to the Japanese Americans of the 442nd, you failed to mention the man who designed the monument so well described. He is Los Angeles architect Roger Yanagita. I think he should be recognized. HERBERT B. LAMONT Gardena

Motion picture executive Brad Kembel and his partner Jimmy Ferrareze have bought the landmark James Eads How House in Silver Lake for $1.3 million. Designed by modern architect Rudolph Schindler in 1925, the restored and updated International Modern-style house had been priced at $4.995 million when movie producer and prolific renovator Michael LaFetra first listed it in 2008. The 2,426-square-foot home, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, is considered a triumph of Schindler's early career and was influenced by his apprenticeship under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Today's travel photo of the day aptly depicts a monument celebrating travel and discovery. This image, taken by Times reader "LanaiLady," shows the Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon. The monument is dedicated to the Portuguese who took part in Europe's Age of Discovery in the 15 th century. It was constructed in 1960 and commemorates the 500 th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator, whose likeness gazes out at the Tagus river from the tip of the monument. Henry, a prince of Portugal, was a strong proponent of Portugal's efforts in discovery and exploration.

President Obama on Friday designated Ft. Ord a national monument, completing its conversion from bustling military base to popular Monterey Peninsula recreation area. The designation will afford additional protection to the 7,200 acres, which is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. The presidential action decreed that no mining or geothermal development can take place in the monument and called for the development of a management plan that preserves it in perpetuity.

Albino Pineda can't forget his backbreaking youth as a migrant field laborer, the days when he came home so tired he could barely pull his heavy boots off. In Camarillo, he stooped over tomato plants for 10 hours, earning $14 a day. In Morro Bay, he sprayed the toxic chemical DDT on pea plants without protective gear. In San Jose, he filled heavy gunny sacks with apricots under a hot sun. Now, at age 86, the Santa Paula great-grandfather is living comfortably on a retired heavy equipment operator's pension.

A 23-year-old man who allegedly used a sledgehammer to smash a religious monument outside St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale has pleaded not guilty to felony vandalism, officials said. Victor Petrescu of Glendale appeared in court Thursday to answer charges that included felony vandalism of religious property with an enhancement for damages exceeding $50,000, a misdemeanor count of possessing a sledgehammer with the intent to commit vandalism and graffiti, and having a suspended and revoked driver's license, said Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz.

Re "WWII Monument Gets Key OK," May 22: I don't get it. Did the senators or representatives who approved legislation to proceed with the monument plan actually study the proposed design? Were they so zealous in placating the veterans' lobby that they failed to see that the monument looks like it was drafted by Hitler's architect, Albert Speer? I thought the Allied victory in WWII was about safeguarding democracy against totalitarian forces. But the process, design and location for the monument and the congressional approval seem to be forcing the issue by means that are hardly democratic.

I was really surprised when I found out that the city of Los Angeles had decided to spend $40 million on a "welcoming" monument (Metro, Aug. 17). I have to agree with the West Coast Gateway Committee that the last thing we needed downtown was a big bird, a four-block-long dollar bill or a gigantic baseball glove. As a matter of fact, I am hard pressed to think why we really need to spend $40 million on a welcoming monument. That amount of money should be used on projects that really count.

Re "Angel Tower," letters, June 24: Brett-Livingstone Strong could very well be the most visionary artist at the turn of this century. His achievements go far beyond his mammoth bust of John Wayne. Strong unveiled his seven-ton "Bicentennial of the Constitution" monument as a gift to our country in front of Independence Hall in 1987. He also created in bronze and marble the monument celebrating 25 years of friendship with Los Angeles' sister city Nagoya, Japan. Strong's designs and plans for the "City of Angels" monument and complex reach far beyond what any other creative minds have produced as a beacon for L.A. thus far. I'm not necessarily in love with the sword, but overall this is an incredibly beautiful and useful project.

Officials gathered Thursday on the grounds of the Texas Capitol for the unveiling of the state's Tejano Monument, 11 life-size bronze statues crafted by Laredo artist Armando Hinojosa commemorating the contributions of Texas' Spanish and Mexican settlers. Gov. Rick Perry, who attended the unveiling, said the monument "reflects a larger truth about the origins of Texas, about the contributions of so many Hispanic citizens to the creation of the state we love. " Just before the ceremony, the Los Angeles Times spoke with Emilio Zamora, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, about the 12-year effort to build the monument and its significance.

When you think of birthstones, diamonds, rubies or emeralds probably come to mind. The rocks you'll find at Kukaniloko Birthstones State Monument in Oahu, however, weren't for wearing. They were used for giving birth. The monument, one of the Hawaiian island's most important cultural sites, was a birthing location for chiefs. Women of prominent families would recline against the site's birthstone, called Kukaniloko (seen here in the foreground), to bear children. Chiefs witnessed from rows of stones nearby.

The Washington Monument, the iconic marble tribute to the first U.S. president that strikes into the District of Columbia skyline, is sinking. There's no need to book a vacation to the capital to catch it before it slips away: The obelisk - which is 555 feet, 5 inches tall - has subsided only two inches since it was finished in 1884, according to new data from the National Geodetic Survey. Even at that rate, though, the subsidence eventually could spell problems for the monument, especially after it was rocked by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in August.

On a perfectly clear afternoon last week, Eames Demetrios, grandson of the pioneering, multitalented designers Charles and Ray Eames, met me at the house and studio in Pacific Palisades that his grandparents built for themselves in the late 1940s. The living room of the boxy, steel-framed house was empty, its contents having been carefully packed up and carted 10 miles east to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As part of LACMA's "Living in a Modern Way: California Design 1930-1965," a major show in the Pacific Standard Time series , the items, more than 1,800 in all, have been painstakingly reassembled inside a full-sized replica of the house.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't a big guy -- but he cast a long shadow. The nation's first black president, along with King's children and friends, dedicated the civil rights leader's granite memorial Sunday on the National Mall. They spoke of King's vision, his courage and his fight for racial and economic justice. And one of those friends, colleague Andrew Young, also spoke of King's stature. "He was only about 5 feet 7," Young said. "He was always upset about all the tall people looking down on him. Well, now he's 30 feet tall!"

The warden didn't leave room for ambiguity: Freedom was not an option, no matter what happened outside the walls, where the gunshots and explosions of a growing insurgency regularly shattered the evening calm. "If we win, you'll stay here for the rest of your lives," said the man, a functionary of Moammar Kadafi's government whom prisoners knew only as Khalifa. "If we lose, we will kill all of you. " He seemed indifferent about which it would be. Khaled Abu Harber, a 27-year-old doctor caught smuggling medicine to Libyan rebels, reckoned he was a doomed man. "I don't think any of us thought we would get out alive," he recalled.

Dangling by a rope more than 500 feet above ground, Dave Megerle settled his rock-climbing shoes into the white wall and went to work looking for cracks in the world's tallest all-stone structure. He's been scaling facades for more than 25 years, though none quite like the Washington Monument. Megerle is one of five engineers who rappelled down the Washington Monument's four marble sides Wednesday to inspect damage caused by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the East Coast and closed the landmark on Aug. 23. Climbers will take four more days to slowly photograph and video-record every marble block so the images can be compared with monument photos taken during its $10-million renovation in 1999.

The Washington Monument is the place for unparalleled 360-degree views of the nation's capital. But the only people allowed up these days are inspectors in climbing harnesses who began scaling the 555-foot tower Tuesday to check on damage from the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the area on Aug. 23. Ditto for the National Cathedral, the fourth-tallest structure in the city, which remains closed but usually allows visitors to...