Pacific Center

Blake Edwards remembers shopping for sculptures to be featured in "The Man Who Loved Women," his 1983 comedy that starred Burt Reynolds as an artist who spends more time in the bedroom than in the studio. But the director was having difficulty finding the kind of abstract art that he thought the film needed. "I wanted the sculptures to be all original works since this was a movie about an artist," Edwards recalls.

Cesar Pelli's third project for the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, the so-called Red Building, was conceived as part of the original site plan in the 1970s, and since then it has been postponed, redesigned and nearly forgotten. But it appears finally to be on track, with construction set to start early next year, according to developer Charles S. Cohen. At a noon news conference Thursday, Pelli and Cohen will unveil what they're calling the final version of the $100-million design.

Pacific Center, a downtown Los Angeles office complex overlooking Pershing Square that dates to 1908, has been purchased for $65 million by a Denver real estate investor, the broker representing the seller said Friday. Alliance Commercial Partners bought the 415,000-square-foot property at 523 W. 6th St. from Holualoa Cos. Santa Monica-based Holualoa bought the three-building complex in 2003 for about $40 million.

Insurance agents, lawyers and real estate execs working at downtown's Pacific Center last Thursday were probably puzzled to hear "Dueling Banjos" wafting through the marble-tiled corridors. The "Deliverance" theme song emanated from a new theater in the historic Beaux-Arts office building that, over the decades, has counted Laurel and Hardy and Richard Nixon among its tenants. Pacific Center's latest lessee hopes to be every bit as entertaining.

A small army of decorators, painters, paper hangers and lightbulb changers descended on the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Their mission: to fluff things up for WestWeek. West what? The annual event, which closes today and actually lasts just two days, is the PDC's open house party for home design industry movers and shakers. For more than 100 of the center's 150 showrooms, that means unveiling new collections.

Nine months after Aliso Viejo officials tentatively accepted an offer from a church-connected charity to build a $15-million recreation center on leased city land, the proposal has stalled. Attorneys for the Lake Forest foundation behind the offer are investigating how to protect the charity from litigation relating to the separation of church and state, and the process has halted the project for now.

It's barely dawn when Mike Fitzpatrick starts his shift with a blur of colorful maps, figures and endless charts, but already he knows what the day will bring. Lightning will strike in places he expects. Winds will pick up, moist places will dry and flames will roar. But where will the next wildfire hit? Are homes and lives threatened? Where should crews go to stop it? Could it get out of control?

Furniture pros in downtown Los Angeles didn't stand for it when rivals in West Hollywood got their big chair. They got themselves a bigger one. So now there are dueling giant chairs outside the Pacific Design Center and the L.A. Mart in an impromptu furnishings feud that is sitting well with interior designers and admirers of outdoor furniture alike.

They're seeing red over the newest mega-construction project planned for West Hollywood. And they couldn't be happier. The red in this case is the glistening color proposed for a building that will complete the landmark Pacific Design Center, which for nearly three decades has been a showcase for fine furnishings -- and for bold, modern architecture.