Pacific Palisades

Before launching a business, some people invest in market research and feasibility studies. Josh Spencer is not one of those people — otherwise he might never have opened his downtown L.A. used bookstore in December 2009, let alone moved it a few blocks away this month to a 10,000-square-foot space. "I haven't really interacted with other business owners or bookstore owners," says Spencer, owner of what he says is the ironically named the Last Bookstore. "I've always just done what I do, and it seems to work.

Riviera Country Club, which has been the course for the regular Los Angeles stop on the PGA Tour 37 of the last 39 years, has been selected by the United States Golf Assn. as the host course for the 2017 U.S. Amateur championship. The 1948 U.S. Open, won by Ben Hogan , and 1998 U.S. Senior Open, won by Hale Irwin , were played at Riviera. The PGA Championships of 1983, won by Hal Sutton , and 1995, won by Steve Elkington , were also held at Riviera, a course that became known as Hogan's Alley after Hogan won the L.A. Open three times there, in addition to his Open championship.

Actor Dennis Quaid has sold his equestrian estate in Pacific Palisades for $9.5 million. The property came on the market in March at $16.9 million and had been reduced to $10 million. A French country-style main house, built in 2004, sits on 2 acres with a second house, a studio, a barn, a corral and a year-round creek. A beam-ceilinged living room, formal dining room, family room, office, wine cellar, eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms are part of the 8,400-square-foot main house.

This Pacific Palisades compound features a contemporary three-story main house, unobstructed ocean and coastline views and a guesthouse with a claim to fame. The Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen-designed Case Study No. 9 house was one of a series of inexpensive and efficient experimental homes built in the middle of the last century. Location: 205 Chautauqua, Pacific Palisades 90272 Asking price: $15.95 million Previously sold: In 2010 for $10 million House size: Five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, 9,500 square feet Lot size: 43,500 square feet Features: Gated, art gallery, two offices, library, wine cellar, gym, swimming pool, ocean views About the area: In the first quarter, 50 single-family homes sold in the 90272 ZIP Code at a median price of $1,793,000, according to DataQuick.

Location: 1535 Umeo Road, Pacific Palisades 90272 Asking price: $10.9 million Lot previously sold for: $1.1 million in 1997 Size: Five bedrooms, six bathrooms and two half-baths in 6,627 square feet in the main house. One bedroom, one office and one bathroom in about 650 square feet in the guest apartment. Additional features: Alarm system, Sub-Zero five-compartment built-in refrigerator system, Fisher & Paykel dishwasher, Viking Professional range, Caesarstone kitchen island, fire pit. Around the neighborhood: In 2010, 271 single-family homes sold in the 90272 ZIP Code at a median price of $1,845,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Split-level rooms surrounding a central courtyard and sliding glass doors that disappear into walls have created a contemporary-style tree house of sorts on a Pacific Palisades hillside. All the rooms in this newly constructed home have light on at least two sides, bringing nature indoors to three levels of open space.

At 2,400 square feet, the guesthouse alone in this gated Pacific Palisades compound is nearly as large as the average U.S. home. It sits on more than a third of an acre with a 5,896-square-foot traditional-style main house, a swimming pool and a sports court in a neighborhood within walking distance of shops. Location: 671 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades 90272 Asking price: $7.985 million Year built: 2001 Combined house size: Six bedrooms, 71/2 bathrooms, 8,296 square feet Lot size: 16,378 square feet Features: Privacy hedge, media room, sauna, gym, maid's quarters, flat lawn, canyon and mountain views from guesthouse's rooftop yard.

Judge David D. Perez of Pacific Palisades has been appointed to the Superior Court by Gov. George Deukmejian. Perez, who will fill a newly created position, is presiding judge of the East Los Angeles Judicial District.

For a big swath of America, Giada de Laurentiis is the face of contemporary Italian cooking. In "Giada at Home," she shares the traditional recipes her family has carried for generations alongside her own concoctions, from old country cooking to lighter California fare. Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore Ave., Pacific Palisades. 5 p.m. Friday. http://www.palivillagebooks.com.

When prominent Los Angeles real estate executive Jordan Kaplan bought a Pacific Palisades mansion in 2010, he got seven bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and what a marketing website called acres of "park-like grounds. " What he did not get was the usual downside of such a purchase: a sky-high property tax bill. That's because, nearly two years later, Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez has not taken the typically routine step of replacing the previous assessed value of the property, $11.5 million, with the new $21.5-million sale price.

Mindy Newman was enjoying a peaceful night at home Saturday in Holmby Hills, reading a biography of the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. Then at 10:30 p.m., the kids began arriving on her street "like a swarm of bees," she said. "They were coming in cars. They were coming in cabs. " Beverly Hills police had shut down a party nearby, and it was now migrating and growing by the minute — news spreading via social media and smartphones — to the apparently unoccupied Holmby Avenue house next to Newman's.

A castle in the sand at Laguna Beach Location: 770 Hillcrest Drive, Laguna Beach 92651 Size: Twelve units (plus four nonconforming units) from studio to three-bedroom penthouse. Main building, 15,000 square feet; accessory building, 3,300 square feet Published on: Nov. 21, 2010 Listed then at: $11.4 million Listed now at: $8.75 million Price reduced: 23% An artist's tranquil retreat in the Palisades Location: 1535 Umeo Road, Pacific Palisades 90272 Size: Main house, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, two half-baths, 6,627 square feet; guest apartment, one bedroom, one bathroom, about 650 square feet Published on: March 27 Listed then at: $10.9 million Relisted at: $9.45 million Price reduced: 13% —Lauren Beale

There are residuals for Los Angeles from the high-interest day professional golf had Sunday at Pebble Beach. We got next. This week's stop on the traveling road show also known as the PGA Tour is a venerable, historic torture chamber known as Riviera Country Club. The annual tournament stop at Riviera for what has always been, essentially, the L.A. Open, has been called a lot of things over its long run, including near-death. But now, in the last few years, a new sponsor and an old basketball player have revived it. That has meant that players who used to duck it now want to be here and Riviera, always worthy, has regained its rightful spot as one of golf's places to revere.

A gated home in the Pacific Palisades/Brentwood area built for Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann is available for lease at $15,500 a month. Constructed in 1939, the 5,266-square-foot house on an acre of property has been updated to enhance the indoor-outdoor traffic flow. Features include a family room/game room with a bar, walls of glass, a study with built-in shelves, five bedrooms and five bathrooms. A cabana stands beside the swimming pool. Mann, who died in 1955 at 80 in Zurich, wrote novels, short stories and essays.

Novelist Karl Taro Greenfeld is putting his Pacific Palisades home up for lease at $6,500 a month. The Cape Cod-inspired single-story house, built in 1948, contains three bedrooms, two bathrooms and 2,000 square feet of living space. The gated writer's retreat and family home includes a swimming pool. Greenfield is moving back to his loft in Tribeca, which is where his upcoming novel, "Triburbia," is set. His previous book, "Boy Alone," is a memoir about growing up in Pacific Palisades with his autistic brother.

A swarm of workmen constructing a $3-million environmentally friendly house in Pacific Palisades is also trying to build the next generation of ecology-minded developers and consumers. That explains why 50 carpenters, electricians and other tradesmen took the day off Thursday so hundreds of students and professionals could traipse through the half-finished home and view its energy-saving features before interior walls are enclosed with sheetrock. The residence on Via De La Paz is part of a national demonstration project by Green Builder Media, an Eastsound, Wash., organization that promotes sustainable construction and "green" building techniques.

Actor Dennis Quaid has sold his equestrian estate in Pacific Palisades for $9.5 million. The French country-style main house, built in 2004, sits on two acres with a second house, a studio, a barn, a corral and a year-round creek. A beam-ceilinged living room, formal dining room, family room, office, wine cellar, eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms are part of the 8,400-square-foot main house. Maids' quarters above the kitchen have been converted to a gym. The second house and studio contain 2,158 square feet of living space.