Robert M Stern

The architect of the state's Political Reform Act, saying that California's key political watchdog agency conducts almost no investigations of city officials unless it is tipped off by the press or receives a complaint, Monday recommended that the city's Ethics Commission consider creating a local entity to fill the void. Robert M. Stern, general counsel for the California Commission on Campaign Financing, also recommended that the Ethics Commission explore a law to allow random audits of city officials' complete financial holdings, including their checking and savings accounts.

DALLAS - What do neo-classicism and neo-conservatism have in common? That's the question at the heart of the design by New York's Robert A.M. Stern Architects for the George W. Bush presidential library, set to open to the public May 1 on the campus of Southern Methodist University. The $250-million complex holds the president's archive as well as a museum, restaurant, auditorium, policy institute and foundation. Officially known as the George W. Bush Presidential Center, it is carefully and cannily contextual, like much of Stern's work.

Scandals have swirled around Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Hall for nearly two years, prompting investigations, voter-approved reforms and creation of a new government watchdog agency. From a small, nonprofit research office in West Los Angeles, lawyer and government ethics expert Robert M. Stern has been a key figure in the continuing drama and debate. He helped reporters covering City Hall work through a thicket of state and local campaign and conflict-of-interest laws.

Scandals have swirled around Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Hall for nearly two years, prompting investigations, voter-approved reforms and creation of a new government watchdog agency. From a small, nonprofit research office in West Los Angeles, lawyer and government ethics expert Robert M. Stern has been a key figure in the continuing drama and debate. He helped reporters covering City Hall work through a thicket of state and local campaign and conflict-of-interest laws.

DALLAS - What do neo-classicism and neo-conservatism have in common? That's the question at the heart of the design by New York's Robert A.M. Stern Architects for the George W. Bush presidential library, set to open to the public May 1 on the campus of Southern Methodist University. The $250-million complex holds the president's archive as well as a museum, restaurant, auditorium, policy institute and foundation. Officially known as the George W. Bush Presidential Center, it is carefully and cannily contextual, like much of Stern's work.

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.

Candy Spelling: An article in Tuesday's Calendar section about Candy Spelling's memoir said the Century condominium building in Century City is being designed by architects Robert A.M. Stern, Jean Nouvel and Richard Meier. Stern is the sole architect on this project.

Re "Derail the money train," Opinion, April 20 Thanks to Robert M. Stern and Molly Milligan for bringing to our attention the "for sale" sign on our democracy. Reform attempts will continue to fail as long as politicians make the campaign reform laws. Who among them wants to be responsible for killing the goose that lays the golden egg? We will have true campaign reform when the electorate demands it. Reform should be given to an independent committee to make tough rules to be voted on in the form of a proposition.

Robert M. Stern and Tracy Westen make good points. For example, it should take a supermajority to pass an initiative that calls for a supermajority. But they miss the most needed revision. For ballot qualification, California should forbid paid signature gathering. Requiring a large number of interested voters to spend their time gathering signatures, instead of a small group of people who spend their money, would significantly democratize the proposition process and reduce the number of propositions.

California State University trustees have approved architect Robert A.M. Stern's design for a new $16.8-million arts and media building at Cal State Northridge. The building, to be completed by August 2000, will replace the campus' fine arts building designed by famed Southern California modernist Richard Neutra. The Neutra building was heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and demolished in 1997. Stern is dean of the school of architecture at Yale University.

The architect of the state's Political Reform Act, saying that California's key political watchdog agency conducts almost no investigations of city officials unless it is tipped off by the press or receives a complaint, Monday recommended that the city's Ethics Commission consider creating a local entity to fill the void. Robert M. Stern, general counsel for the California Commission on Campaign Financing, also recommended that the Ethics Commission explore a law to allow random audits of city officials' complete financial holdings, including their checking and savings accounts.

Campaign reform advocates who pushed for full public financing of Los Angeles election campaigns reversed course Tuesday and urged the city Ethics Commission not to rush a proposal to the ballot next spring. Susan Lerner, executive director of the California Clean Money Campaign, told the commission that it is "overly ambitious to be heading toward a March ballot" with a campaign funding measure. Lerner said her organization has been preoccupied with promoting Proposition 89 on the Nov.

A panel of architects working in the United States will participate in a symposium dealing with "Architecture, Democracy and Politics" on Oct. 11 at the Wadsworth Theatre at the Veterans Administration Hospital, 19020 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event, co-sponsored by UCLA Extension and the UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, will feature illustrated lectures by architects Arata Isozaki, Michael Graves, Robert A. M. Stern and Barton Myers.