Shopping Center

Owners of the Glendale Galleria have launched a massive makeover intended to update the regional shopping center in downtown Glendale. Improvements to the 1.5-million-square-foot center will include the previously announced addition of a Bloomingdale's department store in the space formerly occupied by Mervyns. The Bloomingdale's store is set to open next year. Other changes intended to update the mall will be the most comprehensive since the mall first opened in 1976 and "nothing short of dramatic," General Manager Larry Martin said.

A former student at a small Christian college opened fire in the middle of a classroom, police said, leaving seven people dead in one of California's worst mass killings. Authorities and witnesses described the suspect, identified as 43-year-old One L. Goh, as calmly spraying bullets around the classroom of Oikos University on Monday morning, seemingly without discrimination. "He stood up and began shooting," Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said Monday evening. Goh allegedly then left the classroom and continued his attack.

In a sign of confidence in the region's recovering economy, developers have resumed construction of a $150-million shopping center in Oxnard. Work on the Collection at RiverPark, a large outdoor mall intended to look like a small-town shopping district, was halted in 2009 when the nation was in a recession. Consumers closed their wallets and retailers canceled expansion plans. "There was a lot of fear in the markets in 2008 and 2009, and that has gone away," said Colm Macken, chief executive of Aliso Viejo developer Shea Properties.

There will be no wrecking ball - much less dynamite - as the Golden Key Hotel checks out of Glendale to make way for a new Nordstrom department store at the Americana at Brand shopping center. Workers started cautiously taking apart the three-story, 55-room hotel on Colorado Street on Thursday, said Paul Kurzawa, chief operating officer of mall owner Caruso Affiliated. Workers are using an excavator and hand tools on the hotel; a vacant brick building next door will be dismantled entirely by hand.

A mug shot of a wide-eyed man with a full-grown beard flashed on the evening news. The television reporter said he had been stabbed to death in Placentia. Rebecca McGillivray said she knew the image was her father, but it was not the man she remembered. Instead, she provided a description of a different man than the one on the broadcast. Her father, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was the first homeless man to be murdered in a string of stabbings that began Dec. 20 in northern Orange County.

Location: 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, between 3rd Street and Beverly Boulevard just east of Fairfax Avenue. From the 10 Freeway, take the Fairfax Avenue exit north. Hours: Regular mall hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sun. As with all the shopping malls listed in this section, individual business and restaurant hours may vary. Check mall websites for extended holiday hours. Known for: The Grove is simply a different kind of mall experience - it's a place where shopping is far from the only attraction.

Shopping centers have always been about more than shopping. Before the rise of Internet-based social interaction, malls were a workplace, gathering place and pop culture petri dish for the better part of two generations. That made them the perfect backdrops for the kinds of films that filled the '80s and '90s - for the most part geographically ambiguous, lost-in-the-crowd tales of teen angst, budding (or imploding) romance, the everyman chafing under the yoke of social hierarchy and the bullies that come with it. In short, the mall setting was a grown-up version of the childhood playground - and, perhaps most important, a place that would look fairly familiar to everyone.

Location: 71 Fortune Drive, Irvine. It is easily accessible from the 405 and 5 freeways. Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sun. What you'll find: More than 130 merchants, anchored by Nordstrom, Macy's and Target, with a mix of smaller shops, including Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Claires, H&M, Lululemon, White House/Black Market, Tommy Bahama and Bonjour Chaton (full...

Going to the Westside Pavilion mall is a Friday afternoon ritual for Jenny Ouchi and her 8-year-old son, Will. But shopping isn't usually on the agenda. Ouchi drops Will off at Music Stars & Masters on the second floor, where he takes private piano lessons. During the half-hour session, Ouchi, 38, runs errands in the Los Angeles shopping center, such as getting her nails done or mailing a letter at the in-mall post office. "It's definitely a timesaver," said Ouchi, a part-time pediatrician who lives on the Westside.

Mace Siegel, a prominent owner of thoroughbred racehorses who was considered a godfather of Southern California horse racing for his role as an advocate for the sport, has died. He was 86. Siegel, who was also a leading developer of regional shopping centers, died Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home of complications related to old age, said his daughter, Samantha. "Mace was a pillar in our industry," George Haines, president of Santa Anita Park said in a statement. "His compassion for the horses, horseman and fans was second to none.