Stefanos Polyzoides

"Feel this paper," Stefanos Polyzoides insists, opening a brand new notebook, his favorite kind. Made in Germany by a company called Sennelier, it looks like an old-fashioned American composition book, but the cover is green and black instead of white and black. Stefanos has filled almost 30 of these notebooks with drawings and ideas and notes from places he has traveled to--internally and externally.

The gig: Architect Stefanos Polyzoides is a godfather of the hugely influential movement in architecture and urban planning known as the New Urbanism. All those suburbs that decided to put in little downtowns and walkable areas? The whole loft thing? Infill development that puts condos in empty lots instead of sprawl out in the exurbs? Credit Polyzoides, his wife, Elizabeth Moule, and a small group of colleagues for co-founding the influential movement ? and Polyzoides for giving it a name.

The gig: Architect Stefanos Polyzoides is a godfather of the hugely influential movement in architecture and urban planning known as the New Urbanism. All those suburbs that decided to put in little downtowns and walkable areas? The whole loft thing? Infill development that puts condos in empty lots instead of sprawl out in the exurbs? Credit Polyzoides, his wife, Elizabeth Moule, and a small group of colleagues for co-founding the influential movement ? and Polyzoides for giving it a name.

"Feel this paper," Stefanos Polyzoides insists, opening a brand new notebook, his favorite kind. Made in Germany by a company called Sennelier, it looks like an old-fashioned American composition book, but the cover is green and black instead of white and black. Stefanos has filled almost 30 of these notebooks with drawings and ideas and notes from places he has traveled to--internally and externally.

The University Art Museum at UC Santa Barbara will present a Schindler symposium on Sunday in conjunction with the opening of "The Furniture of R.M. Schindler." Panelists and Schindler scholars during the 1-4 p.m. program include professor Robert Winter, architects Stefanos Polyzoides, Jeffrey M. Chusid and Judith Sheine and art historian Elizabeth McMillian. Museum Director Marla C. Berns will moderate. Admission is free. Information: (805) 893-2951.

Architects and planners Elizabeth Moule and Stefanos Polyzoides have been among the biggest fans and supporters of downtown Los Angeles. They were the lead consultants on a widely heralded $2-million strategic plan to help revitalize the commercial core. Their firm has long been located in a historic downtown building. But now the husband-and-wife design team are preparing to do what so many other downtown employers have done before: head for the suburbs.

Re "O.C. Builders Reach Their Final Frontier," June 15: Having been born and raised in Orange County, I have come to a number of conclusions about life here: There is little pride in the beauty of the land or for the wildlife that lives on it. Landowners, especially rich ones, usually get their way, and often claim to be working for the common good. People would rather participate in over-development's miseries (traffic, pollution, lack of open space, lame public transit, scarce affordable housing)

"The long reign of the Community Redevelopment Agency ended this week--not with a bang, but with a brief reference on Page 4 of Mayor Richard Riordan's budget message," William Fulton wrote recently in this newspaper's Opinion pages. The CRA reign may indeed wind up yielding to some kind of reorganizational interregnum, but if it does it at least will go with a small bang.

Before many of the residential streets of the Westside were turned into row after row of boxy condominiums squeezed around narrow courts and swimming pools, this area boasted beautiful examples of one of the most romantic and flexible forms of communal living in America: the courtyard apartment building.

DEAR HOT: I love leggings, but I'm extremely conscious of my legs--they're really skinny (my brothers used to call me Olive Oyl, OK?). Is there any way I can wear leggings this fall and not look like a toothpick? --N.G., Woodland Hills DEAR N.G.: Don't despair, there's a solution that will pump up your legs without leaving you looking like Bluto. Printed leggings are expected to be all the rage this fall, and they also create an optical illusion, making your legs seem heavier.

The City Council has decided to build a new civic center on the existing City Hall site, bringing to an apparent end two years of acrimonious debate and controversy. By a 3-2 vote, the council last week approved a plan to remodel part of the current City Hall on Mission Street, erect new City Council chambers and construct buildings to replace the police and fire facilities now at Mission and Mound streets.

For Greek-born Stefanos Polyzoides, it started with a picture of parrots. "My uncle had been to the first Olympics in L.A., and he came back with a photograph of himself on the beach, covered with parrots. The place seemed like a dream, like the end of the world." After finishing school at Princeton, Polyzoides decided to dedicate his life "to figuring out this strange place."