Terrazzo

Update: A Beverly Hills house designed by architect Wallace Neff in 1956 for comedic actor Groucho Marx has sold for $8.8 million. The rebuilt and updated Trousdale Estates home, which maintains its Neff footprint, is approached through a motor court with a central fountain. The one-story contemporary has walls of wood and glass and floors of terrazzo and walnut. There are five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a library and a maid's suite in slightly more than 6,000 square feet.

New to the market is actor Matthew Perry's chic house in the Hollywood Hills West area, priced at $5,295,000. Built in 1955 and reinvented as a contemporary, the 4,100-square-foot house features white terrazzo floors, retractable walls of glass, a home theater, a media room, three bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms. A pool with spa, lawn, an outdoor fireplace and patio space complete the third of an acre of grounds. There are city and canyon views. Perry, 43, played Chandler Bing on the sitcom "Friends" from 1994 to 2004.

Technology entrepreneur and philanthropist David Bohnett has listed his restored Holmby Hills estate for $18.9 million. Designed by A. Quincy Jones in 1955 for actor Gary Cooper, the wood, stone and glass house has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in 5,721 square feet and sits on nearly 2 1/2 wooded acres. Paths and low rock walls traverse the grounds and gardens. A canopied walkway leads to the open entrance hall. The living room features terrazzo floors, a raised stone fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the swimming pool.

The loft-like offices at 5514 Wilshire Blvd. are largely the domain of the young, who work in jeans and T-shirts at flat-panel screens. They are Web branders, search engine optimizers, e-tailers of underground clothing lines. They do the virtual jobs that became jobs only recently. Ruben Pardo works in the building, too, in a job that dates to the late 19 t h century. Pardo operates one of the last manual elevators in Los Angeles. The young people are not easily impressed - but something about Pardo awes them.

The loft-like offices at 5514 Wilshire Blvd. are largely the domain of the young, who work in jeans and T-shirts at flat-panel screens. They are Web branders, search engine optimizers, e-tailers of underground clothing lines. They do the virtual jobs that became jobs only recently. Ruben Pardo works in the building, too, in a job that dates to the late 19 t h century. Pardo operates one of the last manual elevators in Los Angeles. The young people are not easily impressed - but something about Pardo awes them.

Re "The Voice of Everyman in Black" (Sept. 13), on the death of Johnny Cash: Instead of going to the beach as I usually do, I decided to run through the city, from Koreatown, where I live, through Hollywood and West Hollywood and back through Beverly Hills. As I was going west on Hollywood Boulevard, I noticed a small crowd and a pile of "debris" near Vine Street. As I got closer, I realized it wasn't trash but a makeshift shrine of flowers, candles, letters, notes and carefully arranged (empty, of course)

Making a Difference, Piece by Piece Thousands of squares are descending on Sherman Oaks from all corners of America, and it's not a national nerd convention. It's a phenomenon called Warm Up America, a movement that helps provide comfort and comforters for the needy and homeless. Evie Rosen, who owns a small yarn shop in Wisconsin, asked the handicrafters in her state to knit or crochet squares.

Soap star Peter Reckell and his wife, singer Kelly Moneymaker, have sold their custom-built, eco-friendly home in Brentwood for $3.35 million. Before building the 3,345-square-foot house, the couple had their previous home on the site torn down, crated and shipped to Mexico for reuse by Habitat for Humanity. Then they designed and built a three-bedroom, four-bathroom contemporary that uses solar power. Green elements include a photovoltaic system with battery backup, Solatube skylights, recycled glass terrazzo floors with radiant heating, recycled denim and organic cotton insulation, bamboo cabinets and doors, a roof garden and a water reclamation system.

The male cast members of "Friends" are keeping a score of Los Angeles real estate agents in Gucci loafers. David Schwimmer, a.k.a. Ross Geller, sold his gated home in Hancock Park this summer for $8.865 million, public records show. He bought the 11,000-square-foot Mediterranean in 2001 for $5.5 million and listed it in November at $10.7 million. The restored house, set on more than an acre on a palm-tree-lined street, was built in 1926 by Koerner & Gage, an architectural firm that also contributed to the design of the dome-topped Beverly Hills City Hall.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are putting their house in order. First, television personality Kardashian offloaded her place in the Beverly Crest area after just two years of ownership. Public records do not show a sale price. She bought the furnished estate in 2010 for about $3.5 million. The turn-key home was designed, built and decorated by Beverly Hills-based Lucien Lacasse. The Tuscan-style walled and gated house features fireplaces in the dining room, family room, living room, master bedroom and kitchen as well as outdoors.

A Palm Springs home once owned by the late film star William Holden is listed at $1,495,000. The post-and-beam Midcentury Modern house has a tongue-and-groove ceiling, terrazzo floor and glass walls. Sitting on nearly an acre of land encircled by ficus trees, the nearly 5,000-square-foot house includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a detached guest casita. A wet bar lies poolside. There are two double garages. Holden, who died in 1981 at 63, lived in the house for 18 years.

Technology entrepreneur and philanthropist David Bohnett has listed his restored Holmby Hills estate for $18.9 million. Designed by A. Quincy Jones in 1955 for actor Gary Cooper, the wood, stone and glass house has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in 5,721 square feet and sits on nearly 2 1/2 wooded acres. Paths and low rock walls traverse the grounds and gardens. A canopied walkway leads to the open entrance hall. The living room features terrazzo floors, a raised stone fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the swimming pool.

Update: A Beverly Hills house designed by architect Wallace Neff in 1956 for comedic actor Groucho Marx has sold for $8.8 million. The rebuilt and updated Trousdale Estates home, which maintains its Neff footprint, is approached through a motor court with a central fountain. The one-story contemporary has walls of wood and glass and floors of terrazzo and walnut. There are five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a library and a maid's suite in slightly more than 6,000 square feet.

Someone has walked off with Gregory Peck at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Thieves equipped with a concrete saw cut through terrazzo and concrete to hoist out the pink, five-pointed star that frames a movie camera emblem and the late actor's bronzed name, authorities in Hollywood said Tuesday. "It happened just before Sunday's Hollywood Christmas Parade. We have no idea where it is," said Johnny Grant, who serves as Hollywood's honorary mayor and oversees the chamber's sidewalk salute to celebrity.

Re "The Voice of Everyman in Black" (Sept. 13), on the death of Johnny Cash: Instead of going to the beach as I usually do, I decided to run through the city, from Koreatown, where I live, through Hollywood and West Hollywood and back through Beverly Hills. As I was going west on Hollywood Boulevard, I noticed a small crowd and a pile of "debris" near Vine Street. As I got closer, I realized it wasn't trash but a makeshift shrine of flowers, candles, letters, notes and carefully arranged (empty, of course)

Making a Difference, Piece by Piece Thousands of squares are descending on Sherman Oaks from all corners of America, and it's not a national nerd convention. It's a phenomenon called Warm Up America, a movement that helps provide comfort and comforters for the needy and homeless. Evie Rosen, who owns a small yarn shop in Wisconsin, asked the handicrafters in her state to knit or crochet squares.

Set on a corner lot with the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, this board-and-batten and stone-facade house in Upland by noted local architect Boyd Georgi was designed for entertaining and indoor-outdoor living. A large swimming pool sits at the center of a courtyard dotted with mature palms. Location: 2121 N. Laurel Ave., Upland 91784 Asking price: $788,000 Year built: 1965 Architect: Boyd Georgi House size: Three bedrooms, four bathrooms, 4,352 square feet Lot size: 38,000 square feet Features: Glass walls, terrazzo flooring, wood paneling, built-ins, fireplace, atrium with waterfall, formal dining room, library/media room, circular driveway.

At a cemetery on Ramon Road, where the Crayola-green lawns of this desert community yield to sand and tumbleweeds, Frank Sinatra is buried. His plain, flat gravestone bears an epitaph taken from the title of an early '60s song he recorded: "The Best Is Yet to Come."

My rancher friend up in Canyon Country, though he likes to pose as a "country cousin," counts himself better off than most of us down below who subject ourselves to urban stress. But even he doesn't deny that Italian restaurants where you can get carpaccio and black linguine are few and far between in the Santa Clarita Valley. Give it time. A place called Il Terrazzo is now open in Newhall, making it unnecessary for those in the vicinity to drive long distances for timely Italian dishes.