Articles

The largest development project along the newly extended 210 freeway at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains is finally proceeding after years of planning and financial difficulty. However, all is not smooth sailing for the Colonies Crossroads project, as a November appellate court order halted grading on a portion of the site because of a fight over flood control facilities.

Developers are building residences in California at the fastest pace in years. From recent economic reports suggesting a slowing economy, the construction might appear to be risky. But builders are banking on two irrefutable facts: There is no end in sight to the state's population growth, and all of those people need a place to live.

Competing desalination projects - one public, one private - have been proposed to serve the thirsty Monterey Peninsula.

The most famous definition of architecture comes from Vitruvius, the ancient Roman writer, who said the word applied to structures that are (in my inexpert translation) beautiful, useful and well-built.

After more than four years of taking a timid approach to land use, the Davis administration is going out with a flurry.

Interest in smart growth varies by state and region, but many communities located in disparate parts of the country, whether or not they are growing rapidly, want to implement at least some aspects of smart growth. And

The last project in the re-creation of downtown Anaheim is scheduled to break ground before year's end. The project will bring about 1,000 full-time residents to a district that has blossomed with private sector offices and government facilities during the last 25 years.

Two Oakland ordinances that crack down on shoddy motels have been upheld as constitutional by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The City of Milpitas has adopted an ambitious specific plan for the heart of town, yet the city's approach to implementing the plan relies heavily on private investors.

An outwardly conventional apartment complex in Orange County does not clamor for attention in the same way as an architectural milestone like Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. But it might be that the suburban apartments, easily overlooked, will have a greater long-term impact on average Californians than L.A.'s spectacular new icon.

California's judicial system uses a fast-track approach to bring cases to trial quickly, but the state's plans to repair the aging courthouses in which trials are conducted are on a slow track. It is a case of maintenance deferred, leading to decrepit courtrooms and unsafe, seismically unfit buildings.

A decade of litigation over the status of the northern goshawk has apparently concluded with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Fish & Wildlife Service's decision not to place the bird on the endangered species list.

This summer, another huge ice shelf broke off the north polar ice cap and began drifting out to sea. The event made world news because it added to the mounting, tangible evidence of a phenomenon that the Bush administration ignores but that California's government cannot afford to dismiss: Climate change.

Development at Playa Vista, the controversial project on Los Angeles's West Side, is proceeding even though the project is getting smaller. During the same week in September that Playa Vista hosted an official grand opening, Gov. Gray Davis said he would sign a bill to spend $25 million of state bond money to partially purchase 193 acres at Playa Vista for habitat restoration and open space.