LA Cowboy Last Person On Planet To Know About Downtown Fire!

Since I left my office very, very late Sunday night and slept in the third furthest of my nightly nests from my office - which is less than a block than the fire at 4th and Broadway - I not only did not smell or see the flames - or even hear the fire engines - but I also ended up sleeping in very, very late. So by the time I finally got to the office, even my friends in New York and London had seen the fire on their computer screens.

So I do not have a lot of say in the way of 'breaking' news.

But I do have one observation; as all the ugly improvements were stripped from the buildings, two lovely facades were revealed - with the larger building just off the corner revealing some great curved windows in the quite late Victorian/medium late Richardsonian/early classical mode.

Now that building is also the structure that had the worst damage and it is the mostly likely of the two to be torn down - immediately.

But what if this was a city that actually worked and the city and the owner could work out a plan that would allow the building to be preserved while also allowing additional stories to be added. And then to make the restoration economically (and physically) feasible by waiving the parking requirement (since one of the largest parking garages in the city is directly behind it).

And - possibly - something could be worked out in the replacement of the building at the corner with the lesser amount of damage - that would further encourage the saving of the more architecturally distinguished building.

Well, one can hope... can't one?