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Fall architecture preview

On a piece of Civic Center land that community activists and some city planners hoped would eventually hold a park, a very different sort of monument is nearly ready for its ribbon-cutting: The $437-million home for the LAPD, designed by the firm DMJM (now AECOM) to replace the aging Parker Center a few blocks away. We haven't been inside yet, but on the exterior it seems torn between a desire to protect itself -- the structure is set back 75 feet from the street on each side, per federal blast-protection guidelines, even though it's not a federal building -- and an effort to carve out generous public space between its front door and City Hall.

On a piece of Civic Center land that community activists and some city planners hoped would eventually hold a park, a very different sort of monument is nearly ready for its ribbon-cutting: The $437-million home for the LAPD, designed by the firm DMJM (now AECOM) to replace the aging Parker Center a few blocks away. We haven’t been inside yet, but on the exterior it seems torn between a desire to protect itself -- the structure is set back 75 feet from the street on each side, per federal blast-protection guidelines, even though it’s not a federal building -- and an effort to carve out generous public space between its front door and City Hall.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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LA Live, 800 W. Olympic Blvd.

The late fall and winter will bring yet more openings at the downtown behemoth. December marks the planned debut of a 14-screen multiplex, Regal Cinemas, and by February the main tower at the complex, designed by architects from Gensler and holding both a JW Marriott Hotel and a Ritz-Carlton, should be in operation.  (Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images)

Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas

This month, Dallas’ NFL franchise will welcome the New York Giants in the first regular-season game at the House That Jerry Jones Built. The stadium, designed by architecture firm HKS, is drawing notice not just for its cost, which exceeded $1 billion, but also for its Texas-style affection for all things XXL, including a hanging video screen that is 71 feet high and has already been dubbed “Godzilla-Tron.”  (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

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