You Learn New Things In Random Places

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Sometimes we learn our history lessons in very odd ways. For instance: until yesterday I didn't know that the last Pershing Square redesign (the current one) was done in 1994. I learned that from a large photo of Downtown hanging in a Clark's shoe store in the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square mall.

Kathy was trying on a pair of shoes, and I got to looking at the photo set in the back wall as if to be looking out a window. I thought I saw vehicles parked on top of an empty dirt Pershing Square, and looking closer I found that to be the case. Yet Library Tower (still with the Interstate 'I' on top) was completed, as was the Gas Company Tower. That meant the photo was post-1991, and the Interstate signage meant the shot was taken before 1997. My guess was 1994 (though that was because I mistakenly thought that to be the year the Gas Company Tower opened), but likely the shot was from 1993.

Just thought you'd like to know...