Occupant: John Cushman

Title: President

Company: Cushman Realty Corp.

Designer: Katie Berg of Interprise in Dallas

Style: Modern Western

Commercial real estate broker John Cushman grew up in Montclair, N.J., but he has always been in love with the Wild West. So when faced with choosing a style for his 800-square-foot office on the 48th floor of the Sanwa Bank Plaza in downtown Los Angeles, he mixed quiet elegance with traditional Western style.

Walk into Cushman’s office and you’ve stepped into the late 1800s. The walls are peppered with Western art, from the Frederic Remington bronze statues on his credenzas that evoke scenes from the frontier days, to the Thomas Moran prints on the wall.

The Western motif is carried through with an antique leather saddle perched atop a stand. The saddle, complete with silver horn, once belonged to newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, who used it at his San Simeon ranch on the Central California coast. Tall cacti decorate the corners of the office.

“I like the West,” Cushman says in a phone interview from his Idaho ranch. “I’m not too big on the contemporary look.”

While you may think you’re in the Old West while sitting in Cushman’s office, that all changes when you gaze through the floor-to-ceiling windows that give a sweeping view of downtown’s contemporary architecture.

From Cushman’s wooden desk topped with leather, you can see the ocean on a clear day. With his powerful Bausch & Lomb brass telescope, you can zoom in on the freeways and practically see the motorists behind the wheel. Or you can gaze out toward Century City and identify every building.

In one corner is a cozy informal meeting area accented with beige leather chairs and an Oriental carpet that gives a feeling of being comfortably parked in one’s own living room.

Next to the large corner office is a full bathroom and a small workout room with an exercise bike positioned to take in the spectacular view. A weight machine and free weights make up the rest of the gym, whose walls are thickly covered with the various awards and certificates Cushman has received over the years.

There are also several pictures of him with former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. One depicts him with his twin brother Louis standing with Fidel Castro in 1959. That particular photo was published in Cushman’s hometown newspaper, The Montclair Times.