Long Beach architect Kelly Sutherlin McLeod has been hired by the Westridge School in Pasadena to handle the conservation of the Pitcairn House, a home designed by famed architects Charles and Henry Greene that the school uses for offices.
It’s a good fit for Sutherlin McLeod she once lived in the Gamble House, the Greene brothers’ Pasadena masterpiece. As an architecture student at USC, she got the chance to live there as part of a scholars-in-residence program. So what was it like living in the iconic Craftsman home?
“It creaks,” said Sutherlin McLeod, who added that the 1909 house, which is open to the public and serves as a museum, is inhabited by a supernatural presence. “If you were to survey the scholars-in-residence, I think you’ll find they’ll say there is a presence in the house.”
Sutherlin McLeod said that living in the home jump-started her interest in the Greenes’ work.
“The close interaction I had with their work had a profound impact on my career,” she said.
Solemn Oath
During the anti-communist scare in the early 1950s, as citizens were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, they often swore to the following statement under oath: “I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the Communist Party.”
Now, it seems subprime lending has acquired the same negative cachet.
In East West Bancorp Inc.’s second-quarter earnings press release, in which the Pasadena lender reported a net loss of $25.9 million and that it was taking a loan loss provision of $85 million, Chief Executive Dominic Ng made the following statement:
“I would like to reiterate that East West does not and has not ever engaged in subprime lending.”
Ng went on to say that the bank’s consumer and residential loan portfolios “are performing well,” and that the bank should be “one of the first community banks to successfully emerge from this difficult economic environment.”
Bada Bing
The nearly reclusive Stephen Bing may not be a household name or a particularly familiar face in the way that, for example, Steven Spielberg is. But considering Bing is a playboy billionaire, Hollywood producer and mainstay on the Business Journal’s “Wealthiest Angelenos” list, he is a household name for those in the know.
So it was probably no big surprise when Bing, who showed up at swanky Craft in Century City on July 25, could barely get his lunch ordered for all the well-wishers who stopped by, some of whom interrupted him to introduce themselves.
Although Bing is known for desiring his privacy, he was gregarious, smiling and joking with several who stopped by his table.
Staff reporter Howard Fine contributed to this column. Daniel Miller can be reached at
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