Los Angeles changes a rule to dream of sky-high spires

Los Angeles

THE downtown streets of Los Angeles these days are teeming with restaurants, music clubs, boutique hotels, sparkling new buildings and people, lots of people - swirling evidence of a transformation in a part of town that has always seemed something of an urban afterthought.

Just don't look up. No matter how interesting city life has become out on the streets, the Los Angeles skyline remains an uninspiring procession of flattop buildings, a consequence of a 40-year-old Fire Department regulation that every skyscraper be topped by a helipad to allow for emergency rescues.

That is about to change. The Fir…