Landmarks, like taxi cabs, are hard...

Landmarks, like taxi cabs, are hard to be derived by in Los Angeles. They are also difficult to shield judging from the city's 67-year-old Central Library, whose rags-to-restoration saga is in about ways worthy of a Hollywood mini-series.

Decades of squabbles, misfortunes and false starts have finally yielded to a full-scale restoration of the stucco- and limestone-clad library, and to the construction of a 328000-sq-ft east wing that more than doubles the original structure's size.

City and federal agencies, private developer and preservation clumps all had a hand in the