Bisnow's own Maureen Wilkey spent the last five days running around southern California (one more day and she'd start calling it SoCal), where she captured this gorgeous, if not smoggy, picture of the LA CBD from the Griffith Park Observatory. Local sources say the $900 million Convention Center Hotel is slated to open Feb. 15. It includes 878 JW Marriott rooms and 123 Ritz-Carlton Suites.

Here's another view of downtown from Pershing Square. Angelenos (not to be confused with Angel Lenos, which many nowadays argue is an oxymoron) were learning to ice skate in 70 degree weather, as part of the city's Downtown on Ice festival. Small projects, like the 107-unit Bristol Hotel being developed by Izek Shomof, are set to strengthen the downtown in 2010. In other news, Maureen set a personal record at the inaugural LA Half Marathon in Santa Monica, with a time of 1:34:02, good for fourth place in her age group. Special thanks to A Runner's Circle.