THIS IS DOWNSIZING?

"Candy Spelling, widow of the television producer Aaron Spelling, is downsizing. After nearly 20 years in The Manor, a 56,500-square-foot French chateau-style home known for its size and extravagance — it includes a wine-tasting room, a bowling alley, a silver room, a china room and a well-known gift-wrapping room — she says she is ready for the next trophy property: a condominium. “People say, How can you move from The Manor? There’s no place like it,” Mrs. Spelling said, sitting in the library with leatherbound scripts of every episode of Mr. Spelling’s shows, from “Charlie’s Angels” to “7th Heaven.” But a condo, she said, “is no different than a house, maybe even better.” Mrs. Spelling is the most conspicuous buyer in an ultraluxury condo market that is new in the sprawl of Los Angeles, where wealth and fame have usually spelled out “estate,” not apartment living. But real estate experts say a New York-style luxury high-rise lifestyle is creeping into the wealthiest echelons, fed by trends like people looking to own more than one home, foreigners drawn by the weak dollar to invest in Los Angeles, and new residential buildings being designed by celebrity architects like Robert A. M. Stern, Richard Meir and Jean Nouvel. Mr. Stern designed The Century, the 140-unit building under construction where Mrs. Spelling recently bought the top two penthouse floors — 16,500 square feet — for $47 million. (New York Times, 21 August) RD