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HISTORY
Pasadena City Hall is one of the finest
examples of the California Mediterranean style. It is the dominant
building in the Pasadena Civic Center, a complex of government,
institutional and cultural buildings that epitomizes the City Beautiful
movement.
Since its opening on December 27, 1927,
80-year old Pasadena City Hall has remained
one of the most distinctive public buildings in the United States and is
listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
"An official building of imposing beauty, massive yet graceful, and suited
to a land of flowers and sunshine" is what the Pasadena Board of Directors
(called the City Council in modern times) had in mind when they undertook
to build the present City Hall.
The way had been prepared in 1923, when the people of Pasadena passed a
bond issue of $3.5 million to establish a civic center. The Chicago firm
of Bennett, Parsons and Frost was commissioned to draw up a civic center
plan. The planners established Garfield Avenue as an axis, on which City
Hall was to be the central element, with the Pasadena Public Library to
the north and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to the south. Also included in
the original design were the Pasadena Police Department, Pasadena
Municipal Court, YMCA, YWCA, Southern California Gas Company and United
States Post Office. Over the years the new police building and county
court house have been added. The YMCA building is now Centennial Place,
a single-room-occupancy residential complex, and the Southern California Gas
Company building now serves as the city's Permit Center. The YWCA building is unoccupied because
of seismic and other issues.
Pasadena City Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
on July 28, 1980, (listing number is 80-000813) as a contributor to the
Pasadena Civic Center District; the listed significance is at the national
level. As quoted from the National Register of Historic Places Inventory –
Nomination form: “The district, a Civic Center designed by Bennett,
Parsons and Frost, “is a nationally significant example of civic art in
the 'City Beautiful' style of the 1920’s. The main features of the plan were actually executed,
and the key buildings (including City Hall) actually built, by nationally
recognized architects in a homogeneous style.” ARCHITECTURE
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The original cost for building Pasadena City Hall was $1.3 million. For
the final design, the San Francisco architectural firm of Bakewell and
Brown turned to the style of 16th century Italian architect Andrea
Palladio, who had studied and admired the Roman architect Vitruvius, as
did the California mission-building padres. Palladio represented the
simple, serene, classical style of the early Renaissance, in contrast to
the Gothic style of medieval times and the rococo style of the later
Renaissance.
Three famous European domed structures show Palladio’s influence: the
church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, the Hotel des Invalides in
Paris and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Without being a direct
imitation, Pasadena City Hall is related to them all.
Bakewell and Brown had a Palladian purity of taste but approached the
style freely when designing Pasadena City Hall, gracing the walls with a
moderate amount of ornamentation in the form of lion heads and garlands –
symbolizing strength and abundance – as well as scrolls bearing the
official crown and key. The dome is solidly based and commanding yet
graceful and airy in appearance. Bakewell and Brown thought in terms of
sun-warmed buff against blue skies and greenery with an accent of red
tiles and shady, cloistered walks, a garden and splashing fountain. They
also planned for all the rooms that would be needed by a busy city
administration many years to come. Pasadena City Hall is a rectangular
edifice outlining a spacious court. On the outside it measures 351 feet
north and south and 242 feet east and west. The east side is a one-story
arcade. The other three sides are three stories high with small towers at
each corner and the main dome over the west entrance. The 235 rooms and
passageways cover 170,000 square feet.
The massive circular tower structure rises perpendicularly for six
stories. The fifth story is 41 feet high and pierced with four huge, round
arches and four smaller ones. The next story, set back a little, is 30
feet high and is also pierced with arches. Above rises the dome, 26 feet
high and 54 feet across. On top of the dome is the lantern, a
column-supported cupola 41 feet high, surmounted by an urn and ball. The
highest point is 206 feet above the ground.
The stairways have treads of Alaskan marble, with wrought iron
balustrades. Cast stone is used for the fountain and wall ornaments. The
roof is red Cordova clay tile and the dome is covered with fish-scale
tile, originally multicolored but now red. The lanterns of the stair
towers and the big dome are sheathed in copper. The floor of the main
lobby and corridors is Padre tile and the interior woodwork is of
vertical-grained white oak.
The courtyard has a strong Spanish Colonial atmosphere. The focal point is
the cast stone Baroque fountain. 22.5 feet tall with a basin 25 feet in
diameter. Paths of crushed granite define the flower beds and cloistered
arches paved with red Padre tile surround the courtyard. California live
oak trees provide shade for the azaleas,
hydrangeas, rhododendron and beds of annuals that are planted on a
rotational basis. To see original construction pictures of
City Hall please click on Photographs link below.
BUILDING CONDITION PRIOR TO CONSTRUCTION
One of the primary reasons for the seismic retrofit of Pasadena City Hall
was that r studies in the 1990's indicated that major earthquakes in the
future could destroy several parts of the building completely and result
in loss of life.
The exterior of the building was
virtually the same as it was built in 1927. Although portions of the
interior had been modified over the years, the primary public spaces
and some of the offices retained their historic character. Despite major
earthquakes since 1927, very little rehabilitation of
the exterior façade and architectural details was undertaken, with the exception of
the restoration of two
stair towers and one cupola in the 1980s and repair of the
finial on top of the large dome in 1991 following the Sierra Madre
earthquake the same year..
While the building appeared to be aging
gracefully to the lay observer, it suffered notably with a large
number of deep cracks and considerable damage to two of the stair towers
and the lantern in the large dome. The building had
extensive water damage due to inclement weather and temporary repairs
that were never completed. Aging art stone exterior features would
have been
lost without timely restoration. Repairs to many architectural
elements as well as original brick sidewalk were required to conform to
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In addition, outdated
mechanical, electrical and life safety systems sorely needed replacement.
Pasadena City Hall is regionally, nationally and internationally
recognized and is a source of pride for its residents. Pasadena has a
wealth of historic structures, yet City Hall assumes a greater
significance than most because, and until closed for restoration in 2004, it had
served for 77 years as the seat of
Pasadena’s government. It provides a tangible connection with the past
while having functioned admirably for most of today’s municipal needs. And
it is, literally, a symbol of the City which Pasadena’s citizens
universally speak of with a warm interest and pride. In a poll
conducted in 2004 by Pasadena Heritage, a local, non-profit preservation
organization, Pasadena City Hall was identified by both visitors and
residents alike at their “…favorite historic building in Pasadena.”
For photographs showing the original construction of
Pasadena City Hall, pre-2004 building conditions and monthly photos
showing construction activity from 2007-2007Hall construction, please click on the link below.
Photographs
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