introduction_single

Planning for the 21st Century
MAY 15, 2016 PRE-RELEASE DRAFT U WORK-IN-PROGRESS EXPIRES JULY 31, 2016

A Park System Linked by Scenic Highways “from the Mountains to the Sea”
LA’s freeway system began as a 1912 plan for a system of
parkways linking public parks. To create a contiguous
greenbelt, tunnels were dug through Elysian Park.
Seen here in 1938, this section of the
Arroyo Seco Parkway is still in use
today near Dodger Stadium. The
“Progressive Republican City”
section (p.31) and the
“Hand-Made City”
section (p.36) detail
the Arroyo Seco
vision.
The Colorado Street Bridge
Built in 1913, the landmark bridge
helped initiate Pasadena’s
City Beautiful Movement.

“Home Made City Planning”
Based on the Work of Dean George A. Damon
And the Conversations of Generations of Pasadena Planners,
Residents, and Visionaries who are Co-Authors of this Work,
Past Present and Future.

“Remembering that a noble,
logical diagram once recorded will never die,
but long after we are gone be a living thing,
asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.”
George A. Damon
Dean of Engineering
The forgotten Father of Civic Pasadena
Pasadena’s City Beautiful Movement
The Four Corners Competition, 1914
The Pasadena Plan, 1915
The “My City” Exhibit, 1916
The Pasadena Museum of History, 1916-1924
The Norton Simon Museum, 1924
This document is based on his work.
Daniel Burnham
Jeanne Carr
Horticulturalist
The Mother of Pasadena Beauty
Carmelita Gardens, 1880
Mentor to John Muir
Planner of Gardens
Protector of Native Culture
Her gardens led to the creation
of the Norton Simon Museum.
NOTE TO THE READER SPRING 2016 DRAFT
This is a pre-release draft to solicit feedback.
See pasadenapassages.org/feedback A pdf of this document
is can be accessed at pasadenapassages.org/draft
Please do not post or make viral until release, Fall 2016 at
which time this document will expire with the final release.
Paul Revere Williams
The largely forgotten beginning of the first prominent
African-American architect was launched by his
First Place entry in Pasadena’s 1914 “Four-Corners
Competition,” sponsored by Throop College, now Caltech.
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THESE ARE LINKS that allow the document to be navigated like a webpage in the electronic versions of this
document. Words and page numbers that are underlined are also links. Triangles that appear here might look like they
turn the page but are actually webpage-like back and forward buttons that allow you to go back after looking at a link.
CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Updating the City Beautiful
Movement for the 21st Century
The Gazing Globe at the “My City” First Horticultural Court The back alley behind the Pasadena Board of Trade Offices.
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CONTENTS, PART II: REVIVING “MY CITY” FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
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Hotel Green: the Missing Bridge
This is Pasadena’s bridge to nowhere
(left), which originally connected to the
other side of Raymond Avenue and where
one block north, at 34 South Raymond
Avenue, an exhibit called “My City”
invited the people of Pasadena to
envision their future in 1916.
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Contents
Part I: the Birth of the Modern City
Part I of this document is a study of the first century of modern city planning, using Pasadena,
California as a case study. Among the first cities to come of age at the dawn of the 20th
Century, Pasadena had more cars per capita by 1915 than anywhere in the world. This is the
story of the modern city, its rise, fall and resurrection.
PREFACE........................................................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................12
“MY CITY” 1916: THE STORY OF THE ORIGINAL EXHIBIT...........................................................27
27
The Rise of the City Beautiful: Progressive City Planning.......................................................28
City of Gardens..........................................................................................................................30
Progressive Republican City.....................................................................................................31
The Four Corners Competition..................................................................................................33
“What Happened in Pasadena: the Story of a Municipal Triumph” A 1909 article ...............34
Hand-Made City: the Arts & Crafts Movement........................................................................36
Home-Made City: The “My City” Planning Exhibit of 1916....................................................38
“How to Get Started in City Planning: The Pasadena Way” by Dean Damon, 1916..............44
After World War I: “In Memory of 1917-1918” and Carmelita Gardens..................................45
“The Jubilee Year Passes to Greater Opportunities:” by Dean Damon, 1924.........................48
The Bennett Plan: Pasadena Builds its Civic Center.................................................................50
MAIN STREET: THE PASADENA CASE-STUDY...................................................................................53
53
Colorado St
The Last Main Street Before Reaching Los Angeles................................................................55
Main Street in Decline...............................................................................................................58
Experiment 1: Redevelopment and the Story of the Plaza Pasadena Mall................................58
Experiment 2: The Revitalization of Old Pasadena...................................................................64
The Results of the Two Experiments.........................................................................................70
TODAY: PLANNING IN 2015......................................................................................................................77
77
The Early Visioning and Later Logistical Stages of Planning...................................................78
Important Topics of Planning: Parts and Pieces........................................................................81
People in the Planning Process Today.......................................................................................82
The General Plan and 710 Freeway Environmental Impact Report..........................................83
THE PROFESSION OF PLANNING TURNS 100: LESSONS LEARNED............................................87
87
A Century of Modern Planning: The Centennial of the Profession of Planning.......................88
Turning Vision into Results: Lessons of Momentum................................................................91
Lessons of Form and Process....................................................................................................96
Creating a Stronger Link Between Vision and Outcome...........................................................99
Contents continue on the following page
The Arroyo Seco Parkway (the Pasadena Fwy & the 110)
Planning began in 1912 as a vision for a greenbelt park system.
By the time it was constructed in 1939, the plan had shifted to the
West’s first freeway. In 2010, the original name of 1912 was reinstated.
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Contents Part II
“MY CITY”
T H E P R O C E S S
The second half of this document explores
how a revived and updated participatory
planning process could work in your city
today. Based on Pasadena’s City Beautiful
initiatives of 1914-1916, this renewed
“My City” process would “support, not
supplant” the current process of planning,
helping citizens to be more effective
advocates of their common future while
successfully engendering the enduring
commitment required to meet the growing
challenges of the 21st Century.
“The atmosphere here is
that of planning a future
home to which everyone
who is to live in it has
an opportunity for
contributing
something.
This expression
of public opinion
is the crux of the
whole exhibit.”
Dean George A. Damon
The American City, 1916
Navigating this Document These tabs at the bottom of the page highlight the current chapter and in electronic
versions of this document, tabs are also links to navigate around the document.
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CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

“MY CITY” FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN OVERVIEW................................ 100
100
Updating “My City” for Planning Today................................................................................. 101
Principle 1: Bottom-Up Planning in the Visioning Stages that Supports the Public Process.. 104
Principle 2: Transparency, Ideas Presented in a Manner All Can Understand........................106
Project-Event-Survey-Proposal: Citizen Roles of Leadership, part 1 ....................................108
“MY CITY” PROJECTS ....................................................................... 111
111
Principle 3: A “Clearinghouse Approach”...............................................................................112
The Structure of the Project Proposal and the Approach of Video Overviews.......................113
The Process of the “My City” Project.....................................................................................114
The “My City” Visioning Proposal is a Potential Specific Plan for the City..........................115
The Passages Project: An Example “My City” Visioning Proposal........................................116
“MY CITY” EVENTS........................................................................... 119
119
The Four Types of Public Participation at “My City” Events.................................................122
Competitions...........................................................................................................................123
Surveys and Straw Poles: Building Momentum.....................................................................124
Principle 4: The Revision Principle, “Not Approved But Improved”.....................................125
“MY CITY” PLANITORIUM.................................................................. 127
127
Carnegie Library for the 21st Century....................................................................................130
The Initiatives of the Planitorium............................................................................................132
What’s Happening at the Planitorium: An Example Activity Guide........................................136
Charlie Munger’s Lollapalooza Effect: Logistical and Top-Down Benefits...........................138
POTENTIAL NEXT STEPS...................................................................... 141
141
“My City” in Your City: Potential Stages and Steps...............................................................142
Local and Parent Organization, the “My City” Board, Support Teams..................................143
The Potential of Reviving “My City” in Pasadena.................................................................146
CONCLUSIONS: MAKERS OF THE GRAND MIX ....................................... 149
149
The Future is Cities, Planning is the Key................................................................................150
“My City” is the Ship: The Proposal and Benefits..................................................................161
Makers of the Grand Mix: Be a Maker. Citizen Roles of Leadership, part II.........................163
Chapter 11: You Are Here.......................................................................................................167
Appendices, “My City” in Your City, Author’s Note, Acknowledgements............................185
Bibliography and Endnotes.....................................................................................................192
This is a visual study of what a revitalized Arroyo Seco would look like.
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“A ‘HOME-MADE’ CITY
PLANNING EXHIBIT”
This 1916 article outlines efforts
to create the “My City” Planning
Exhibit.” For a copy, including local
articles on the exhibit, see pages
38-43, or download a pdf at:
pasadenapassages.org/homemade.pdf
GEORGE A. DAMON
DEAN OF ENGINEERING
A few years before Caltech changed
its name from Throop, Dean George
A. Damon authored the article (above)
about the exhibit he helped to organize.
The “Pasadena Plan” (right) is also a
report on his efforts.
“PASADENA
PLAN”
In 1915, Clara Burdettes’ Pasadena
Woman’s Civic League produced
this report on the work of Dean
George Damon. To download a
copy, go to pasadenapassages.org/
pasadenaplan.pdf
The Property Value Map Grounded in the financial practicalities fitting of its Board of Trade sponsor, this display mapped land values.
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CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Preface
This project explores the planning of the modern city,
using Pasadena, California as a case study.
Among the first cities to come of age at the dawn of the
modern era, Pasadena tells the tale of both cautionary
and exemplary results: a landmark civic center, the first
freeway in the West, the decline of Main Street and the
first city to build an urban mall to address that decline.
As Pasadena’s new mayor, Terry Tornek seeks to
“restore Pasadena to its rightful position as a model
for other cities to emulate,” a this project explores how
that reputation was created in the first place.
Much of Pasadena’s model city reputation can be
found in the City Beautiful Movement and the work of
George A. Damon, Dean of Engineering. In creating a
more participatory process during the early visioning
stages of planning, community aspirations were shared,
finances were measured, and an ambitious set of
proposals were set in motion.
Part I of this document describes Pasadena’s City
Beautiful efforts and the century that has followed.
Presentations on the “My City” process in 2014 elicited
strong feedback that this approach could be revived. To
that end, Part II explores how an updated process could
work in any city today.
A revived “My City” process works to support, not
supplant the good efforts of the existing municipal
planning department by enhancing planning literacy
and enduring commitment in any city that seeks to
create a stronger link between the early visioning and
later logistical stages of planning.
This exploration of how “My City” can be revitalized
initiates the conversation, but does not lead the effort.
Like the City Beautiful Movement, the potential of
“My City” in your city is found in the leadership of
those who champion the Dean Damon’s vision to
more effectively and efficiently plan for the increasing
velocity of change moving forward.
This a symbol indicates an Endnote on page 194. An underline is a hyperlink in electronic versions of this document.
Central Library Designed by Myron Hunt and H.C. Chambers in 1924, the vision and planning began in the decade before.
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Introduction
This journey is an exploration of the rise of the modern city,
and two themes that weave throughout:
The first is Old World, top-down rule
and ideas imposed from above.
The second is bottom-up vision and the
public search for a beautiful and useful solution.
One city discovered the key to an optimal balance.
Their “My City” approach and how it can be revitalized
is explored in the pages that follow.
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

This map from 1664 was created by Joan Blaeu was titled
“Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula.”
Some modifications have been made to highlight added text.
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Queen Calafia
The name California comes from
the myth of a warrior queen who
ruled a land of black women in the
Adventures of Esplandián, circa
1500, by Spaniard Garci Rodríguez
de Montalvo. He drew inspiration
from the frontier of the New World
in the same way that science-fiction
is inspired by the frontier of space.
Pt. Reyes
Monterey
Pt. Conception
Santa Barbara
San Diego
Johannes Vingboons Map of California. Circa 1650.
When California was first encountered by Spanish explorers in the 1500s, the
tip of what is now called Baja California appeared to be an island. Until the
1700s, maps of the world and North America continued to depict California as
an island with some continuing to do so as late as 1865. Johannes Vingboons
Map of California that is the background of this page draws from many source
maps of this period. Some areas accurately portray coastal points of interest
as reported by Spanish explorers, such as San Diego, Point Conception above
Santa Barbara. As Vingboons drew from incomplete information, a great deal
of inference and conjecture was also needed, which unwittingly perpetuated the
myth of California as an island.
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

AN ISLAND CALLED CALIFORNIA
The name California is born of a mythic island paradise ruled by a queen named Calafia.
Along with the tale of the Seven Golden Cities, these Old World fables sparked the
imaginations of Spanish mariners in the 1500s, explorers who gambled fortunes and
lives, searching in vain to find the cities of gold.
As the puzzle of the world fell into place, the mistaken idea that California is
an island was difficult to correct. Before there were public schools and libraries,
knowledge was handed down and rarely corrected. Most people were still illiterate
and believed what they were told. Even as the truth emerged, fixing the error took
hundreds of years in some cases, with new maps showing California as an island
still being produced as late as 1865. a
With a more complete picture of the world taking shape, the rise of science and
the printing of books brought the Enlightenment in the 1700s. This shift from the
divine right of kings to the value of people ruling their own lives marked the rise of
reason, evidence, free choice and people following their own vision of life.
The Enlightenment was crucial to all aspects of the American Revolution.
Its bottom-up ideals went hand-in-hand with the creation of the public
school and the public commons. The American invention of the public
library, once deemed worthy of taxation in the 1800s, brought
the rise of libraries in the decades surrounding 1900, fueling
people’s appetite to know more about the world around them.
California distilled this mix. Amid its sunshine
and wide open space, immigrants envisioned an
“Athens of the West,” educating all people,
independent of the status in life. Free
libraries and schools, they reasoned,
would create a well-educated populace
and that strong and innovative
government institutions led by
informed citizens would also
pay great dividends in the
century that followed.
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S E C O
Abbot Kinney At 30 he
founded PLAVIS, worked to
preserve the mountains, and
later created Venice, CA.
Carmelita, 1880-1968: (aka the Norton Simon). From John Muir to
Helen Hunt Jackson, the long list of luminaries gathered to socialize,
garden, write and do good work at this social and intellectual nexus
continues to this day. Its story weaves through pages 30, 45, 46, 50, 96.
Jeanne Carr Conservationist,
horticultural expert, writer, and
mentor to naturalist John Muir,
planner and planter of Carmelita.
PASADENA LIBRARY AND VILLAGE
IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY (PLAVIS)
In 1880, not far from the “colony” that would
become Pasadena, 30 year old Abbot Kinney arrived
to find no room at the Sierra Madre Inn. He slept
instead on their billiard table and though he was an
asthmatic, he woke breathing free and a convert to
this new frontier town, population 391.
A young man of ideas and enterprise, Kinney bought
500 acres and was soon active in the preservation
of both the nearby mountains and native culture.
He also set about bringing new culture to this land
of sunshine and possibility. Looking back fifteen
years later, historian Hiram Reid writes that Kinney
conceived what he called the Pasadena Library and
Village Improvement Society
(PLAVIS).
“Some thought the colony settlers too much
scattered and too poor to make or use such a
library;” wrote Reid “but the more cultivated
and progressive people grew more in favor of the
undertaking as they kept on talking about it.” b
Another new arrival, Jeanne Carr, also served on
the board of PLAVIS. A “gregarious and gifted
woman with a vast network of progressively minded
and influential friends” d her Carmelita gardens
served as a cultural nexus of the region. In turn, she
helped PLAVIS to become a movement that mixed
education, music, socializing, community and
culture, helping turn this frontier village into a true
society with an educated populace.
Carmelita
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

John Muir’s Carmelita
visits, gardening and
socializing.“I owe to you
all my best friends.”
The First Library
(1884-1890) was PLAVIS’
simple structure and
included a social hall.
Pasadena’s Second Library
At Walnut and Raymond, PLAVIS built Pasadena’s
second library, finally realizing a free library system.
Today, the arched corner still stands in Memorial Park
Helen Hunt Jackson
worked on “Ramona”
a book on Native
culture at Carmelita.
Many were swept up in the “public-spiritedness.”
Reid continues, “Mr. Kinney had planned it to
be a popular movement in which all could take
part.” Though its goal was a free library, funding
was needed to get it off the ground. With space
provided on the Central School grounds, a simple
two story wooden structure was built that also
had a social hall. “A fee of twenty-five cents per
month was charged for loan of books, although the
reading room remained free to all.”
Reid writes of the following events in the 1880s:
Public Concerts, “to provide needful furnishings
for the Library parlor and reading room.”
Book Socials, with guests contributing a book.
Art Exhibits, organized by Kinney, included a “rare
collection of stone implements and Indian relics.”
The Great Citrus Fair of 1885 “was ‘the most
extensive of anything yet attempted.’ To advertise
this Fair, and advertise Pasadena at the same time,
Mr. Rust and others got out a pamphlet of 96 pages
(2,000 copies of it).” The Fair proved a great
success, raising :$531 (about $18,000 today).
Through the late 1880s PLAVIS continued to
raise funds, sell shares and hold social
events to both promote the
improvement of
Pasadena
and to pay for a more substantial and permanent
library on Raymond Avenue and Walnut Street.
Finally, in 1889, with the new stone library
half completed, a ten day event was held in the
unfinished shell of the new building. A theme
each day brought a blend of cultural offerings.
The Ten Day Art Exhibition of 1889 “was the
most ambitious and elaborate Art Loan show that
had yet been attempted on the Pacific coast; and
having been in some sort repeated yearly ever
since, it became an historic event which has won
fame to Pasadena in literary and art circles both
East and West, through illustrated periodicals and
descriptive pens,” writes Reid.
The Ten Day Exhibition presented: “Senor Arturo
Bandini will daily conduct a Spanish conversazione
upon suggested subjects of interest to strangers.”
Forestry Day: An address by Abbot Kinney, State
Forestry Commissioner. Children’s Day: School
children’s day. Russian Day: “Exhibits from
Alaska. Russian tea.” On Mexican Day: Don
Antonio Coronel exhibited rare Mexican relics.
Spanish Day presented “Senator Del Valle and
relics from his hacienda of Camulos, the reputed
home of Ramona.” On California Day: The
“widow of Hon. B. D. Wilson, former owner of the
Rancho San Pasqual, will pour tea.”
There was Oriental Day and Chinese Day.
Three years prior to the Ten Day
Exhibition, a mob ran
the Chinese
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The Colorado Street Bridge, 1913 Initiated by Pasadena’s Board of Trade three years before it sponsored “My City,”
this new automobile link to Los Angeles was an engineering marvel that helped usher in the modern age.
out of downtown
Pasadena. Jeanne Carr’s
husband Ezra, a professor
and state Superintendent of
Public Instruction, exposed the
mob’s members in the LA Times.
Perhaps, then,“the Chinese candlemaker”
who gave“receipted bill in his
own language,” may also have been a token
measure of cultural equanimity.
Reid recalls, “The ten days’ proceedings showed
a vast resource of ingenuity, enterprise, skill,
working energy and steadfastness.” In the end,
however, PLAVIS did not raise the final money
needed to complete the half-built library. Instead,
an 1890 bond initiative by the City of Pasadena
completed the free library Kinney envisioned a
decade before.
Throughout the history of Pasadena’s development
that is explored in Part I of this document, the
blending of bottom-up visioning and top-down
logistics—a kind of “Grand Mix”—is a repeating
pattern that marks both the cautionary tales and
exemplary results that followed.
PLANNING
THE CITY
BEAUTIFUL
Pasadena’s
With the
Neighborhood
Village Improvement
Libraries served to be the ‘the heart of the
every
Society
Pasadena
setting
resident
a higher
is within
standard
walking distance of a library. The b
for Pasadena, the town attracted
services into the neighborhood and each branch library,/ through its p
increasingly wealthy and progressively
the unique character and needs of the neighborhood that surrounds it
minded citizens. By 1900, Pasadena’s 9000
residents owned 4000 bicycles, which were
the cutting edge of technology in the 1890s.
Bicycle shops produced the Wright Brothers and
the first automobiles, which appeared in Pasadena
about this time. By 1915, Pasadena had the highest
rate of car ownership in the world. c
At this dawn of the Modern Age, engineering and
architecture now took the lead. Helping lead civic
improvement, Pasadena’s Board of Trade initiated
the city’s new bridge to Los Angeles in 1913.
George A. Damon, an electrical engineer from
Chicago’s 1893 Fair, arrived in Pasadena about
this time, becoming Dean of Engineering at what
is now Caltech. In 1910, they were building a new
campus at the edge of Pasadena. Concerns about
the development of nearby intersections at Lake
Street and California prompted the 1914 “Four
Pasadena’s branch Libraries are “the heart of the neighborhoods,” often located beside a park or school.
Central Library was proposed in 1915 and built 1925
Hill Ave. Branch, 1925
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

neighborhoods, which is why
ranch libraries bring information
rograms and collections, reflects
.\
Corners
Competition,”
organized by Dean
Damon to explore
potential solutions. In a
blind competition, first prize
was awarded to a young man of
20 from South Central Los Angeles
named Paul R. Williams, launching the
career of one the first prominent African
American architects, who would be among
the most prolific in the decades that followed.
Like the Village Improvement Society, Dean
Damon’s efforts repeated the bottom-up,
participatory approach to creating a common vision.
Sponsored by the Board of Trade, their efforts
culminated with the “My City” Exhibit of 1916. It was
“My City” that refined the vision of Pasadena’s future
so that “its program for civic improvements includes
nearly all of the elements which go to make up the very
heart of the city’s design,” d wrote Dean Damon.
From the dawn of the Modern Age in 1900 and on through
the mid-1920s, the efforts of this World War I generation
stand tall among the very best of what the Golden State
had to offer. Though remembered for building California’s
greatest bridges and public landscapes after 1925, e how they
first created the bottom-up momentum for such audacious
projects has faded from public memory amidst the cycle of
change that has revised and sometimes reversed their efforts.
Dean George
A. Damon
led the early
visioning efforts
in building momentum
towards
an ambitious
Civic Center”
Paul R.
Williams
He won first
prize
and got his
start.
Everyone in Pasadena is within walking distance of a library. These are ten branch libraries, plus local college libraries.
La Pintoresca Park Branch Library, 1930
Santa Catalina, 1930
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Barack Obama lived
in Pasadena
when he
made his first
speech (p.68).
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A
1. Originally parks and an open Civic Center
axis faced the 1930 Civic Auditorium. A
1980: The Plaza
Pasadena Mall
blocked the axis.
When it failed....
A
2001: The Paseo Colorado
mall reopened the axis.
In 2015 it sat half empty
and waiting renewal.
A
Unintended Consequences
The Natural Cycle of Inventing, Refining, Inverting & Revitalizing
In the evolution of cities and human endeavor, there is
a Natural Cycle that begins with invention followed
by continual refining that transforms and can even
invert the original vision. This often leads to a desire
to revitalize and the cycle begins once again. Though
this Natural Cycle of change can lead to unintended
consequences, the pattern is also a natural part of
growth, development, transformation and change.
For example, when wandering
tribes first created settlements
with an enclosed area for grazing
animals, this enclosed area
would often become the park or
plaza open space for city that
grew around it.
2. Refinement
3. Inversion
Downtown Pasadena
demonstrates the Natural
Cycle of change. The blocks
surrounding the main
intersection at Colorado
Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue
were the most valuable around
1900. Fifty years later they were
among the least. Revitalization brought new ideas and
today they are once again among the most valuable.
1. Invention
The Natural Cycle of Change
Pasadena’s main thoroughfare also repeats the cycle.
Originally known as Colorado Street, it was widened
to boulevard status and for decades it was the city’s
main artery. Over time, the development of parallel
streets and freeways transformed it into a destination
that is more often driven to and from instead.
Reacting to urban flight after WWII, Redevelopment
marked a shift in the cycle from bottom-up to topdown
planning in this cycle as its Plaza Pasadena
mall inverted the normal pattern of development
by moving pedestrians to the interior of the block
(usually an alley) and locating
loading docks adjacent to the
sidewalk on Green Street.
4. Revitalization
This pattern repeats throughout this study,
recurring on pages 88, 156, and 158.
When the Plaza Pasadena mall failed,
the revitalized Paseo Colorado mall
continued the cycle, reopening the
Civic Center axis and transforming
it into an open-air mall. Fifteen years
later, the mall is set to enter its third
cycle, as it now sits in a state of deep
incubation, empty of anchor tenants
and ready to begin the cycle once again.
This pattern, common to the
development of cities and
organizations, can be found
throughout the history that follows. Understanding the
Natural Cycle helps substantiate why planning driven
from the bottom up is the key to more effectively
avoid unintended consequences, and in so doing, the
cycle serves to help people both recognize the pattern
of inversion and the signal to revitalize and begin
once again.
While Modern domestic architecture is largely seen as a triumph of design, the Modernist urban landscape is generally disliked.
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Testing the Oaklawn Bridge Pasadena’s most famous architects, brothers Henry and Charles
Greene, are seen in 1906 testing their still standing bridge over the Santa Fe (Gold Line) tracks.
CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRO
MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

THE “NATURAL” CYCLE OF INCREMENTAL CHANGE: HOW INVERSION WORKS
Robert Crumb draws a familiar transformation. Pasadena of 1916 was focussed on row three as they sought to avoid row four.
The Greene and Greene Oaklawn Pedestrian Bridge in South Pasadena
8
11
12
A Short History of America © Copyright. 1979, 1981 by Robert Crumb. Published by Kitchen Sink Press, No. 2 Swamp Road, Princeton, Wis. 54968
After making the top twelve panels, Robert Crumb later added the three potential futures shown above under the title “What’s Next?”
A revived “My City” process seeks to offer the public more input and involvement.
Your Vision... The Planner’s Vision... The Developer’s Vision...
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The Grand Mix
The Blending of Bottom-Up Visioning and Top-Down Logistics
As Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek strives to “restore
Pasadena to its rightful position as a model for other
cities to emulate,” this document seeks to trace that
reputation back to its source. F
In Terry Tornek’s mayoral election of 2015, Pasadena’s
former Planning Director pointed out that planning
needs a more “bottom-up” g approach. As that vision
inspired this exploration, it has become a template to
better understand the complicated relationships at play,
encouraging the idea that “My City” can work today.
The top-down and bottom-up metaphor is a useful
way to understand the complexities of planning. The
same idea could easily be insiders and outsiders or
Pasadena’s organization chart which puts citizens on
top, but is basically describing the same idea.
While this exploration promotes a more bottom-up
approach, there is also a need for a top-down approach
in the later, logistical stages of planning.
Abbot Kinney’s Library and Village Improvement
Society (p.16) spent a decade building the essential
bottom-up momentum needed by the top-down efforts
that helped perpetuate that vision into ten libraries.
Dean Damon and the City Beautiful Movement’s
“My City” process was also based on the marriage of
bottom-up vision and top-down logistics, which they
called “beauty” and “order.” i The exemplary results
and cautionary tales of the history that follows are
rooted in either the presence or the lack of this critical
blending of bottom-up and top-down efforts.
The term “Grand Mix,” in turn, is used to describe
this blending of bottom-up vision with the top-down
order needed to execute and sustain the effort. It is
efficient and effective democracy at their best and the
essential key to creating good government.
Part II of this project is an exploration into how
“My City” can be updated for any city today. Using
a project-event-survey-plan approach, “My City” is
designed to “support, not supplant” the existing
process, presenting projects so they may be not
approved, but improved,” as Dean Damon put it. j
This is the story of what made Pasadena a model for
other cities to emulate, how the vision was lost, and
how the public’s rightful place in the process can be
restored using an exemplary approach to realizing an
extraordinary vision that was called “My City.”
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CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

THE GRAND MIX
THE “GRAND MIX”
OF THE PUBLIC REALM
This description of top-down and
bottom-up planning continue from
this introductory description as
a thread of logic that weaves
through pages 79, 91, 105,
115, 156, & 159.
TOP-DOWN
Top-down entities are
key to maintaining a
civil society and the
repository of the
collective expertise
necessary to carry
out logistical
planning.
TOP-DOWN LOGISTICS
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
POLICY-BASED AND SINGULAR
ORDER
TOP-DOWN
• GOVERNMENT
• POLICY
• BUDGET
• ENFORCEMENT
• INSPECTION
• DEDUCTION
• GLOBAL
• DECREE
BOTTOM-UP
In planning,
bottom-up
approaches use
greater participation
by the public in the
early visioning stages,
focusing on measuring
the ambitions of the people
who will be living in the
world being planned. Bottomup
approaches have a greater
tendency to focus on the process
of creating beauty and making a
civil society one worth living in.
BOTTOM-UP VISION
FORM FOLLOWS PROCESS
NON-LINEAR EXPLORATION BY THE MANY
BOTTOM-UP
• INDIVIDUALS
• VISION
• ECONOMY
• INITIATIVE
• GRASS ROOTS
• EXPLORATION
• LOCALIZED
• CONVERSATION
BEAUTY
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Santa Fe & Hotel Green, c.1900,
located beside the train depot.
A Tally-Ho at Hotel Green, 1890 Walking, horses, mules,
bicycles, trains and trollies were the way from here to there.
A Trip to Mt. Lowe In 1893, a trolley was
extended to the foot of the mountains.
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CONTENTS
GATHERING FLOWERS IN PASADENA, 1893
On July 4, 1893, the Echo Mountain incline railway opened, a
funicular that rose halfway up the mountain and was then followed
by an elaborate mountain trolley trip carved into the canyons,
utilizing elaborate trestles as it journeyed to the Mount Lowe Tavern
over the next ridge. The mountain railway lasted until 1936.
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Part I: History
Memories of the Golden Age
How Pasadena Embraced Democratized Planning
The Incline, 1893
A funicular rose up
Echo Mountain
Echo Mountain to Mount Lowe
A trolley on trestles crossed the canyons.
The Mount Lowe Tavern Seen here in 1913, the restaurant
and guest rooms operated until 1936.
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Future Rose Bowl
A R R O Y O
Pasadena
Presbyterian
Church
Hotel Maryland
B
Christian
Science
Church
F
A
D
E
C
G
DOBBINS ELEVATED CYCLEWAY
of 1900 was planned from Hotel
Green to LA via the Arroyo Seco.
THE 1890S BICYCLE CRAZE
Bicycles let women be independent.
Bicycle parades were also popular.
DOBBINS ON HIS CYLEWAY, 1903.
Cars were first sold in bicycle shops.
This photo tells the change to come.
THE 1908 MODEL-T FORD
Ford’s Model-T initiated the
age of the automobile.
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Greene & Greene’s
Duncan Iwrin House
of 1908
CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Raymond Hotel
The image below comes from this area.
Colorado Street Bridge
S E C O
Holly St. Bridge
A History of Pasadena’s 1916
Caltech
(Throop)
moved here
Raymond and
Colorado
Home-Made City Planning Exhibit
Clunes Theater (now Gap)
here
This is Pasadena as the young city was coming of age as a municipality in 1914.
Under the leadership of its Board of Trade, the Colorado Street Bridge had just been
completed (top photo, far right), but few other signature landscapes such as the Rose Bowl
or Brookside Park in the Arroyo Seco had been built.
This background photo, taken from the panorama at the top, shows many buildings still
standing today. Throop College (now Caltech) had opened in a building annexed into Hotel
Green in the 1890s. Moving to its current campus in 1910, they opened the West’s first wind
tunnel in 1917 and the first aeronautical design curriculum a year later.
Its new Dean of Engineering, George A. Damon, was also starting to teach courses in the
emerging field of city planning. Together with the City Beautiful Association and Board of
Trade, Dean Damon set about writing Pasadena’s next chapter, an impact that can still be felt
a century later. This is a story of both forgotten origins and reawakened opportunities.
“ M Y C I T Y ” 1 9 1 6 C O N T E N T S
Hotel Green
Caltech began
The Rise of the City Beautiful..........................28
City of Gardens.................................................30
Progressive Republican City............................31
The Four Corners Competition.........................33
Pasadena: “Municipal Triumph”......................34
Hand-Made City................................................36
“Home-Made” City Planning............................38
“The Pasadenay Way” by George Damon.......44
World War I and After.......................................45
George Ellery Hale & the Shifting Vision.........46
“Jubilee”..........................................................49
The Bennett Civic Center Plan ........................50
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Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, 1893 The largest gathering in human history, the fair introduced many to civic planning.
The Rise of the City Beautiful
Chicago’s Colombian Exposition of 1893 marks a
key crossroads in American history. The fair was
the largest gathering in human history to date,
serving as a portal into the rapidly approaching
future. Over 120,000 lights illuminated the defining
inventions of modern life. It was as if Chicago had
switched on the 20th Century and the world poured
in, including much of Pasadena, California. Among
the visitors, a young electrical engineer of 22
named George Damon, both of whom would later
apply the lessons of Chicago to Pasadena.
Of all the exhibits, the city of Chicago itself was
chief among the fair’s attractions. Its rebuilding
after the Great Fire of 1871 produced the first
steel-framed skyscrapers, grand civic architecture,
modern planning and a spirit of progressive
thinking that would usher in a new age.
The fair marked the dawn of the modern age and
the settling of the American frontier. The expo
also marked a pronounced change in the way
people thought about what
a city could be.
The Exposition’s Classical “Beaux Arts” buildings
were aligned on the open space of a grand axis
helping define landscape of the American city for
the next 50 years. Daniel Burnham, chief architect
of the Chicago fair, inspired a “City Beautiful
Movement” that grew nationally, but in few places
more fervently than Pasadena, California.
Where Chicago had become a world-class city,
Pasadena was still striving to exhibit that a city
could be both a cultural destination and a beacon of
the future. To that end, the fair’s great spotlight was
moved to Echo Mountain above Pasadena.
The completion of the Colorado Street Bridge in
1913 marked the end of one era and the crossing
into the next. The new century saw both the
revival of Classical architecture and boundless
feats of engineering, two aspirations that defined
Pasadena’s quest for world-class stature.
San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition
Celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, the
1915-17 fair was held in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
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CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
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San Francisco’s “Panama-Pacific International Exposition” of 1915 and the Palace of Fine Arts
Celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal and San Francisco’s resurrection after the 1906 earthquake, the Pan-Pacific fair
was built on the rubble of the destroyed city that filled the edge of the bay and is now called the Marina District. When the fair’s
temporary plaster and burlap buildings were pulled down, the public wanted to save Bernard Maybeck’s magnificent Palace of
Fine Arts. It was saved and then rebuilt in the 1930s and again in the 1960s.
Driven by his experience as an engineer at the Chicago
fair, George A. Damon moved to Pasadena and became
Dean of Engineering at Throop Polytechnic (renamed
the California Institute of Technology in 1919).
In 1914, Dean Damon helped form the Pasadena
City Beautiful Association, which would build on
the momentum of the new Colorado Street Bridge.
“This organization is composed of delegates from fifty
different local societies, and holds monthly meetings
at which projects for making the city “more beautiful”
are discussed,” he wrote.
“Active work is done by committees reporting at these
regular meetings, and considerable constructive work
has been accomplished in
the way of clean-up days,
care of vacant lots, flower
boxes on business blocks,
rubbish collection, refuse
receptacles, removal of
real estate signs, billboard
agitation, ornamental street
lamps, etc.”
Daniel Burnham
With the opening of the Panama Canal and World War
I breaking out in Europe, California became a popular
alternative for vacationing Easterners. Celebrating the
canal’s opening and the rebuilding of San Francisco
after its 1906 earthquake, its Pan-Pacific Exposition of
1915 drew visitors from around the world. Apparently,
its new City Hall left a great impression on visitors
from Pasadena as its architects, Bakewell and Brown,
would later go on to design Pasadena’s City Hall.
But it was the architect of San Diego’s Fair, Bertram
Goodhue, and the Spanish Colonial Revival
architecture of the this simultaneous exposition to
the south that would have the greater influence on
Pasadena as Goodhue designed the Caltech campus
masterplan in 1916. As World
War I drew the United States
closer and closer toward
entering the conflict, both
the two fairs and the thought
of impending war would
energize the City Beautiful
Movement in Pasadena to
“make big plans.”
Dean George A. Damon
Burnham designed
most of Chicago’s
1893 Columbian
Exposition and
inspired a national
movement, including both
the City Beautiful Association
of Pasadena as well as
the Exposition’s Electrical
Engineer George Damon, who
featured his famous quote (right)
in the “Possibilities” section of
their 1915 “Pasadena Plan.”
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BRIDGE
THE ARROYO SECO
ORANGE GROVE AVE
ELKS
CLUB
COLORADO BLVD.
CARMELITA GARDENS
Carmelita: The Birth of the Norton Simon
New Years 1930 (see pages 16, 45, 50 & 94).
Flowers Year Round
Busch gardens 1933
The Birth of Bush Gardens
Busch gardens opened to the public in 1906.
City of Gardens
In stark contrast to cities settled by
clearing trees, Southern California
was relatively barren before its
new migrants arrived. With key
exceptions such as the seasonal
Arroyo Seco or the occasional
ancient oak or sycamore tree, there
was little water, and consequently
few trees or vegetation.
In 1865, Benjamin Eaton designed
a way of collecting water from the
Arroyo Seco at a narrowing he
named Devil’s Gate, three years
before he had helped create a new
water system for Los Angeles.
Though his son Fred is long credited
with being the mastermind behind
Mulholland and the 1913 LA
Aqueduct to the Owens Valley,
the idea may have come from the
pioneering work of his father.
The “Horticultural Court” (below) at the
“My City” Exhibit of 1916 in support of a
Horticultural Hall in the new Civic Center.
The Batchelder Fountain (above) at
the Horticultural Court of the “My City”
Exhibit was also featured in the brochure
of its host, Pasadena’s Board of Trade.
See also pages 36, 39, 46, 65, 67.
With water, the land was sold to a
group of Indiana settlers in 1874
who planted citrus orchards and
elaborate gardens in the 1880s.
The Enlightenment’s notion of
“tending one’s own garden” and
questing for a better way brought
the scientific study of botany and
horticulture into the exotic gardens
of this once barren land.
In Pasadena’s temperate climate,
the garden proved an idyllic
outdoor living room for social
gatherings. With 90 varieties of
trees, Carmelita Gardens was both
Pasadena’s first great garden and a
famed cultural nexus (p. 16, 45, & 50).
In 1924, the last 13 acres were
acquired for a park, museum and
school of art and design, now known
as the Norton Simon Museum.
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CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Progressive Republican City
There is a Natural Cycle in the
life of cities and organizations in
which continual transformation
leads to a type of inversion (p. 20).
This document explores examples
throughout, though perhaps
none as striking as California’s
Progressive Republicans of 1909-
1917 and what they accomplished.
As the Enlightenment of the 1700s
met the Industrial Revolution of
the 1800s, it culminated in the
Civil War of 1861-1865. Children
of Civil War era Republicans were
also reform-minded and often
more liberal than the Democratic
party’s Southern flank, which still
had many former Confederates of
the Civil War (aka the Dixiecrats).
By the time of the Chicago Fair
of 1893, municipal corruption and
urban squalor brought scientific
study of government, education,
business, religion and medicine,
which in turn resulted in new
government reforms and more
direct forms of democracy.
Though the Progressive era
itself spanned the spectrum of
political parties from Democrats
to Socialists, the Progressive
Party itself was an offshoot of
the Republican Party of 1912.
The Republicans took to reform
with the “Bull-Moose” fervor of
President Theodore Roosevelt.
Progressive Governor of
California, Hiram Johnson—later
Republican Senator—was among
the strongest Progressive reformers
of this period. His achievements
are described in the articles on the
following page.
As Progressives acted most effectively
at the state and local levels, few cities
took to its reform spirit more fervently
than Pasadena. In the 1912 presidential
election, Pasadena’s Republican
majority gave 40-to-1 support for
Theodore Roosevelt’s platform of
conservation and prosperity for all.
Though Roosevelt did not prevail,
Governor Johnson introduced the
referendum, recall, initiative, workers’
compensation, direct democracy and
a Progressive reputation to California
government that persists to this day.
Due largely to this progressive spirit,
Pasadena municipalized water and
power (p.34), created a city owned
farm that fed employees (p.35), a
Council-Manager system, (p.77), and
the rare municipal Health Department,
all of which contributed to its lasting
reputation as a model city.
THE CALIFORNIA OUTLOOK was published between 1911 and 1920 by the former chairman of the California Republican Party,
a close ally of both Republican Governor Hiram Johnson and Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. When the party split in
1912 into two factions—one led by William Howard Taft and the other led by President Roosevelt—the reformers led by Roosevelt
and Johnson were known as the Progressives. The articles below and on the following page are from 1914 issues of the magazine.
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The unabridged version of these articles can be
found at: pasadenapassages.org/outlook.pdf
In the pdf version, headlines link to each article.
“THE CALIFORNIA OUTLOOK”
Continuing from the caption on previous page.
Right: Child Labor and Southern Antipathy
It is easy to forget that looking back to the Civil
War from the 1910s occurred with the same
space of time that people look back to the 1960s
today. The GOP was still the party of Lincoln.
African-Americans were almost universally
Republicans and the South was a solidly
Democratic. The Progressive Republicans
continued the tradition of social and economic
reform. They were trust busters who regulated
big business. Their loss of the presidential
election of 1912 led to more restrictive racial
segregating of the US Army by Democratic
President Woodrow Wilson and the Dixiecrats.
Left: Before World War I had a Name
This article explains the then recent unfolding
of what is now referred to as World War I.
PRO-REGULATION Progressive
Republicans promoted the sensible
regulation of business.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF CALIFORNIA’S
PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICANS
1) “Kicking out the Southern Pacific Railroad”
by reducing their political influence.
2) Direct election of US Senators.
3) The Referendum: A citizen vote on an issue.
4) The Recall: A vote to remove from office.
5) The Initiative: A vote bypassing legislators.
6) Worker’s Compensation: State run insurance
7) Increased regulation of big business.
8) “Good Government” Initiatives
“GOOD GOVERNMENT: PROTECT IT”
After Progressive Republicans failed
to split from the GOP, they dropped
the phrase Progressive and many of
it’s reform-minded advocates formed
the“Good Government League,” which
entered a float in Pasadena’s Rose Parade
of 1950 showing bipartisan cooperation
between donkey and elephant.
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CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Paul R. Williams
Article from “The California Outlook” magazine,
November 14, 1914; page 15.
The Four Corners Competition: First Prize
The City Beautiful Association’s participatory
approach of gathering as many ideas as
possible was inaugurated by the 1914
“Four Corners Competition,” which sought
solutions for intersections then at the edges
of Pasadena. Despite the prevailing attitudes
towards class, race, religion and wealth, a
young man of 20 from South-Central Los
Angeles named Paul Williams entered the
blind competition, presenting his vision for
how Pasadena should plan and develop,
winning First Place over established firms.
Williams designed a hierarchy of pedestrian
spaces set concentrically around the
intersection—from a curbside sidewalk to an
offstreet arcade— and back passage market
stalls providing refuge from the bustle of
the street. Including a post office, firehouse,
civic clubhouse, theater, park, and library;
Williams’ design, the Star News wrote, would
“increase the value of surrounding property to
a much greater degree than if the community
was left to establish its own individual form of
development.”
The young Paul Williams was not only
handsomely rewarded for his efforts, he went
on to become among the most prolific and
famed architects of the region and the first
African-American member of the American
Institute of Architects.
Architect of both the rich and famous, housing
and government, this largely forgotten
beginning to architect Paul Williams’ career
is also among the lost stories of the years that
followed the Colorado Street Bridge.
Pasadena Mansion LA County Courthouse Architect of the Rich and Famous (Sinatra) Beverly Hills Hotel LAX Theme Building
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“What Happened in Pasadena: the Story of a Municipal Triumph”
From an October 1909 article about Pasadena published in 20th Century Magazine by Francis Marshall Elliott, this abridged article
chronicles how a strong municipal structure was critical to the development of the modern city. Through the words of Mayors
Waterhouse and Earley, the article shows how the direct democracy approach of the Progressive Era changed the way people thought
about what a city could accomplish (including the mixed blessing of eminent domain) and the City of Pasadena’s forgotten 500-acre
farm that is seen in the photo at the bottom of the opposite page. The full article can be found at: pasadenapassages.org/pasadena1909.pdf
“The stage-setting in this instance was
Pasadena, California, one of the most
beautiful residential cities of the New
World. It has a population of about thirty
thousand. It is known the land over as a
city of millionaires and has more beautiful
homes and more home-owners than
any city of like population in America.
A large percentage of its people are
retired capitalists and have come hither
from almost every section to spend their
declining years in this wonderful garden
spot where the sun is ever shining and
flowers bloom perpetually. More than
one hundred and fifty men in the city
are reputed to be worth a million dollars
or more; while a large proportion of
the population are persons in more than
comfortable circumstances. Less than
one hundred families dwell in flats, and
there are no slums, no manufacturing
enterprises and no tenement sections.
It is preeminently a city of wealth and
culture, and by all preconceived notions
of economists, Pasadena should be one of
the most conservative and undemocratic
communities in the land; yet as a matter
of fact this city rejoices in, perhaps, the
most fundamentally democratic municipal
charter to be found in the world—a
charter which provides that the city shall
have the power:—
“To purchase, receive, have, hold, lease,
use, and enjoy, property of every kind and
description, both within and without the
limits of the city. and control and dispose
of the same for the common benefit.
It furthermore specifically provides that
the city shall have the power:—
“To construct and maintain water
works, pipes, pipe lines, aqueducts and
hydrants for supplying the city and its
inhabitants with water and the right to
supply water to persons who live without
the city.
“To construct and maintain gas and
electric works for supplying the city and
its inhabitants with light, heat and power.
“To construct and maintain works for
supplying the city and its inhabitants with
telephonic and telegraphic service.
“To construct and maintain and
operate street railways and other means
of conveyance, together with all rolling
stock, power houses, equipment,
appliances, and apparatus necessary and
proper in the operation, management and
control of the same.”
Pasadena Electric Light & Power Co. 1900
Sixteen years later, the “My City” Exhibit was
held here at 34 S. Raymond Avenue. Then, 63
years later, the Espresso Bar was found in the
back alley. See also pages 39, 42 and 66.
“Having thus provided that the
municipality might primarily establish
itself in any line of business deemed by
the citizens to be for the public weal. the
framers of the charter, evidently fearing
that they inadvertently overlooked some
point of vantage where some individual
or corporation was already established in
some line which the community might
consider to be to the collective advantage
to own, rather than await the otherwise
slow process of establishing and building
up, in competition with said established
enterprises, or else in a spirit of sheer
democratic abandon, provided in Section
23 of Article 3, that the city should have
the power:-
“To exercise the right of eminent
domain for the purpose of acquiring real
and personal property of every kind,
necessary or convenient for the use of said
city or its inhabitants.”
Now these radical and progressive
sections of the most radical and
democratic city charter in America
were not forced upon a reluctant and
protesting community by a coterie of
socialistic agitators, but were evolved by
a charter commission composed of staid
business men and retired capitalists, and
they were submitted to and adopted by
an overwhelming’ majority vote of the
wealthy, staid and conservative home
owners of Pasadena. In addition to the
provisions above quoted, looking to the
economic protection of the citizens of
Pasadena, this remarkable document
embodies the practical political safeguards
of popular government—the Initiative,
Referendum and Right of Recall, by
which the citizens reserve to themselves
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CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Mayor William Waterhouse
1905–1907
Mayor Thomas J. Earley
1907–1911
the power to initiate desired legislation, to
veto undesired legislation, and to recall or
discharge unfaithful or incompetent city
officials or employees.
Having thus established themselves
in this model and modern citadel of
municipal democracy,. the citizens of
Pasadena were in a position to enjoy the
legitimate benefits to be derived from
natural monopolies—benefits which
in various cities throughout the United
States have, during the last half century,
made scores of multimillionaires at the
expense of the health of the citizens and
the purity of municipal government.
“The question of municipal ownership
of a lighting plant was not an issue
in my first campaign,” said ‘William
Waterhouse, known to all Southern
California as the father of municipal
ownership in Pasadena, and who was
elected mayor of the city in the spring
of 1905; “but the issue at stake was the
municipal ownership of the city’s water
supply, and the entire administration,
including the city council, was elected on
a platform embodying this proposition.
“Soon after assuming office, I became
satisfied that the water question was not
the only one demanding consideration.
The city was paying an exorbitant price
for the lighting of her streets and public
buildings, and the service rendered was
about as bad as could be imagined. I
started an investigation and in a very
short time accumulated evidence to
prove that the city was being defrauded.
…We were utterly unable to bring the
corporation to terms, and we finally held
up the lighting bills. The corporation
brought suit to collect, and though the
suits are still pending, the city has won
in every court to date. …The threat of
the private company to leave the city in
darkness brought matters to a crisis. “I
called the council together and submitted
my plans to them;— with, the result that
a resolution was introduced and passed,
submitting to a vote of the electors
a proposition to vote a bond issue of
$125,000 for the purpose of establishing a
municipal lighting plant for Pasadena.
“This action of the council was like a
thunderbolt from a clear sky. It electrified
the people and it brought into action
at once all the deterrent force of the
powerful electric company and its allied
corporate interests. The battle was bitterly
fought. Every newspaper in the city
opposed municipal ownership. Within
twenty-four hours after the introduction
of the resolution in the council I
received a call from the president of
the lighting corporation, who advanced
every argument, from ‘patriotism’
to the ‘interests of the poor widows
and orphans’ who owned stock in his
company, in a vain effort to convince me
of the error of my way as a public official;
to all of which I turned a deaf ear.
“Finally the day of election dawned
and the battle raged until the last vote
was polled. When the votes were counted
the city had won by the necessary twothirds
majority and had just seven votes
to spare. This victory, however, was but
the beginning of the struggle. Suits were
instituted by the private corporation,
which are still pending, attacking the
city’s right to engage in municipal
lighting. The bonds were refused by
every local financial institution and were
finally purchased by private parties.
Every obstruction that could be devised
by a great corporation in dire distress
was thrown in the way of the municipal
undertaking. Necessary supplies were
delayed, construction work impeded,
and in the midst of the building of the
plant the municipal election came on.
The struggle was even more bitter than
that over the bond issue. My opponent,
though the candidate of the opponents of
municipal ownership, ran upon a platform
as zealous in its advocacy of municipal
ownership as the one upon which I
stood. My defeat was accomplished by
means and methods upon which it is
unnecessary at this time to comment, but
the significant and satisfactory feature of
the election to me was, that, no difference
who gained the day, the municipal
ownership education of the people
was complete, and with the Initiative,
Referendum and Right of Recall in their
hands, no administration would dare
defeat the work so well begun.”
“I was not a convert to municipal
ownership when elected, though making
my race for the office upon a platform
demanding it,” confessed Mayor Thomas
J. Earley, banker and capitalist, who
succeeded Mayor Waterhouse, and who
is the present mayor of Pasadena; “but
I put myself in the position of a juror,
who, having an opinion in the case, was
nevertheless open to conviction and my
nearly two years in office has absolutely
convinced me that municipal ownership
is not only a success but from every
standpoint desirable.”
“During my two years’ administration,
we have held two bond elections, voting
money to improve and complete our
plant. That the issue is popular with the
public is best evidenced by their vote.
“The first two bond issues, plus
$53,332, used from the city’s General
Fund, enabled us to complete our plant
and light the city in every department.
We also found that we had considerable
energy to spare and in answer to a general
demand we entered the commercial
field, as an experiment. So great was our
success in this venture and so satisfactory
to the public, that the latest bond issue
for increasing our plant to care for all
commercial business offered, carried
by the astonishing vote of 7 to I. Yes,
municipal ownership in Pasadena is a
pronounced and an unqualified success.”
The City of Pasadena also owned a
500-acre farm that utilized sewage
and table-scraps to make fertilizer
and grow crops to feed municipal
departments.
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Motto of Judson Studios,
where USC’s College
of Fine Arts
began in 1911.
Charles Lummis built
his home,“El Alisal,”
1897-1910. It is open
today as an Arroyo
Seco landmark.
Ernest Batchelder
is among the most
beloved craftsmen of
the Arroyo Seco. His
architectural tilework is a
cherished feature in homes
and buildings throughout
the US, including the
Horticultural Court
of “My City” and the
Pasadena Playhouse. He
also helped establish the
Pasadena Art Institute at
Carmelita Gardens.
See also pages 30, 39,
46, 65, and 67.
Home-Made City
The Arroyo Seco is an 11-mile canyon that runs from the San Gabriel
Mountains, north of Pasadena, down to the Los Angeles River. It was
beside this boulder strewn canyon that Pasadena was founded in 1874.
Among its bungalows of 1900 there grew an Arroyo Culture of artisans
and architects who built their low-slung homes of brick, boulders and
wood, drawing inspiration from the Craftsman style of architecture,
with its Japanese and Swiss influences. By 1910, Pasadena artisans were
producing some of the finest works of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
This Arroyo culture also worked to preserve the canyon as part of a
larger park system that would create a contiguous green-belt from
the San Gabriel mountains to Elysian and Griffith Park and on to the
ocean, from “the mountains to the sea.”
The Arroyo Culture’s reverence for the hand-made also reflected a
larger impulse in Pasadena for self-reliance. To that end, local schools
immersed students in a first class education in the manual arts, creating
professional facilities for woodworking, metalsmithing, drafting and
printing. Between 1900 and the late 1980s, the education provided
to Pasadena children in hand-made craft, the hammer and saw, the
printing press, designing and constructing, and above all else, the
confidence to initiate projects on their own and take matters in hand.
The excerpt on the following page, from “Pasadena Kindergartens:
1901-1919,” and a chapter titled “Construction Works With Wood”
tells of this effort:“This year we introduced construction work with
The Greene Brothers
were influenced by the
Japanese pavilion of
the 1893 Chicago fair.
Among the most revered
architects of the Arts
& Crafts Movement,
their 1909 Gamble
House (bottom), is a
masterpiece open for
public tours.
William Lees Judson
Judson Studios is
where USC’s school of
Fine Arts was started
in 1911 and still
produces leaded glass
on the Arroyo Seco to
this day.
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

wood. We secured a load of lumber, odd scraps, from the
Pasadena Lumber Company. The boys in the grades were
making’ toys at that time, discarded scraps were added to
our bin. The children revelled in this material and put it to
many uses; hammers, saws, and nails were quickly made
acquainted with this pile of wood scraps. The children had
free scope to make anything they chose.
Both groups of children spent two periods each week in the
sloyd room. All the articles made which we considered really
good were honored by being painted, or stained. One of the
first things to be constructed was a horse and wagon. This
suggestion came to the child because of a discarded horse’s
head. The following day the horse and wagon were improved
upon. The man on the horse was removed and placed in the
wagon. The first table constructed was made of a flat board
and four long nails for legs. ‘The next day the table received
wooden pillars for supports.
Following are some of the articles made: chairs, tables,
carts, airships, guns, a church with cross. slides and ladders
combined, window rod cross, T-square, tooth brush, bookrack,
benches all sizes, and settees.”
Pasadena’s first-class education in the manual arts was not
once or twice a week, but an everyday education in both
junior high and high schools, producing generations of adults
who were not only great at fixing things, but who also honed
their problem solving skills in the process. As adults they were
more inclined to have what is sometimes called “agency,” that
term of the Enlightenment that described the capacity of people
to act independently and make their own decisions.
With the advent of the computer age, manual arts were phased
out of Pasadena schools in the 1990s. Though there are slim
exceptions—an elective weekly class or the laudable efforts of
non-profits such as Side Street Projects, which attempts to fill
that gap with a mobile workshop. These efforts, however, do
not replace what was once accomplished by a full manual arts
program. Rather than find a problem for every solution, this
can-do spirit of finding a solution for every problem is just what
is lacking and so greatly needed today.
The Rose Parade Inspired by Pasadena’s pioneering aeronautic
community, this 1908 entry demonstrates the increasingly
imaginative craft work put into its New Year’s Day “floats.”
“Floral Peace Dove” Pasadena’s Rose Parade gave local groups the
chance to make their own hand-made float. The“Floral Peace Dove” built
by the Pasadena Negro Taxpayers Association in 1916, also served as a
visual reminder that all people in Pasadena paid taxes to support the new
pool at Brookside Park that had opened in 1914 and all
were entitled to equal access, which was finally
granted in 1947.
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The Civic Center Vision: This conceptual sketch for a Civic Center is from “Pasadena Plan” of 1915 and Dean Damon’s “Hammer and Roses”
talk given to the Pasadena Woman’s Civic League (which can be found at pasadenapassages.org/pasadenaplan.pdf). Before World War I, the extension
of Library Park (now Memorial Park) was seen as the logical location for a new Civic Center. However, it required either moving or burying
the Santa Fe tracks which would take another 80 years to accomplish. In 2016 the “pedestrian promenade” they envisioned will finally proceed.
“Home-Made” City Planning
Between the completion of the
Colorado Street Bridge in 1913 and
US entry into World War I in 1917,
the City Beautiful Association invited
“city planning suggestions, and as a
result more than one hundred
separate ideas were submitted, both
by individuals and by the allied
organizations.”
Competitions were held to beautify
empty lots, a “Four Corners
Competition” (p.33) was held to
generate new ideas for the design of
major intersections and finally they
organized an exhibit called “My City.”
With the larger themes of Progressive
politics, the Arts & Crafts Movement,
“In all the history of
municipal endeavor
along these lines,
probably there never was
an exhibit approximating
the one at present here…
to obtain the
co-operation of citizens
in choosing the best out
of the good; in deciding
what shall be done first,
and of proving to them
that it is within
their power to do
anything they please.”
Henry James
Pasadena Star-News
March 3, 1916
and World War I in Europe, the City
Beautiful Association’s uniquely
democratic approach to building
momentum by polling visitors to the “My
City” Exhibit explicitly designed to build
support for a Civic Center bond measure
that would eventually follow.
The exhibit presented both an in-depth
history and pointed critique of the city.
A “We Protest Corner” (also called the
“slam corner”) invited critical debate.
As outlined in the article abridged on the
next five pages, Dean Damon’s approach
of connecting the patterns of the past with
a frank assessment of the present was
the key to building a common vision for
Pasadena’s future.
The Planning Association’s “Pasadena Plan” of 1915 called for two new streets parallel to the main thoroughfare of Colorado Street, what
is now Union Street and Green Street. Calling for the removal of the Santa Fe (Gold Line) tracks, the commuter rail line on what is now
Arroyo Parkway that ended at Colorado would be the site of new Civic Center (center). The preservation of the Arroyo Seco to the west
was also studied.
ARROYO
SECO
BRIDGE
LAKE AVE.
ORANGE GROVE AVE.
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CONTENTS
CALTECH
PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

MEMORIAL PARK
The following
four pages are
abridged excerpts
reprinted from
a 1916 article
written by George
Damon, Dean
of Engineering at
Caltech (when it
was still known
as Throop),
on creating
a “Pasadena
Plan.”
See pasadena
passages.org/
homemade.pdf
for an unabridged
copy of Dean
Damon’s original
article along with
other articles he
wrote, and news
articles from local
papers about the
exhibit.
Pasadena’s First Horticultural Hall
The “Horticultural Court” of 1916 included a Batchelder
Fountain. From 1979 thru 1994, this alley was known as
the Espresso Bar. See also pages 30, 36, 46, 65 and 67.
CENTRAL PARK
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“The atmosphere
here is that of
planning a future
home to which
everyone who is
to live in it has
an opportunity
for contributing
something.…
This expression
of public opinion
is the crux of the
whole exhibit.”
Dean George A. Damon
1916
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Batchelder Fountain
CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

“LAND VALUE ‘TOPOGRAPHY’ ”
Dean Damon writes: “A map showing land values throughout the
city is, perhaps, the most unique feature of this part of the exhibit.
Round pegs were made on a scale of an inch in height representing
$40 and these upright sticks were placed in the middle of each
block on the map and show graphically the value per front foot
of lots at that point. The highest peg is in the center of the city,
where values run $1,000 per front foot, and the pegs are in the
outlying districts, where values are appraised as low as $10 per
front foot. The results of this device for showing the relative
values of real estate throughout the city are striking and
satisfying, and no one single feature of the entire exhibit is
attracting more favorable comment. The idea of the map is
at once apparent and the reason for the difference in values
of the various sections of the city is a subject constantly and
intelligently discussed. As a means of arousing a genuine
and widespread interest in real city planning, this map has
been a great success.”
“MY CITY” BALLOTS
Two ballots invited attendees to
order their priorities (below). Inspired by
Daniel Burham’s famous quote (p.29), one ballot
focused on “Beautiful” and the other “Orderly.”
Tabulation over the months indicated that the sentiment of
the first month remained consistent over time.
“PASADENA
PLAN”
Dean Damon’s
City Planning talk at the
Pasadena Woman’s Civic
League (below, right) is excerpted
on the next page and can also be found
at pasadenapassages.org/pasadenaplan.pdf
The “My City” Exhibit Grounded in the financial
practicalities fitting of its Board of Trade sponsor, this
display mapped land values.
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The above list is from “Pasadena Plan” 1915, Dean Damon’s “Hammer and Roses” talk given to the Pasadena
Woman’s Civic League, which can be found at pasadenapassages.org/pasadenaplan.pdf
CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

In 1916,
the City
Beautiful
Association,
Women’s Civic League,
Caltech (Throop), and
Board of Trade set up this “My
City” public planning exhibit at 34
S. Raymond Ave, (site of the Espresso
Bar). Much of the planning of Pasadena’s
growth of the 1920s was inspired by the process
surrounding the exhibit.
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“The Pasadena Way”
Dean George A.
Damon
The Birth of the
Planning
Profession
Until the 1910s, the
profession of City
Planning was part of
the general practice
of architecture,
engineering and
building. In 1909,
when the first US
National Conference
on City Planning
was held, the
idea that planning
was a separate
profession was not
apparent. By 1916,
a journal called
“The City Plan” was
created to publish
its proceedings.
Opening the
conference that
year was Dean
Damon’s lecture,
“How to Get Started
in City Planning the
Pasadena Way,”
which set the
tone, helping cities
become acquainted
with the idea of
planning. Another
article marked the
first college courses
in City Planning.
A common expression
in the local dialogue,
used to describe a
high degree of public
involvement. This
1916 article may well
be the first use of
the phrase, which is
inscribed unattributed
outside the Pasadena’s
Planning
Department
Building.
Article An unabridged
copy of Dean Damon’s
article can be found at:
pasadenapassages.org/
damon_how_to_get_started.pdf
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MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

“The Very Heart of the City’s Design”
By June of 1916 it was clear that US entry into World
War I was near. Dean Damon helped lead a group
of engineers from Throop, which would soon
change its name to Caltech, volunteering
their skills to the US Army. The school’s
famed astronomer George Ellery
Hale also organized the National
Research Council to support
military research.
Writing in 1917, Dean
Damon reports how,
through “My City,”
they first determined
“Pasadena is particularly interested in the possibilities
of a civic center.” It was “My City” that refined the
vision so that “its program for civic improvements
includes nearly all of the elements which go to make up
the very heart of the city’s design. The exact location
of this center, its size, its arrangement and its style of
architectural treatment are details to which the city
will, very shortly, address itself.” a
The WWI Memorial Flagpole and traffic circle at
Colorado Blvd and Orange Grove Avenue was later moved
to the back corner. Designed by Bertram Goodhue, the
architect of the Caltech campus, “in memory of 1917-1918.” .
A century after “My City” the lesson of the
participatory process generated by Dean Damon
and Pasadena’s City Beautiful Movement is clear:
gathering solutions and building community vision
is essential to bottom-up momentum. This is what
brought Pasadena together, measured its ambitions,
the financial stability of the city and served to
determine the scope, the scale and the public desire
to “make big plans.”
Carmelita Gardens: Exhibits and Lectures
With World War I serving as intermission, the
planning efforts put on hold began to bear fruit after
the war, resulting in civic buildings constructed in
the 1920s and ‘30s have been the pride of Pasadena
to this day.
After World War I, the Roaring 1920s marked
a time of blending old world and new. Despite
the arrival of the automobile, the importance
of engineering and technology was superseded,
by the horror of chemical and modern military
warfare. Science also brought prestige and
in 1923 a Nobel Prize for Caltech’s famed
physicist Robert Millikan. Nonetheless, even
as Caltech increasingly emphasized science
over technology, its campus of Spanish
Mediterranean buildings created a
romantic blend of rich historic detailing
Carmelita Gardens, seen here in the
background. Known today as the
Nortan Simon Museum, this park
and gardens is also discussed on
the following page and on pages
16, 30, 46, 50 and 96.
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS
Pasadena’s Planning
Commission requested
that architects Bakewell
and Brown change
the belfry to a dome.
Otherwise the design
is the same as it
stands today.
continued…
and references to the symbols of science that its
later modern architecture failed to achieve with a
more obvious technological aesthetic. In the last two
decades, the cycle of change has come full circle as
Caltech has revitalized these recurring themes in its
campus architecture that began a century ago.
In the 1920s, George Damon continued his civic
planning efforts at Carmelita Gardens (seen in the
photo above and behind the flagpole on the previous
page). The vision of Carmelita Gardens and the Art
Museum that began with Jeanne and Ezra Carr in the
1880s (p.16) continued in 1924 as George Damon
shifted his planning efforts towards building an art
museum. As he describes in the article to the left and
on the following page, Camelita would serve as one
anchor of the emerging Civic Center. With the aim of
transforming Jeanne Carr’s original gardens into a civic
space for concerts, public symposiums, exhibits and
the Pasadena Art Institute, Carmelita hosted the city’s
Jubilee of 1924 with George Damon leading the effort.
Carmelita continued until the early 1970s when a new
museum was finally built. With its patrons disagreeing
about its focus in Modern Art and the lack of stronger
top-down civic leadership, the Pasadena Art Museum
was privatized in 1974 and is known around the world
today as the Norton Simon Museum of Art.

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George Ellory Hale’s Campaign
In 1922, Caltech astronomer George Ellory Hale
took the lead a in getting the City Board to start hiring
architects. “To make a city attractive,” he urged,
“is to make it prosperous,” quoting architect Willis
Polk. With a new municipal Planning Commission
created in April, 1922, the firm of Bennett, Parsons
and Frost was hired to create a plan for Pasadena.
As the successors of Daniel Burnham, who had
inspired Pasadena to “make big plans” a generation
before, the Bennett plan was narrowed to a City Hall,
Library, and Auditorium. The museum at Carmelita
would be handled separately. Though there would be
no Horticultural Hall, the Civic Center was designed
with ample land set aside as public gardens and open
space, a plan voters enthusiastically approved with
a $3.5 million bond in 1923 and a supplemental
initiative approved by voters the following year.
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George Ellery Hale
The famed Caltech astronomer
led the effort to hire Bennett’s
fi rm to plan a civic center.
Edward H. Bennett
Beaux-Arts trained, his
Civic Center Plan of 1923-
25 is still used today.

George and Harriet Damon’s Christmas Card
“Waiting for you at the garden gate.”
Courtesy of Susan Phelan and the Damon’s grandchildren.
Pasadena’s Commencement of High Schools at the Rose Bowl 1928
Until 2012, Pasadena’s High Schools graduated at the Rose Bowl.
After desegregation and the defunding of schools after Proposition-13,
many withdrew their children from Pasadena’s public schools.
The Rose Bowl Myron Hunt was the architect
of Pasadena’s Central Library, Huntington’s
home, hotel and hospital, Occidental College,
and the Rose Bowl, which was envisioned the
decade before, surveyed at “My City” and
designed in 1921. The original 1924 stadium
was open to the landscape of the Arroyo Seco.
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PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916 MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Pasadena Playhouse
Founded in 1916, the
Community Playhouse’s
new Spanish Colonial
Revival theater by local
artist and architect
Elmer Grey includes
work by artist Alson S.
Clark.
The Pasadena
Athletic Club
opened at Green and
Los Robles in 1925
Grace Nicholson Bldg
Another singular
vision that would be
enjoyed by many, this
gallery later became
the Pasadena Museum
and is now USC’s
Pacific Asia Museum.
“To Make the City Attractive is to Make it Prosperous”
Jubilee
From One to Many: the People who Set the Ball in Motion
The 1924 celebration of Pasadena’s 50th year was a cornerstone of the
most admired decade in Pasadena history. The label “Golden Age” may
obscure its larger origins, however. Just as the ribbon-cutting of one mayor is
usually based on the planning of the previous, it is the preceding decade that
defines the major landscapes and buildings in most modern cities. With the
decade surrounding 1924 serving as a focal point, the momentum of pent-up
aspirations from before World War I paid rich dividends in the decade and
century that followed.
The general pattern is one of a blending of bottom-up vision with top-down
logistics, the vision energized by many. Gilmor Brown was an actor who
envisioned a community theater in 1916. As the dream was shared in a
temporary space, locals energized the dream and the Pasadena Community
Playhouse opened on El Molino in 1924.
Grace Nicholson repeats the pattern. Her shop featured Native American
handiwork in the 1910s and she dreamed of an elaborate Chinese temple
set around a courtyard with rooms for art galleries, classes, lectures and
meetings. At the height of American fascination with exotic culture, her
dream was finally realized in 1925 when her illustrations were translated by
architect Sylvanus Marston. Today her vision is USC’s landmark Pacific Asia
Museum.
For whatever closed qualities Pasadena would have as a society in the 1920s
when Jackie Robinson’s family moved to a racially segregated Pasadena,
the physical expression of its best moments of architecture and planning
were often characterized by a quality of openness. From the repeating open
arch to the open-ended original Rose Bowl, to the courtyards and arcades of
City Hall, this quality was reflected in the best of its participatory planning
movement of 1913-1917 that was called the City Beautiful, a momentum that
would only be retained as long as the city stayed faithful to the vision.
Star News (JJ. Blick)
The merging of two
newspapers in 1916
led to the Star News
building of 1925. Its
radio towers were later
used by underground
station KPPC, which led
to KROQ. Many local
children got their first
job delivering the Star
News by bicycle.
Eclectic Architecture
mixed Classical, Moorish,
Mayan, Spanish Baroque
and Rococo.
The Arcade Building
Marston, Van Pelt &
Maybury, 1927
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The Edward Herbert Bennett
Civic Center Masterplan
CARMELITA GARDENS,
THE PASADENA ART INSTITUTE &
THE NORTON SIMON MUSEUM
Once Pasadena’s most elaborate
garden, Carmelita Gardens was
a cultural nexus. Residing guests
included John Muir, who worked the
42-acre garden, Ralph Waldo Emerson
and Helen Hunt Jackson (who wrote
part of Ramona there). There was
also a horticulture school for women.
Gifted to the city for the Pasadena Art
Institute, nearly half was lost to the
134 freeway. The last 9.5 acres became
the Norton Simon Museum.
Edward Herbert Bennett (1874–1954) might best be known for his coauthorship
of the 1909 Plan of Chicago with Daniel Burnham, who planned
the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Educated at the École des Beaux-Arts,
Bennett’s plan for Pasadena’s Civic Center was funded with a $3.5 million
bond in 1923. Aligning with the existing Post Office and YWCA, Bennett
created two grand axes with City Hall in the middle. Nine architecture firms
were invited to submit a design for a city hall, library and auditorium, and
then the Planning Commission awarded a commission to the best of each.
Pasadena’s City Hall was designed by Bakewell and Brown (San Francisco
City Hall). Blending the Classical and Mediterranean Revival styles of
16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, its open courtyards and
arcades would serve as both the symbolic and physical embodiment of open
government as well as a prime example of Beaux Arts architecture.
PASADENA YWCA: 1920-22
Designed by the first woman to attend
the world’s preeminent school of
architecture in Paris, the École des
Beaux-Arts, Julia Morgan’s simple
courtyard arrangement and Spanish
tiled roofs preceded the Civic Center,
helping site its two axes together with
the also existent Post Office.
CARMELITA GARDENS,
(NORTON SIMON MUSEUM)
PASADENA POST OFFICE: 1914
Designed by Oscar Wendworth
before the Civic Center, the elegant
Post Office is still in use today.
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NOTE: The Green is added to the original plan to highlight open spaces.
Central Park was not originally differentiated. All white labels have also been added.
CONTENTS PREFACE INTRO MY CITY 1916
MAIN ST. 2015 LESSONS

Central Library was designed by the local firm of Hunt and
Chambers, its stately facade leading to an intimate forecourt entry
and then a grand hall. Construction began in 1925, which is carved
in Roman numerals over its entrance, and dedicated in 1927. In
1984 and 1990 renovations aided by the Pasadena Public Library
Foundation improved the old metal stacks and added a rear entrance.
Pasadena’s Civic Auditorium was designed by George Edwin
Bergstrom (who had been John Parkinson’s partner), Cyril Bennett
(who designed the Pasadena Playhouse with Elmer Gray) and Fitch
Haskell (Glen Arm Power Plant with Bennett). The stately Italian
Renaissance-style auditorium anchors the now reopened civic center
axis that had been blocked by the Plaza Pasadena mall.
CENTRAL LIBRARY, 1925-1927
By Myron Hunt (Rose Bowl, Occidental College,
Huntington Hotel, Library) & H.C. Chambers.
Though Pasadena’s City Beautiful Association ceased to exist after
World War I and the phrase City Beautiful was no longer being
used, the City Beautiful Movement that took place before the war
is credited with producing the vision and momentum needed to
accomplish such an outstanding and landmark vision.
See, also, page 94.
MEMORIAL PARK
PASADENA CITY HALL: 1925-27
Designed by Bakewell and Brown, architects of
San Francisco’s Beaux Arts City Hall, its open
courtyards are symbolic of open government and
among the finest civic spaces anywhere.
PASADENA CIVIC AUDITORUM: 1931 Bergstrom,
Bennett, and Haskell’s auditorium included a 3,029
seat main theater, a ballroom and exhibit hall.
From the Pasadena Symphony to the Emmys it is
among the leading landmark venues in the state.
AUDITORIUM
OVERVIEW PROJECTS EVENTS PLANITORIUM NEXT STEPS CONCLUSIONS
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