March 2017

Design Art. 

Build Art. 

Lic.6 

.65334 

3340 Pho 

oto by Rya yan nBeck 

Photo 

graphy 

ARCHITECTURE. CONSTRUCTION. INTERIORS. 

626.486.0510 HartmanBaldwin.com

4 | ARROYO | 03.17

arroyo 

VOLUME 13 | NUMBER 3 | MARCH 2017 

19 

51 55 

HOME & LAND 

13 COOL DOWN 

Shady gardens are tricky but rewarding. 

—By ILSA SETZIOL 

19 HOT HOMES 

Arroyoland’s rising home prices are good news for sellers and affl uent buyers. 

—By BETTIJANE LEVINE 

PHOTO: (Bottom left) Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens ; (bottom right) Jim Cox 

51 A GARLAND OF PUBLIC GARDENS 

A baker’s dozen of lush nearby gardens where you can get back to 

nature. 

—By NOELA HUESO 

55 DOTSON AND TENNESSEE 

Dotson Rader’s play, starring Al Pacino as Tennessee Williams, has its world 

premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse. 

—By BRENDA REES 

DEPARTMENTS 

08 FESTIVITIES PSHA’s Empty House Party, Zoot Suit opens at the Mark Taper Forum. 

09 LÉON BING Back to school. 

23 ARROYO HOME SALES INDEX 

58 KITCHEN CONFESSIONS Alternative foods. 

61 THE LIST Cherry Blossom Festival at Descanso, Eugene O’Neill at A Noise Within 

and more. 

ABOUT THE COVER: A Mediterranean estate in La Cañada Flintridge, photo by EGP Imaging. 

03.17 ARROYO | 5

EDITOR’S NOTE 

Location, location, location. If there 

was ever any doubt about the famous 

mantra of real estate agents, a look at 

Arroyoland’s current housing market 

should dispel it. 

Take Arcadia, “the Chinese Beverly 

Hills,” where median home prices 

zoomed 34 percent to $1,615,000 in just 

the 15 months that ended in January, 

according to this month’s Arroyo 

Home Sales Index. South Pasadena’s 

prices also soared 34 percent to $1.3 

million over the same period, and 

La Cañada Flintridge increased 26 

percent to $2,260,000. 

No wonder local Realtors are 

touting Arroyoland’s hot real estate market, as Bettijane Levine discovered 

in reporting “Hot Homes,” Arroyo’s annual overview of home sales trends. 

Of course, not all cities in the San Gabriel Valley experienced dramatic 

increases; still, the overall trend will make local sellers happy. But for 

millennials, many still beset with student debt, looking for starter homes? Not 

so much. 

For readers of whichever stripe who are fi nding the current political 

landscape stressful, we offer a possible solution — an area guide to public 

gardens, where visitors can fi nd serenity (at least temporarily), by Noela 

Hueso. You’d rather commune with nature at home? Check out Ilsa Setziol’s 

tips for shade gardening. 

Elsewhere, there’s big theater news at the Pasadena Playhouse this 

month — a new-play-development production of God Looked Away, 

starring Al Pacino and Judith Light, about the brilliant and troubled 

playwright Tennessee Williams. The play is by one of his biographers, Dotson 

Rader, who talked to Brenda Rees about his close friendship with the late 

American playwright. 

—Irene Lacher 

EDITOR IN CHIEF Irene Lacher 

ART DIRECTOR Carla Cortez 

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Stephanie Torres 

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Rochelle Bassarear, 

Richard Garcia 

EDITOR-AT-LARGE Bettijane Levine 

COPY EDITOR John Seeley 

CONTRIBUTORS Denise Abbott, Leslie Bilderback, 

Léon Bing, Martin Booe, James Carbone, Michael 

Cervin, Scarlet Cheng, Richard Cunningham, 

Carole Dixon, Kathleen Kelleher, Brenda Rees, 

John Sollenberger 

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dina Stegon 

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Lisa Chase, 

Brenda Clarke, Leslie Lamm 

ADVERTORIAL CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 

Bruce Haring 

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Andrea Baker 

PAYROLL Linda Lam 

CONTROLLER Kacie Cobian 

ACCOUNTING Alysia Chavez, Sharon Huie 

OFFICE MANAGER Ann Turrietta 

PUBLISHER Jon Guynn 

arroyo 

FINE LIVING IN THE GREATER PASADENA AREA 

SOUTHLAND PUBLISHING 

V.P. OF OPERATIONS David Comden 

PRESIDENT Bruce Bolkin 

CONTACT US 

ADVERTISING 

dinas@pasadenaweekly.com 

EDITORIAL 

editor@arroyomonthly.com 

PHONE 

(626) 584-1500 

FAX 

(626) 795-0149 

MAILING ADDRESS 

50 S. De Lacey Ave., Ste. 200, 

Pasadena, CA 91105 

ArroyoMonthly.com 

©2017 Southland Publishing, Inc. 

All rights reserved. 

6 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 7

FESTIVITIES 

Marilyn Anderson and Gretchen McNally 

Cheryl Santoro, Dona Dockendorf and Brenda Jacquez 

Edward James Olmos and Cheech Marin 

Eva Longoria 

JT Torres, Robert Frank and Michael Wrusch 

Some 500 design lovers converged on a 1916 English Tudor estate 

in Pasadena for the Pasadena Showcase House of the Arts’ 

annual “Empty House Party” on Jan. 20. Guests savored drinks 

and snacks as they cruised the site of the 53rd Showcase House of 

Design, where 25 designers explained their plans for transforming 

the rooms and grounds into a must-see destination, open to the 

public April 23 through May 21. The event was chaired by Marilyn 

Anderson and Gretchen McNally. Visit pasadenashowcase. 

org… The Mark Taper Forum unveiled its 40th-anniversary revival 

of Broadway’s first Chicano play, Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit, starring 

Oscar-winning actor Demián Bichir. Hollywood actors, including 

Eva Longoria, Edward James Olmos, Ed Begley, Cheech Marin 

and Tim Roth, turned out for opening night Feb. 12. 

Tim Roth 

Lynn Mehl and 2017 Benefit Chair Dana Marevich 

David Reaume and Michele Stone 

Kinan Valdez, Demián Bichir and Luis Valdez 

PHOTOS: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging (Zoot Suit); 

8 | ARROYO | 03.17

LÉON BING 

BACK TO SCHOOL 

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy 

Iwent back to school last week. Not for classes and not for any kind of reunion (the 

reunion part may come later). I returned to Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy for 

the first time since I left, more years ago than I care to remember, because I received 

a mysterious phone message from a Sister Giulii (pronounced “Julie”). I called the 

number; the voice on the other end of the line was husky and casual and, I thought, 

entirely unclerical. My memories of the Flintridge sisters’ voices were full of crisp 

pronunciations and formal deliveries. Sister Giulii sounded like a girlfriend I hadn’t 

seen in a while. Which is pretty much what she turned out to be: a Flintridge classmate 

appearing out of the fog of our combined academic past. She’d tracked me down after 

reading one of my Arroyo columns about Flintridge, and she’d called to invite me to 

drive up to our old school together. She’d pick me up in her car, she said. 

Say what? A Dominican nun with a car? I wondered how she’d manage to handle 

the wheel with all the long skirts, coifs, veils and capacious sleeves of her habit. And 

what kind of car would she drive? 

The car turned out to be a Toyota Corolla. White. Clean, with a small clutch of 

papers on the passenger-side floor. These were brushed casually to the side so I’d have 

more leg room. This was the Giulii I’d known all those years ago, all right. The same 

spark of humor was there in her dark eyes. Her mouth still looked as if she might laugh 

at any moment. She was still pretty. Her thick dark curls were cropped short and, 

while the hair had remained thick, it had gone white. But she was not wearing a habit. 

Sister Giulii had on jeans and a gray T-shirt embossed across the front with the crest 

of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy. I could not have been more surprised if she had 

been wearing a sarong. 

We drove to La Cañada, talking about classmates who had entered the order. One 

girl, nicknamed Tyke, was the wildest student in our class, the one who found a way 

to smoke without being caught (and expelled), the one who managed to smuggle up 

a bottle of mouthwash laced with vodka, left school in the 10th grade and entered a 

Carmelite novitiate. Giullii told me Tyke left the Carmelites (the most enclosed of 

orders) and reentered the world after a few years. We talked about the suspense, during 

Sister Carolyn McCormack 

summer holidays, of waiting for the handsomely engraved card that invited you back 

for another year. If you did not receive that card, you weren’t welcome to return; it 

wasn’t like being expelled, but not being invited back to Flintridge would have made 

it difficult to be accepted at another private school. We traveled up St. Katherine 

Drive (the same route my mother and I had taken after weekends and holidays at 

home) until we reached the top. And there was the school, a sprawl of red-tile-roofed 

white buildings and lush landscaping with a rustic, bougainvillea-draped bridge that 

03.17 | ARROYO | 9

LÉON BING 

–continued from page 09 

crossed over the drive to a compound of four-room cottages reserved for upperclassmen. 

I remembered how excited I was when, as a junior, I got to live in one of the cottages; all 

Flintridge students are boarders, and being allowed a space in a cottage felt as grown-up as 

scarlet lipstick and My Sin perfume. 

The school, which was once the Flintridge Hotel (donated to the Catholic Church in 

the ’20s by its owner), looked the same as we walked up the flight of stone stairs to the 

entrance. The old hotel lobby still had the check-in desk where students signed in after 

weekends at home and where all incoming calls were screened. The big room off the 

lobby — where school plays, the junior and senior proms and the ceremonial senior ring 

ceremony were held — hadn’t changed, with the exception of a large lectern at the center of 

the room, facing a number of chairs. Sister Giulli explained that this was now the chapel. 

I was rather disappointed: My memory of the original chapel with its beautiful altar and 

rows of benches seemed much more the real deal to me. But the life-size statues of the 

Madonna holding the infant Jesus and Saint Francis with a small dog at his side were just as 

I remembered. The long hallway leading to the students’ rooms was unchanged. The Green 

Room, where we gathered after dinner for bridge games and dancing to donated record 

albums, was the same. But now it’s painted white and there is a very big flat-screen TV 

attached to one wall. I guess there’s not much dancing there now, or games of bridge and 

hearts. But just outside the room’s French doors, the patio with its round stone fountain was 

so familiar I half expected to see Sister Benigna bringing out the basket of sweet pastries 

she referred to as “afternoon lunch.” 

The highlight of the day was meeting Sister Carolyn McCormack, the president of 

Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy. Sister Carolyn greeted me with the warmest of hugs and 

the kind of smile one doesn’t see often: wide and true and welcoming. She was wearing a 

habit, and I noticed the differences from those my teachers wore when I was a student. The 

new habits are shorter and the coif and veil are less constricting. The black cotton stockings 

and low-heeled shoes are unchanged, however. 

Sister Carolyn, who was named Educator of the Year by the La Cañada Flintridge 

Chamber of Commerce in January, is apple-cheeked, with deeply intelligent eyes that hold 

an extra push of blue. Those eyes see you as you are, and when she leans in to speak she 

has the gift of making you feel as if you’re the only person in the room. She invited me to 

return to Flintridge, even to speak to any students interested in journalism. We met in the 

dining room, called the refectory when I was a student there. The big room is not much 

changed — the ceiling is as high and the candled chandeliers are still in place, but the 

white-clothed tables for eight have been replaced by round vinyl-topped tables bearing the 

Flintridge crest. And now, instead of meals served by the sisters, there are long tables with 

a choice of meals for self-service. I didn’t meet any students that day, but I saw a couple of 

girls studying at the other end of the dining room. The dark blue uniforms we wore when I 

was a Flintridge student have been replaced with red blazers and pleated skirts. Way more 

attractive. 

It was a great day for me, and if it’s true you can’t go home again, you can most assuredly 

go back to school. |||| 

10 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 11

12 | ARROYO | 03.17

Monkey fl ower 

COOL 

DOWN 

Shady gardens are 

tricky but rewarding. 

BY ILSA SETZIOL 

EVERY SUMMER THERE ARE DAYS WHEN 

THE HEAT IS SINISTER — HOT OUTSIDE, 

HOT INSIDE. THE A/C IS ON BUT MY ’20S 

SPANISH HOME IS STILL 84 DEGREES. I PAD 

BACK AND FORTH, FEELING LIKE A SNOW 

LEOPARD IN AN ARIZONA ZOO. I EYE MY 

GARDEN AND PINE FOR SHADE. 

PHOTO: Ilsa Setziol 

03.17 | ARROYO | 13

Fuchsia-fl owered gooseberry 

(Ribes speciosum) 

Creeping barberry 

(Berberis repens) 


Trees. I need more trees. 

“Trees are the most beneficial plants in our urban landscape,” says landscape architect 

and Cal Poly Pomona professor emeritus Bob Perry, conveniently supporting my obsession. 

Trees not only shade our homes, he points out, they also sequester carbon from the 

atmosphere “and transpire their moisture, which [reduces] air temperature and direct-sun 

heat load on our houses.” 

With temperatures rising and Southern California vulnerable to drought (despite 

recent rain), cultivating shade just makes sense. Sure, gardening in the shade can be tricky, 

but with a little know-how, you can cultivate spots that are cool, lovely and soothing. 

Over the 13 years I’ve lived in San Gabriel, I’ve added shade to my lot: a native Catalina 

cherry, some gorgeous red-barked manzanitas, a feijoa (pineapple guava tree). But as the 

trees have grown, the shadows have deepened and I’ve had to reexamine what will thrive. 

To state the obvious: Plants need sun to photosynthesize and grow. That makes deeply 

shady areas, including the north side of structures, a challenge for gardeners. For these 

full-shade spots, Perry recommends understory plants from temperate or subtropical 

climates—flora that evolved to grow beneath a thick tree canopy. That includes the Japanese 

aucuba (Aucuba japonica), an evergreen shrub with variegated leaves; various maples, 

aspidistras and philodendrons (both commonly sold as indoor plants) and some species of 

Berberis, such as Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium) and creeping barberry (Berberis repens). 

Many of these plants need year-round water to look their best, so I prefer plants from 

Mediterranean climates — California, Chile, South Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean 

basin. Perry recommends these as well. “It’s a limited palette, but dry shade is as 

tough as it gets,” he says. “When you talk about dry shade, you are dealing with sort of a 

double negative.” 

Las Pilitas, a native plant nursery near San Luis Obispo, offers an exhaustive list of 

California flora for full and dry shade on its website (laspilitas.com), with the caveat that 

many might prefer partial shade. Among the more popular plants on the list are various 

species and cultivars of coffeeberry, monkey flower, Heuchera, currants (Ribes indecorum 

and Ribes sanguineum glutinosum) and hummingbird sage. 

All of these natives have thrived in shady spots in my garden. On the north side of my 

home, along a path between the house and a perimeter wall, I converted a dank zone of 

calla lilies and lawn into a thicket of (mainly) natives. The new plants mostly thrived and 

didn’t need as much water, but I discovered that each niche had its own microclimate. Several 

patches turned out to be sunnier than I thought, affording me a wider range of plants. 

Jill Morganelli, horticultural supervisor for the Los Angeles County Arboretum and 

Botanic Garden, recommends studying your shade before you plant. “Maybe keep a little 

journal,” she says. “Go in the morning and see what the sun is, go out there in the afternoon, 

and then you also have to do that at different times of the year.” 

My thicket matured, providing an attractive privacy screen, but some of the plants, 

including a nectarine tree, languished as others grew up around them. At the northwest 

corner of the house, a manzanita caught late-afternoon sun in summer. It grew slowly but 

steadily, eventually shading out a coffeeberry shrub. 

“Most trees need full sun,” says Morganelli, “and when you start getting into shade and 

growing against buildings, there’s no air flow, so molds and root rot can really intensify.” 

She adds that people tend to overwater shady areas, leaving plants vulnerable to disease. 

I’m stingy with water, so my biggest problem is determining whether aggrieved plants 

have taken too much umbrage or are in need of a drink. 

Morganelli strolls among ferns at the Arboretum in Arcadia. She points out other 

shade-tolerant plants: orange-flowered Clivia, an evergreen, bulb-like (rhizomatous) plant 

from southern Africa; Peruvian lily (Alstromeria); and shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana), a 

shrub with blooms resembling crustaceans. 

Because shady areas are darker, Morganelli says, variegated and white-flowered plants, 

including the lighter azaleas, look especially pretty. “At night it literally illuminates your 

garden,” she says. 

On hot days, one of Morganelli’s favorite Arboretum roosts is a bench under a stout 

coast live oak. ”Don’t try to plant magnificent gardens under oaks,” she advises. “It’s just 

not going to work.” Indeed, because of the deep shade and chemicals (tannins) this tree ex- 

–continued on page 16 

PHOTOS: Robert Perry 

14 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 15

A shady spot in the 

author’s garden 

(Ribes) 

SEVEN CALIFORNIA 

NATIVE PLANTS FOR 

SHADY SPOTS 

IN DROUGHT-TOLERANT 

GARDENS 

Fuchsia-flowered gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) 

Produces a profusion of fuchsia-like flowers, which attract hummingbirds. It is 

naturally adapted to drought and will become dormant by the end of summer under dry conditions. 

Gardening author Bob Perry also recommends the low-growing, tiny-flowered 

Ribes viburnifolium. I’m partial to the currants with tassels of flowers that dangle from 

the branches: Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum, Ribes indecorum and Ribes malvaceum var. 

malvaceum (“dancing tassels”). 


Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) 

A highly adaptable plant that will spread into areas it finds favorable. Hummers love 

it and you’ll love its aroma — a delicious fruity/minty blend. It frequently grows as an 

understory to native oaks... It develops strong rhizomes below ground that enables it to survive 

summer drought. 

udes to inhibit other plants, nothing is growing under it. “But look at the glorious shade,” 

Morganelli says. 

The Arboretum’s Engelmann oak grove is a refuge for L.A. County’s largest remaining 

congregation of these rare native trees. I asked Jim Henrich, the Arboretum’s curator of 

living collections, to meet me there to discuss gardening around oaks. 

The Engelmanns slant west in unison, a carpet of weeds at their feet. Henrich hopes to 

replace the weeds with a few sparsely planted natives, perhaps evergreen currant and bunch 

grass — but around the periphery. “The best thing of all is not to plant under the tree,” he 

says, “and just allow natural leaf-litter accumulation. It’s the best mulch.” California oaks 

are adapted to dry summers. New plantings will need more frequent summer water, which 

can leave oaks vulnerable to fungus, especially if moisture concentrates near the trunk. 

(One exception: In the first few years, young oaks benefit from regular water.) For trees 

generally, it’s best to water at the dripline — the zone under the outer circumference of the 

branches. 

“If you have to plant under the tree, you should probably stay at least 15 feet away 

from the trunk,” Henrich says, adding that you’ll need to select plants that survive on less 

frequent but longer (deeper) watering. To avoid excessive root disturbance, keep plantings 

sparse. It’s good advice for working around any kind of tree. 

Perry recommends installing a drip irrigation system at a tree’s dripline. “Cover it with 

mulch and strategically plant,” he says. “Put an emphasis on plants that spread and sprawl.” 

Cluster things, he says, so instead of a carpet, you’ll have mulch and “drifts and groupings 

and islands” of plants. 

First and foremost, water the trees. “Our big trees, even coast live oaks, are not necessarily 

water-thrifty plants,” says Perry. “They have a big surface area to cool.” So prioritize: 

allow portions of your yard to be drier, rely less on lawn and other thirsty plants. That way, 

says Perry, “collectively you’re using less water because you are focusing it strategically on 

the plants that really do the good things for our environment.” 

Exactly. Trees. Big shady trees. |||| 

Creeping barberry (Berberis repens) 

A low evergreen shrub with clusters of yellow flowers and purple-blue berries. This 

species grows best in rich, well-drained soils, in light shade…This is a durable and handsome 

spreading shrub that grows well within the drip line of native oaks.” 

Spice bush (Calycanthus occidentalis) 

This fragrant deciduous shrub is native to Northern California foothills and sports 

showy red blossoms. 

California coffeeberry cultivars (Rhamnus californica) 

Horticulturalists have developed several varieties (cultivars) of this handsome shrub 

with berries that turn black in the fall. It does best with good winter moisture and is welladapted 

to summer drought. These qualities enable [it] to fit many garden and landscape situations. 

Toyon or California holly (Heteromeles arbutifolia) 

This is the red-berried plant that gave Hollywood its name. The berries will attract 

birds to your garden. It prefers full sun but shows a wide tolerance for different types of soils, 

exposure and moisture conditions. It develops deep roots and grows on dry slopes, ridges and in 

canyons. 

Hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia var. ilicifolia) 

A Southern California chaparral plant with cream-colored flowers and big-pitted 

cherries. Well suited for erosion control on slopes, habitat restoration and in ornamental gardens 

as background shrubs. It’s also one of the best choices for use as a clipped hedge. 

Based on Bob Perry’s Landscape Plants for California Gardens (Land Design Publishing; 

2010). (Perry’s comments are in italics.) 

PHOTO: Ilsa Setziol 

16 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 17

18 | ARROYO | 03.17

HOT HOMES 

Arroyoland’s rising home prices are 

good news for sellers and affluent 

buyers, but a market challenge for 

many millennials and first-timers. 

BY BETTIJANE LEVINE 

A MIX OF FEAR AND CONFIDENCE TRIGGERED THE ZANY 

UPTICK IN ARROYOLAND’S HOME SALE PRICES IN 2016. 

FIGURES RECENTLY RELEASED SHOW THAT HOME VALUES 

LEAPED ANYWHERE FROM 6 TO 17 PERCENT LAST YEAR, 

DEPENDING ON THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND METRICS 

USED BY ANALYSTS. 

03.17 | ARROYO | 19

–continued from mp 

page 

19 

Fear factors mentioned by Realtors and brokers in our sample survey include the 

potential rise in interest rates along with the uncertainty about election results and 

their unforeseeable impact on the economy. Confidence in Arroyoland’s enduring value 

and the benefits of living here, no matter what the future brings, are key ingredients 

in upsizing what home buyers will pay. Both elements combined to cause a rush of 

property-seekers competing to outbid each other for the few properties available that 

met their needs. 

Whether measuring a home’s value by sale price or price per square foot, it’s clear 

that last year was stellar for home sellers in the San Gabriel Valley, especially those 

who planned to take their profits and move to less expensive parts. It was also potentially 

beneficial for those who decided to buy, analysts say, because even though prices 

were higher, interest rates remained low, and no one knows how long they’ll stay that 

way. 

“Time is not a buyer’s friend,” says broker Irina Netchaev, the owner of Pasadena 

Views Real Estate in San Marino. “A rise of 1 percent in interest rates results in a 

10 percent decrease in affordability, and with interest rates still pretty low, buyers 

can afford a lot more” than they could if rates go up as expected. Netchaev says that 

“looking at sold prices for homes in Pasadena, for example, the average sale price 

soared from $866,000 in December 2015 to $988,000 in December 2016, which is a 

whopping 14.1 percent increase.” 

Yet there are still livable areas that are more affordable, Netchaev says, citing 

Sierra Madre “if you want to go a little bit further east.” She also likes La Crescenta, 

“although houses are getting fairly high there as well.” And although January showed 

a slowing of sales, Netchaev believes we haven’t yet hit a price plateau. “It’s more of 

an expected seasonal slowdown combined with a lot of rain,” she says, “and desirable 

homes are still getting multiple offers.” She expects 2017 to be a good year, especially 

for sellers. 

What’s considered desirable these days depends on which portion of the population 

you’re considering. 

Trends for 2017 became evident late last year, as prices spiked but didn’t affect the 

influx of particular groups of buyers. All Realtors and brokers mentioned a rush of 

millenials seeking affordable starter homes in good neighborhoods. In Arroyoland, 

such homes start at $700,000 to $800,000, they say, and there are still not enough 

homes available in that price range to fulfill the growing need. 

Many boomers are downsizing from larger homes and reinvesting in smaller 

ones, coming away with such big profits that Realtors say those clients’ big worry is 

how much they’ll have to pay in capital gains taxes. “Prices have gone up so much 

since they originally purchased that they are reaping much more than the government’s 

allowable deduction of $500,000 per couple,” says Catherine Tink Cheney of 

Coldwell Banker in Pasadena. Downsizing in Arroyoland can mean switching from 

a $3 million or $4 million two-story home to a one-story home that costs only $1 or 

$2 million, says Netchaev, adding that her boomer clients who do that are not only 

getting more comfortable and manageable space, but also cutting their property taxes 

in half. 

Foreign investment has little to do with escalating prices, the experts agreed. It 

has slowed appreciably, and those who are buying homes, no matter their country 

of origin, are mostly people who’ve been living here for a while and intend to fully 

occupy those properties. “Many developers in Arcadia are having a hard time selling 

their built homes and have halted new construction,” Netchaev says. 

Lin Vlacich, a Realtor with Sotheby’s International in Pasadena, says sales at the 

end of last year were frenzied. “Just prior to the election we had a lot of buyers making 

decisions out of fear of what might happen,” she says. “So we had a lot of crazy 


20 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 21

Home of late Disney animator Frank 

Thomas in La Cañada Flintridge. 


multiple offers. I had one property with 53 offers, another with 29 and one with 15. 

Anxiety about the future drove people to be competitive.” She says she deals with all 

price ranges in all areas of Arroyoland, but an ongoing concern is the search by young 

families struggling to find an affordable first home. They have to be very patient and 

flexible about location, she says. “I just sold a young family a lovely home in Temple 

City in the $600,000s. They were willing to wait quite a while until they found the 

right place. It’s close to schools, to work, and with 1,400 square feet it meets all their 

needs. Three bedrooms, two baths, a yard and a fireplace. Is it fancy? No. It’s very 

simple. And they’re very happy.” 

Itza Aguilar, with the John Aaroe Group in Pasadena, says a big problem for buyers 

is the dearth of smaller, attractive and well-priced one-level homes. “In many areas 

of the San Gabriel Valley, it’s difficult to find anything under $800,000,” she says. 

“In Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, even San Gabriel itself, it’s almost impossible to 

find an attractive one-level house with three bedrooms and two baths for under that 

$800,000 price, which means you’re talking about buyers who are well established, 

because it’s very difficult for most people to purchase in that price range.” 

Aging boomers downsizing from 3,000 or 4,000 square feet to about 1,800 

square feet are prime candidates, she says. But they’re competing with more affluent 

millenials who also want good one-level houses in desirable neighborhoods, “and we 

don’t have enough of those. I think that’s a definite trend, and something developers 

should keep in mind.” The John Aaroe market analysis for houses sold in Pasadena in 

2016 shows an average sold price of $1,085,784, which is even higher than the figure 

quoted by Netchaev. Figures may differ, but the general trend is clear. After a slow 

January, prices continue on the upswing, and there appear to be too few homes available 

for the many would-be buyers. 

To put current local home costs in perspective, the California Association of Realtors 

reports that a home buyer anywhere in Los Angeles County needs a minimum 

six-figure salary of $104,330 to afford a home priced at just $536,720 — the median 

price of all L.A. County homes in November 2016. Only 26 percent of all households 

in the county have the means to buy such a home, the report states. And that midlevel 

price is way below the median price of homes in the San Gabriel Valley, which 

Zillow and others report at about $714,000. And on Jan. 21 of this year, Homesnap 

reported “an established uptrend” in prices for the City of San Gabriel. The median 

home price there rose from $867,500 to $881,250, and sales were reportedly brisk for 

the first month of the new year. 

It’s easy to see why most Realtors and brokers expect a very successful year for 

clients who are selling and buyers able to pay the escalating prices. Those whose 

incomes don’t measure up can only hope we’re in a temporary bubble, although none 

of the experts we spoke with even mentioned that word. |||| 

PHOTO: Cameron Carothers 

22 | ARROYO | 03.17

arroyo 

~HOME SALES INDEX~ 

25 - MONTH 

ANALYSIS 

HOMES SOLD - ALL AREAS 

550 

500 

450 

400 

350 

300 

250 

200 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

AVERAGE PRICE PER SQ. FT. - ALL AREAS 

$ 

610 

$ 

590 

$ 

570 

$ 

550 

$ 

530 

$ 

510 

$ 

490 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

ALHAMBRA AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

440 

$ 

420 

$ 

400 

$ 

380 

$ 

360 

$ 

340 

$ 

320 

$ 

300 

OCT. ’15 JUNE. ’16 JAN. ’17 

$ 

550 

ALTADENA AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

800 

ARCADIA AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

650 

EAGLE ROCK AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

490 

$ 

470 

$ 

450 

$ 

750 

$ 

700 

$ 

650 

$ 

600 

$ 

550 

$ 

430 

$ 

600 

$ 

500 

$ 

410 

$ 

390 

$ 

370 

$ 

550 

$ 

500 

$ 

450 

$ 

450 

$ 

400 

$ 

350 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

$ 

400 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

$ 

350 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

GLENDALE AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

460 

$ 

440 

$ 

420 

$ 

400 

$ 

380 

$ 

360 

$ 

340 

LA CAÑADA AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

850 

$ 

800 

$ 

750 

$ 

700 

$ 

650 

$ 

600 

PASADENA AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

600 

$ 

550 

$ 

500 

$ 

450 

$ 

400 

$ 

320 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

$ 

550 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

$ 

350 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

SAN MARINO AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

1100 

$ 

1050 

$ 

1000 

$ 

950 

$ 

900 

$ 

850 

$ 

800 

$ 

750 

$ 

700 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

SIERRA MADRE AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. SOUTH PASADENA AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

$ 

650 

$ 

750 

$ 

$ 

700 

600 

$ 

650 

$ 

550 

$ 

600 

$ 

500 

$ 

550 

$ 

$ 

500 

450 

$ 

450 

$ 

400 

$ 

400 

$ 

350 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

$ 

350 

JAN. ’15 JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

These charts refl ect home sales data from January 2015 through January 2017 provided by CalREsource and as reported in the Arroyo Home Sales Index for Pasadena and the surrounding communities of South Pasadena, San Marino, La 

Canada Flintridge, Eagle Rock, Glendale (including Montrose), Altadena, Sierra Madre and Arcadia. Each graph displays the actual data as well as a linear trend line as an overview of activity or price. Data for Alhambra is incomplete, so that 

market was not included in the “Homes Sold” and “Average Price per Sq. Ft.” graphs. Complete home sales listings appear each week in Pasadena Weekly © Arroyo 2017. 

03.17 ARROYO | 23

24 | ARROYO | 03.17

arroyo 

~HOME SALES INDEX~ 

HOME SALES 

11.08% 

AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT. 

14.15% 

jan. 

2016 

316 

HOMES 

SOLD 

jan. 

2017 

351 

HOMES 

SOLD 

 

HOMESALESABOVE 

RECENT HOME CLOSINGS IN THE PASADENA WEEKLY FOOTPRINT 

source: CalREsource 

ADDRESS CLOSE DATE PRICE BDRMS. SQ. FT. YR. BUILT PREV. PRICE PREV. SOLD 

ALHAMBRA 

819 North Marguerita Avenue 01/17/17 $830,000 2 1650 1909 $550,000 07/03/2014 

516 North Valencia Street 01/27/17 $820,000 5 2207 1926 $368,000 04/15/1991 

ALTADENA 

1324 Pleasantridge Drive 01/04/17 $1,750,000 4 3121 1986 $1,050,000 06/23/2016 

1230 Rubio Vista Road 01/26/17 $1,400,000 4 3235 1988 $1,129,000 07/08/2005 

3589 Canon Boulevard 01/27/17 $1,075,000 3 3439 1926 $269,000 06/01/1990 

1860 Pinecrest Drive 01/25/17 $985,000 4 2509 1951 

1062 Beverly Way 01/05/17 $965,000 3 2074 1931 $336,500 10/12/2005 

2057 Sinaloa Avenue 01/13/17 $933,000 2 2002 1948 $300,000 03/10/2011 

750 Ventura Street 02/06/17 $895,500 3 2218 1923 $800,000 11/07/2014 

3265 Crestford Drive 01/17/17 $888,000 2 2016 1952 

2175 Holliston Avenue 01/18/17 $860,000 3 1888 1948 $120,000 01/11/1984 

4487 Rising Hill Road 01/25/17 $821,000 3 1502 1954 $625,000 09/08/2016 

1730 Meadowbrook Road 01/20/17 $791,000 2 1512 1929 

2882 Marengo Avenue 01/18/17 $775,000 2 1232 1959 $605,000 01/30/2014 

ARCADIA 

1546 Rodeo Road 01/18/17 $4,398,000 7 8391 1998 $570,000 06/12/1997 

2215 South Santa Anita Avenue 01/12/17 $4,340,000 2 1360 1941 $1,800,000 06/11/2014 

71 Hacienda Drive 01/31/17 $3,309,000 6 3291 1938 $83,500 04/06/1972 

1110 Rodeo Road 01/27/17 $3,300,000 4 3865 1940 $3,150,000 02/28/2014 

630 East Norman Avenue 01/24/17 $2,800,000 5 6228 2013 $2,940,000 11/05/2013 

1415 Caballero Road 01/03/17 $2,258,000 4 2952 1941 

2218 Lee Avenue 01/20/17 $2,240,000 280 1953 $949,000 04/24/2015 

234 East Sycamore Avenue 01/11/17 $2,213,000 3 1798 1948 $860,000 08/22/2013 

2029 Highland Oaks Drive 02/03/17 $2,100,000 4 2586 1959 $1,388,000 03/18/2014 

2415 South 8th Avenue 01/31/17 $1,780,000 4 3883 2015 $322,000 07/29/1999 

270 Monte Place 02/06/17 $1,650,000 4 3272 1960 


2010 Carolwood Drive 01/09/17 $1,510,000 4 2963 1962 

167 Luben Lane 01/05/17 $1,350,000 4 2951 1986 


1110 Encino Avenue 01/17/17 $1,098,000 3 1704 1958 

606 South 3rd Avenue 01/12/17 $950,000 4 2408 1995 $316,800 06/23/1995 

169 Eldorado Street #B 01/31/17 $916,000 3 2317 1999 $960,000 03/21/2014 

1000 North 1st Avenue 01/24/17 $784,000 3 1966 2002 $620,000 09/30/2010 

EAGLE ROCK 

2385 Hill Drive 01/12/17 $1,731,000 6 4157 1930 $109,000 12/19/2005 

1776 Hill Drive 01/05/17 $1,279,000 3 3085 1922 

5074 Glen Iris Avenue 01/05/17 $1,150,000 2 1146 1922 $500,000 09/02/2011 

1943 Estes Road 01/09/17 $1,088,500 5 3307 1971 

1759 Hill Drive 01/26/17 $940,000 3 1757 1940 

5400 Townsend Avenue 01/09/17 $875,000 2 1411 1936 $670,000 08/20/2004 

4614 Townsend Avenue 01/27/17 $855,000 4 2817 1991 $300,000 06/26/1997 

5226 Rockland Avenue 02/03/17 $795,000 5 1800 1911 

G L E N DA L E 

1650 Cumberland Terrace 01/04/17 $1,550,000 4 2792 1957 

800 Moorside Drive 01/24/17 $1,550,000 5 3969 1979 $363,700 03/25/1980 

1347 Orange Grove Avenue 01/05/17 $1,425,000 6 3482 1951 $920,000 12/11/2014 

616 East Lomita Avenue 01/18/17 $1,400,000 8 6078 1931 $805,000 04/30/2009 

688 Glenmore Boulevard 01/13/17 $1,400,000 4 3696 1989 $605,000 01/29/1990 

2249 Flintridge Drive 01/27/17 $1,390,000 3 2648 1979 $435,000 03/19/1999 

1018 San Rafael Avenue 01/17/17 $1,300,000 8 3060 1956 $660,000 11/21/2003 

619 Caruso Avenue 01/04/17 $1,300,000 2 1712 2008 

2441 Allanjay Place 01/10/17 $1,289,000 3 2538 1966 $690,000 01/17/2001 

2556 Flintridge Drive 01/18/17 $1,285,000 4 2669 1985 $800,000 03/08/2004 

1524 Ard Eevin Avenue 01/30/17 $1,255,000 5 2698 1930 

1313 Hillside Drive 01/04/17 $1,255,000 2 1824 1954 $875,000 05/23/2016 

321 Wonderview Drive 01/13/17 $1,187,000 4 3193 1967 

1130 North Everett Street 01/24/17 $1,125,000 3 1948 1927 $775,000 06/29/2016 

2243 East Chevy Chase Drive 01/06/17 $1,110,000 3 2659 1928 $580,000 12/23/2002 

2449 Florencita Avenue 01/25/17 $1,100,000 6 2900 1948 

3305 Crail Way 01/20/17 $1,030,000 5 2577 1967 

1812 Calle Suenos 01/30/17 $1,015,000 3 2451 1990 $750,000 05/11/2012 

2480 East Chevy Chase Drive 01/05/17 $1,005,000 2 2099 1949 $369,000 08/18/1998 

3900 Park Vista Place 01/27/17 $1,000,000 4 2395 1977 $119,500 05/03/1978 

1933 Foothill Drive 01/17/17 $999,000 3 1977 1940 $210,000 11/20/1985 

1716 Wabasso Way 01/20/17 $980,000 4 1914 1962 

416 Coutin Lane 01/17/17 $970,000 3 2119 1951 $430,000 08/29/1990 

1427 Andenes Drive 01/31/17 $969,000 1 1594 1937 $89,000 12/03/1976 

ALHAMBRA JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 

Homes Sold 24 28 

Median Price 561500 $540,000 

Median Sq. Ft. 1518 1384 

ALTADENA JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $765,000 $772,000 


ARCADIA JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $977,000 $1,615,000 


EAGLE ROCK JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $670,000 $771,000 


GLENDALE JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $630,000 $624,500 


LA CAÑADA JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $1,555,000 $2,260,000 


PASADENA JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $612,000 $621,500 


SAN MARINO JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $1,880,000 $2,445,000 


SIERRA MADRE JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $895,000 $957,500 


SOUTH PASADENA JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Median Price $850,000 $1,300,000 


TOTAL JAN. ’16 JAN. ’17 


Avg Price/Sq. Ft. 509 $581 –continued on page 26 

The Arroyo Home Sales Index is calculated from residential home sales in Pasadena and the surrounding communities of South Pasadena, San Marino, La Canada Flintridge, Eagle Rock, Glendale (including Montrose), Altadena, Sierra Madre, 

Arcadia and Alhambra. Individual home sales data provided by CalREsource. Arroyo Home Sales Index © Arroyo 2017. Complete home sales listings appear each week in Pasadena Weekly. 

03.17 ARROYO | 25


ADDRESS CLOSE DATE PRICE BDRMS. SQ. FT. YR. BUILT PREV. PRICE PREV. SOLD 

GLENDALE 

961 Pebbleshire Road 01/27/17 $902,000 4 2689 1965 $680,000 06/07/2012 

1161 North Verdugo Road 01/19/17 $900,000 6 2396 1944 $927,500 07/25/2007 

2324 Sylvan Lane 01/05/17 $885,000 2 1498 1947 $375,000 12/19/2000 

1219 Cordova Avenue 01/06/17 $875,000 3 1465 1926 $620,000 03/31/2008 

2095 West Mountain Street 01/26/17 $872,500 2 1497 1941 $550,000 02/25/2005 

1534 Western Avenue 01/27/17 $832,000 2 1353 1940 

1260 Graynold Avenue 01/06/17 $825,000 2 1855 1947 $815,000 11/14/2005 

1321 East Acacia Avenue 01/06/17 $825,000 4 1916 1926 $460,000 05/03/2011 

1414 El Miradero Avenue 01/04/17 $800,000 3 2096 1927 

3677 Glenwood Avenue 01/25/17 $800,000 3 1436 1955 

326 Spencer Street 01/11/17 $788,000 3 1867 1938 

903 Omar Street 01/17/17 $781,000 3 1737 1938 $200,000 03/25/1997 

1432 East Windsor Road 01/25/17 $780,000 4 2191 1928 $574,500 11/13/2008 

LA CAÑADA 

4218 Shepherds Lane 02/03/17 $5,650,000 6 7752 2002 $1,200,000 07/31/2001 

5014 Commonwealth Avenue 01/24/17 $2,950,000 5 4408 1949 $1,925,000 06/04/2010 

4841 Del Monte Road 01/30/17 $2,850,000 3 1819 1942 $1,195,000 05/29/2015 

5042 Indianola Way 01/03/17 $2,700,000 5 3572 1967 $1,000,000 08/03/1998 

5600 Alta Canyada Road 01/05/17 $2,700,000 3 4449 1958 

4827 La Canada Boulevard 01/30/17 $2,700,000 4 4099 2003 $1,950,000 12/15/2004 

4416 Woodleigh Lane 01/30/17 $2,400,000 4 4125 1985 $680,000 08/31/1987 

4531 Palm Drive 01/18/17 $2,350,000 5 5117 1940 

5239 Harter Lane 01/26/17 $2,170,000 4 4317 1995 $2,150,000 01/08/2016 

5703 Evening Canyon Drive 01/20/17 $1,500,000 3 2552 1967 $1,200,000 07/28/2010 

5027 Louise Drive 01/04/17 $1,490,000 3 2659 1925 $1,585,000 10/13/2006 

5630 Ocean View Boulevard 01/30/17 $1,430,000 4 2569 1962 

5255 Indian Drive 02/03/17 $1,419,500 6 5466 1920 

4947 Alminar Avenue 01/23/17 $1,300,000 3 1674 1947 $874,000 12/17/2010 

1216 Lanterman Lane 01/20/17 $1,262,500 2 1712 1955 $985,000 06/12/2014 

1021 Salisbury Court 01/18/17 $1,001,000 2 1120 1953 $900,000 04/15/2016 

PASADENA 

661 Landor Lane 01/12/17 $3,560,000 7 4438 1923 $180,000 05/17/1976 

3522 Ranch Top Road 01/20/17 $3,250,000 6 5605 1991 $1,230,000 09/26/1991 

964 South Oakland Avenue 01/18/17 $2,410,000 5 2914 1910 $1,662,000 03/01/2016 

3621 East California Boulevard 02/01/17 $2,020,000 4 3395 1942 $1,600,000 02/02/2006 

505 Laguna Road 01/05/17 $1,875,000 5 2156 1949 $1,850,000 07/31/2015 

3205 Lombardy Road 01/06/17 $1,750,000 3 2728 1951 $240,000 08/03/1984 

525 East California Boulevard 01/26/17 $1,585,000 3 2474 1907 $1,300,000 06/08/2015 

743 North Holliston Avenue 01/26/17 $1,450,000 4 3364 1979 $210,000 10/08/1998 

1728 San Pasqual Street 01/26/17 $1,450,000 3 2148 1961 $235,000 12/14/1983 

1251 Lincoln Avenue 01/25/17 $1,370,000 8 3332 1945 $266,000 07/05/2000 

1208 Rancheros Place 01/31/17 $1,275,000 3 2030 1960 $565,000 03/29/2002 

1120 Valley View Avenue 01/20/17 $1,160,000 3 1331 1951 $653,000 04/15/2016 

1406 Wellington Avenue 01/24/17 $1,090,000 3 1444 1931 $353,000 07/17/1996 

3321 Grayburn Road 01/13/17 $1,030,000 3 1839 1929 $345,000 06/08/1993 

785 Hastings Ranch Drive 02/02/17 $1,000,000 4 2640 1950 $1,160,000 07/07/2014 

1420 North Dominion Avenue 01/19/17 $995,000 3 1548 1923 $650,000 06/29/2016 

869 Lincoln Avenue 01/31/17 $985,000 8 3656 1906 $495,000 05/23/2003 

840 East Green Street #305 02/02/17 $975,000 2 1917 2006 $900,000 03/30/2007 

288 South Oakland Avenue #201 01/12/17 $943,500 

2333 East Washington Boulevard 01/12/17 $906,000 6 2001 1946 $750,000 05/02/2005 

64 North Arroyo Boulevard 01/20/17 $900,000 4 2832 1986 $617,000 04/10/2003 

1594 North Holliston Avenue 01/13/17 $865,000 3 1356 1960 $599,500 11/09/2004 

700 East Union Street #104 01/26/17 $860,000 2 1570 2006 $850,000 05/31/2007 

780 North Allen Avenue 01/19/17 $860,000 4 2259 1926 $505,000 01/31/2011 

1786 Asbury Drive 01/10/17 $857,000 2 945 1923 $600,000 12/02/2015 


605 Del Monte Street 02/01/17 $840,000 4 1760 1976 $435,000 07/29/2011 

1138 East Woodbury Road 01/11/17 $824,000 3 1754 1963 


355 Sycamore Glen 01/31/17 $788,000 2 1078 1950 $622,000 04/08/2013 

SAN MARINO 

2285 South Oak Knoll Avenue 01/05/17 $7,000,000 4 2301 1950 $2,400,000 01/03/2014 

1135 Avondale Road 01/06/17 $6,780,000 5 5264 1956 $6,500,000 02/03/2015 

1725 Chelsea Road 01/04/17 $4,700,000 4 2966 1930 $2,450,000 02/21/2014 

800 Chester Avenue 01/10/17 $4,500,000 4 4312 1941 $3,680,000 09/06/2013 

2265 Melville Drive 01/27/17 $2,700,000 5 3342 1942 $650,000 05/05/1995 

1360 Belhaven Road 01/25/17 $2,630,000 2 1432 1948 $1,550,000 05/01/2014 

1940 Lorain Road 01/18/17 $2,540,000 5 3008 1928 $740,000 02/27/2002 

555 Sierra Madre Boulevard 01/18/17 $2,350,000 4 3360 1925 $1,680,000 04/06/2011 

2226 Ashbourne Drive 01/12/17 $1,988,000 3 2309 1939 $1,210,000 07/26/2011 

1380 Wilbury Road 01/26/17 $1,760,000 3 2326 1935 $610,000 05/02/2000 

840 Winthrop Road 01/19/17 $1,750,000 3 2454 1933 $668,000 09/28/2001 

1900 Kerns Avenue 01/11/17 $1,680,000 3 2160 1938 

1370 Lorain Road 02/06/17 $1,340,000 3 1607 1940 $250,000 09/02/1983 

1775 South San Gabriel Boulevard 01/12/17 $1,000,000 2 1551 1947 

SIERRA MADRE 

363 Camillo Road 01/31/17 $1,515,000 1 880 1941 $438,500 02/22/2013 

614 Fairview Avenue 01/06/17 $1,399,000 3 2898 1943 $83,500 07/18/1984 

1975 Liliano Drive 02/01/17 $1,398,000 4 2392 1959 $1,001,000 10/10/2014 

738 West Alegria Avenue 01/18/17 $1,360,000 4 4462 1948 $775,000 05/29/2013 

289 East Alegria Avenue 01/27/17 $1,299,500 4 3295 1960 $549,000 03/12/1998 

233 San Gabriel Court 01/06/17 $990,000 3 2090 2000 $870,000 12/13/2012 

500 Mariposa Avenue 01/10/17 $925,000 3 1696 1961 $800,000 09/01/2016 

409 Manzanita Avenue 02/01/17 $910,000 3 1499 1950 $910,000 06/01/2016 

288 Churchill Road 02/03/17 $890,000 3 1735 1964 

72 South Hermosa Avenue 01/18/17 $787,000 2 1514 1919 $275,000 09/01/1998 

SOUTH PASADENA 

1928 Mill Road 01/27/17 $1,980,000 3 2444 1926 $1,480,000 04/12/2013 

1401 Via Del Rey 01/03/17 $1,780,000 6 5082 1971 

1305 Stratford Avenue 01/24/17 $1,495,000 3 2492 1911 

1928 Primrose Avenue 01/17/17 $1,388,000 3 1694 1908 $910,000 08/10/2016 

1921 Edgewood Drive 02/02/17 $1,302,500 3 1515 1925 $1,302,500 12/01/2016 

706 El Tesorito Street 01/11/17 $1,300,000 3 1721 1966 $1,130,000 06/20/2016 

415 Alta Vista Avenue 01/10/17 $975,000 3 2035 1959 $626,500 11/04/2010 

820 Mission Street #111 01/25/17 $852,000 

1364 Oak Hill Place 01/03/17 $805,000 3 968 1951 

26 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 27

28 | ARROYO | 03.17

ARROYO 

HOME & DESIGN 

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT 

PHOTO: Courtesy of Cozy Stylish Chic 

MIXING AND MATCHING 

TRENDS IN HOME 

FURNISHINGS 

Don’t be afraid to be adventurous, 

say area designers 

BY BRUCE HARING 

03.17 | ARROYO | 29

—ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT— 

PHOTO: Courtesy of TPT Home & Garden 


YOU’RE LIKELY SITTING ON SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS RIGHT NOW. 

Well, not you, the individual. Collectively, U.S. furniture and home 

furnishings stores generate more than $100 billion per year worth of sales, 

per the web site statista.com. That’s a lot of sofas, ottomans, love seats 

and chairs. 

The Pasadena area, owing to its relative affl uence, is a hot market 

for the home goods industry, which embraces furniture, decorative 

accessories, draperies and curtains, appliances, cookware and 

gardening equipment. Many homeowners turn over their furniture every 

few years, hoping to freshen their living space and create a new and 

more vibrant feel in the rooms where they spend a great deal of their lives. 

There’s a wide range of choices available in the area for furniture 

selection. Many companies are focusing on high-quality goods to 

compete against price-slashing mass merchants, and are creating pieces 

that compare favorably with high-end fashion designers in their outlook 

and utility. Product innovations and environmental safety are strong selling 

points for the local retailers. 

If you’re thinking of making a change in your decorations, take some 

time to think about your home. Some major considerations include the size 

of the rooms, which colors are prominent, and how will the room be used. 

It helps to talk to a decorating professional for their assessment, as the 

professional perspective may bring up issues that were not obvious. 

Jeanne Chung is the founder and interior designer for Cozy Stylish 

Chic, which opened in the summer of 2016 on the outskirts of Pasadena’s 

design district. Chung recently returned from the Las Vegas Market, a 

huge home furnishings trade show. She reports that there was a signifi cant 

trend toward “sculpted organics” in accessories stylings on display at the 

event, which attracts the top names in the home design industry. 

“A lot of fl oral leaf shapes, bowls that are sculpted into the shape of 

fl ower petals, wall art, a lot of leaves, cast metals that are cast into the 

big over-sized leaves and fl orals,” Chung notes were showcased. “Lots of 

golds, brass, but warmer, kind of matte brasses, not the shiny lacquered 

brass. Warmth is really important. That’s why the metals have a warmer 

fi ni s h.” 

30 | ARROYO | 03.17 

–continued on page 35

03.17 | ARROYO | 31

32 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 33

34 | ARROYO | 03.17


PHOTO: Courtesy of ETHAN ALLEN GLOBAL, INC. 

Emerson Custom Quick Ship Chair 


Chung says that her customers are mixing and matching vintage 

pieces with new styles in their furniture choices, creating some surprising 

results. “New takes on traditional designs and traditional shapes, but in 

modern materials. So, let’s say you have a Louis XVI chair. In the past, you’d 

see it in wood. They’re now making it in Lucite, so you can put that in a 

traditional home and it doesn’t look old anymore.” 

Chung adds that the variety of architectural styles in Pasadena 

homes make it the perfect forum for an adventurous and eclectic look. 

“When you mix and match in period styles, you room will look current 

much longer.” 

NO LONGER JUST COLONIAL 

Tim Brown and brothers Mitch and Kelly run the Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. 

store in Pasadena. The family has been serving the area’s furniture needs 

since their father opened his fi rst store in 1929. 

Colors are big in home decorating right now, per Tim Brown. “We’re 

seeing a mix of pastels, the lighter colors, and accenting them with more 

vibrant jewel tones, the dark, sharp green, black, burgundy, red, bright 

yellow.” That’s led to larger upholstery pieces going toward “solid offwhite, 

tweed, or gray shark fi n in colors. Years ago, we used to do fl oral 

sofas. Now it’s more solid colors and accenting the solid colors.” 

Ethan Allen was once known for its classic colonial furniture, but 

now embraces diversity in its style offerings. “Today is more transitional, 

eclectic, mixed with some traditional, contemporary pieces. Today’s client 

is not buying one particular look. We’re really doing a lot of mixing and 

matching,” Brown says. 

One new surprise at Ethan Allen is their Disney collection, which 

features the beloved studio characters, including Mickey Mouse. The 

pieces are versatile and “can be used in adult rooms, in a man cave, in a 

woman’s retreat,” Brown says. “It’s a really fun character treatment.” 

New to the Pasadena area is TPT Home & Garden, which had its 

grand opening on Colorado Boulevard in January. 

Maren Anderson is a buyer and designer at TPT Home & Garden. She 

advises that home owners contemplating a change fi rst decide what 

pieces are most cherished. 

“First, identify which pieces are of quality and important to you,” 

Anderson says. “Try to keep the quality, the mementos, and then begin to 


03.17 | ARROYO | 35



discard the rest. Try to transition the solid wood and heavy metal pieces 

out. This selection process of what stays and what goes is a very personal 

choice.” 

After the purge, consider your lifestyle. How much space do you need 

and how many people will be using the space? Pets and children are a 

big factor. “Your style must be determined by how you use your space to 

create convenience in your everyday life,” Anderson counsels. 

Blue/green colors are slowly transitioning to mostly blue, refl ecting 

a longstanding trend, Anderson says. “And it’s still all about dove grey, 

especially on walls. Some greys have more of an icy tone, and others have 

a touch of brown, like a stone grey. It can be a romantic tone against all 

the blue/greens. We’re also seeing some blush colors that not everyone 

is comfortable with, because it can be considered feminine. But with the 

grey, you can use that touch of warmth and femininity accented by the 

blush.” 

Anderson sees a trend toward throwbacks in furniture. “We are seeing 

old, inspired pieces that bring back memories, vintage items, anything 

that has a sepia tone and creates that feeling of nostalgia.” 

No matter which styles and furnishing you choose, don’t be fooled by 

how easy it looks to put things together on HGTV. 

“A lot of customers think they can DIY (do it yourself) because of 

all the television shows,” says Chung. “They don’t realize what goes into 

putting together the design of a room, its scale, its texture – there are so 

many elements. A lot of these home shows on TV are very misleading as 

to what things cost, because a lot of the product is donated. They don’t 

consider the labor, which adds up pretty quickly.” |||| 

36 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 37

38 | ARROYO | 03.17

SUMMER CAMPS & 

PROGRAMS PREVIEW 

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT 

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN OUR COMPREHENSIVE SUMMER CAMP LIST. 

03.17 | ARROYO | 39

SUMMER 

A+ ADVENTIST CHILDREN’S CENTER DAY CAMP 

FULL DAY, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

Maximum is 12 students daily. 

Age: 5 to 9 years old, Dates: June 12- Aug. 11, Times: 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Tuition: Registration 

$50.00, $45.00 a day or $200.00 weekly, Registration Deadline: ALL Summer 

234 N Isabel St., Glendale, 91206 (818) 241-9353, Email: aplusadventist@yahoo.com 

aplusadventist.com 

ARTCENTER FOR KIDS 

HALF DAY, ARTS 

Art Center for Kids offers a range of unique classes that teach critical thinking, innovation 

and visual literacy. The program aims to nurture creativity in young students (grades 4-8) 

and help them to become designers of their own worlds 

Age: 9-13, Dates: June 25-August 13 (seven-week courses), June 26-August 11 (oneweek 

workshops), Times: 9 am-12 noon (workshops), 1-4 pm (courses), Tuition: $275-$295 

(courses), $300-$325 (workshops), Registration Deadline: June 25 

950 S. Raymond Avenue or 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena (626) 396-2319 

Email: kids@artcenter.edu artcenter.edu/kids 

ARTCENTER FOR TEENS 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS 

Saturday High gives high school students (grades 9-12) an opportunity to explore a variety 

of creative disciplines and study with a faculty of practicing artists and designers who bring 

their personal stories, professional experiences, discussions about career opportunities and 

best practices into the classroom. 

Age: 14-17, Dates: June 3-August 12 (10-week courses), June 26-August 4 (one-, two- and 

four-week workshops), Times: 9 am-12 noon and 1-4 pm (courses), 9 am-3:50 pm (one- and 

two-week workshops), 9 am-4:30 pm (four-week workshops), Tuition: $300-$375 (courses), 

$400-$435 (one-week workshops), $800 (two-week workshops), $1,700 (four-week workshops), 

Registration Deadline: June 2 

950 S. Raymond Avenue or 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena (626) 396-2319 

Email: teens@artcenter.edu artcenter.edu/teens 

ASTROCAMP 

OVERNIGHT, NATURE & SCIENCE, MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE 

Explore the wonders of the universe with qualifi ed instructors of the physical and earth 

sciences. Summer enrichment with lots of fun traditional summer camp activities in a caring 

environment. Astronomy, Blacksmithing, Welding, Laser Tag, Archery, Rocketry, Radio 

Broadcasting, Digital Video & Photography, Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking, Dungeons & 

Dragons, Robotics, Culinary Art, Geocaching, Hiking, Space Exploration. 

Age: 8-17, Dates: June -August, Tuition: 1-Week Sessions 1,300 -1,400.00 • 2-Week Sessions 

2,400.00, Registration Deadline: ASAP 

26800 Saunders Meadow Rd., Idyllwild, CA 92549 (800) 645-1423 Info@guideddiscoveries.org 

astrocampsummer.org 

BARNHART SCHOOL SUMMER CAMP 

FULL DAY, ARTS, SPORTS 

Barnhart School provides the perfect solution to your search for a summer program for 

your children. Our full day summer camp begins June 13th through June 17th with another 

round from August 1st – August 12th. We begin our camp experience at 8am and run 

through 4:30pm. Lunch, snacks, and challenging activities are provided during the week. 

Visit us online for more information. 

– continued on page 42 

40 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 41



– continued from page 41 

Age: 5- 14, Dates: June 12- June 16 and July 31- August 4, 2017, Times: 8:00am- 4:30pm 

Tuition: $299 for the whole week. $252 if registered by April 24, 2017, Registration Deadline: 

May 5, 2017 

240 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, 91007 (626)566-2348, Email: jchavez@barnhartschool.org 

barnhartschool.org 

BISHOP ALEMANY HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER SCHOOL 

ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

Bishop Alemany High School – High School Summer Courses; Updated catalog and general 

information will be available by April 1st at http://www.alemany.org/summerschool. 

Age: Incoming 9th -12th grades, Dates: Monday, June 12th through Thursday, July 

20th, 2017, Times: Session 1: (8:00am – 10:30am), Session2: (10:50am – 1:20pm), Session 3: 

(1:40pm – 4:10pm), Tuition: $275 per class – must be paid at registration for summer classes, 

Registration Deadline: Thursday, June 8th & Friday, June 9th 

11111 Alemany Drive, Mission Hills 91345 (818) 837-5227 http://www.alemany.org/summerschool 

alemany.org 

CAMP FOX CATALINA ISLAND-GLENDALE YMCA 

OVERNIGHT 

Continuous Camping since 1926 serving boys and girls of all ages. You experience “Landlubber” 

and “Oceanfront” activities. Camps are 7 days and 6 nights departing by charter 

boat from the Queen Mary parking lot in Long Beach. Activities include: Tubing, Archery, 

Kayaking, Climbing Walls, Stand-up Paddle Boarding, Volleyball, Basketball, Ropes Course, 

Fishing, Hiking, Ocean swimming (marked area), Tide pool, aquariums, Snorkeling, nightly 

Campfi res and much more. 

Ages: All weeks are Coed. 3 weeks are for ages 8-17 (Coed Youth 1 June 11-17, Coed 

Youth 2 July 23-29 and Coed Youth 3 August 6-12). 2 weeks are for ages 12-17 (Teen Coed 

1 July 16-22 and Teen Coed 2 July 30-August 5). Times: Sunday departures and Saturday 

returns. Tuition: YMCA Members $635, Non-Members $660. Tuition includes round trip boat 

transportation to Camp Fox and back to Queen Mary, all meals, all Activities, all housing 

accommodations and leadership by specially trained staff (leaders, directors and program 

specialists). Registrations Deadline: Accepted until a camp is full. NOTE: we also conduct 

a Family Camp over Labor Day Weekend September 2-4 ($250 ages 18 and over, $240 ages 

3-17 and no charge ages 0-2) 

Camp Fox is located at Button Shell Beach on Catalina Island (by Long Point Cove) 5 miles north of 

Avalon. These camps are conducted by the YMCA of Glendale-140 N. Louise St.- Glendale 91206 – 

contact is Ray Calame - (818) 696-2581 rcalame@glenymca.org – website glendaleymca.org 

CAMP KIDS KLUB 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, OVERNIGHT, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, SPORTS, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

Camp Kids Klub empowers your child to explore from the mountains to the sea, and everything 

in between! Our Pasadena summer camps offer something for everyone, including 

Science, Paintball, horseback riding lessons and much more! Our staff is committed to 

providing every camper with the most amazing summer camp experience! 

Age: 5 years old to entering 9th grade, Dates: All Summer: June 6th - Sept 9th , Times: 

7:30am to 6pm with additional morning and evening hours available, Tuition: Entering 

1st- 2nd grade: $415 weekly, Entering 3rd-5th grades: $450 weekly, Entering 6th -9th grades: 

$500 weekly. *Optional overnights, specialty camps, and half day camps have varied rates, 

Registration Deadline: No registration deadline. Early Bird Discount Deadline is March 31st. 

Summer Camp Address: 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena 91105, Kids Klub Business Address: 380 S. 

Raymond Ave, Pasadena 91105 (626) 941-5583 Email: camp@kidsklub.us CampKidsKlub.us 

CAMP MOTORSPORT 

OVERNIGHT, MOTORSPORT SPECIALTY CAMP 

Camp Motorsport offers an exciting and dynamic motorsport focused summer camp program 

featuring 2 miles of custom made paved go-kart track and 20 miles of off-road trails. 

Aspiring racers, novice through expert alike, will learn the fi ner points of driving technique 

from qualifi ed instructors on both our racing go-karts and Baja off-road buggies. 

Age: 9-17, Dates: June-August, Tuition: 1-Week Sessions $1,100, Registration Deadline: ASAP 

8144 MT LAUREL RD, CLOVER, VIRGINIA 24534, (800) 645-1423 EMAIL: INFO@GUIDEDDISCOVERIES.ORG 

CAMPMOTORSPORT.ORG 

CATALINA ISLAND FLOATING SEA CAMP BY MOUNTAIN AND SEA 

ADVENTURES 

OVERNIGHT, NATURE & SCIENCE, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

Experience adventure, friendship, team building, character building, leadership, stewardship, 

and live like a true biologist aboard the premier Catalina Island Floating Sea Camp. 

During their amazing week aboard our ship “Enhydra,” students will be immersed in marine 

biology adventures including snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, surfi ng, paddle boarding and 

much more! They will also have the opportunity to participate in the following Summer 


42 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 43




Ocean Adventure Challenges: Marine Science, Oceanography, Deckmanship, Snorkel and 

Scuba Diving, Water Safety, and Environmental Stewardship. Floating Sea Camp offers a 

unique environment of a maximum of 42 participants per week. 

Age: Kids (9-12) Teens (13-17), Dates: Week 1, 7/3-7/8, Week 2, 7/10-7/15, Week 3, 7/17-7/22, 

Week 4, 7/24-7/29, Week 5, 7/31-8/5, Week 6, 8/7-8/12, Week 7, 8/14-8/19, Cost: 6 day Option, 

Early Bird $875 ends 3/1, Regular Rate $975, Two Week Teen Camp Option: Price: $1995 

7/10-7/22 (13 days), Three Day Option: Early Bird Price: $460 ends 3/1, Regular Price: $415, 

7/3-7/5, 8/7-8/9, 8/14-8/16 

Email: offi ce@mountainandsea.org, mountainandsea.org 

http://mountainandsea.org/california-summer-camps-for-kids-and-teens/shipboard-summercamps-on-catalina-island-for-kids-and-teens-island/ 

CATALINA SEA CAMP 

OVERNIGHT, NATURE & SCIENCE 

Explore the wonders of Catalina Island with qualifi ed staff of marine science, snorkeling, 

scuba, sailing, kayaking and more. Facilities include dormitories, dinning hall, science labs 

and private beach. Lots of traditional summer camp fun in a dynamic, nurturing social 

environment. Some activities are age specifi c. 

Age: 8-17, Dates: June – August, Tuition: $1,700.00 -$1,800.00 One-Week Sessions • 

$4,600.00 Three-Week Sessions, Registration Deadline: ASAP 

Toyon Bay, Avalon, CA 90704, (800) 645-1423 Email: kent@gdi.org catalinaseacamp.org 

CHILD EDUCATIONAL CENTER 

SUMMER EXPLORATION CAMPS 

FULL DAY, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, SPORTS, SPECIAL NEEDS 

Our ten-week Exploration Day Camp series offers weekly themed activities, swimming, 

fi eld trips, arts and crafts, science, and sports. Each week includes at least one fi eld trip 

and a visit by a special guest. Specialty camps include Descanso Discoveries, before- and 

after-summer school care for Assistance League of Flintridge and Pasadena Educational 

Foundation. Children go swimming at the Caltech pool, play outdoors, and participate in 

indoor activities. 

Age: Children entering grades 1-7, with two Kindergarten options, Dates: June 5 – 

September 1 

Times: 7:00 am – 6:00 pm, Tuition: Weekly: $450 (2-5 days available at $90/day), Registration 

Deadline: June 5 

140 Foothill Blvd. La Cañada, CA 91011 (with a Pasadena location), (818) 354-3418 cecsummer@ 

ceconline.org cec.campbrainregistration.com 

DESTINATION SCIENCE 

THE FUN SCIENCE DAY CAMP FOR CURIOUS KIDS 5-11YRS! 

FULL DAY, NATURE & SCIENCE 

Our enthusiastic, professional teachers & leaders make STEM learning an adventure! All 

New for 2017: Journey into Space & Movie Making Fun! Crazy Contraption & Demolition Lab! 

Coaster Science & Mad Chemistry Lab! Robotic Mystery Camp! 

Ages: 5-11 years old, Dates: Opens June 12th through August 11th,Times: 9am to 3pm 

Extended Care is Optional, Tuition: $349-week,Registration Deadline: Open 

Pasadena Neighborhood Church, Arcadia Pearl Prep Academy, LaCañada Flintridge Community 

Center, (888) 909-2822 info@destinationscience.org destinationscience.org 

FLINTRIDGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 

SUMMER AT PREP 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS, SPORTS, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

Flintridge Preparatory School offers a variety of courses for fun and credit to meet every student’s 

busy summer schedule. All courses and camps are taught by Flintridge Prep faculty. 

Ages: 9-18, Dates: June 12-July 20, Times: 8:15am-4:00pm, Tuition: $190-$1,250, Registration 

Deadline: June 1st 

4543 Crown Ave., La Cañada (818) 790-1178 email: summer@fl intridgeprep.org fl intridgeprep. 

org/summer 

FOOTHILLS MATHEMATICS GROUP 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

In-Home tutoring at all levels of a wide variety of math, science and language arts subjects. 

Catering to your needs and schedule 

Age: All, Dates: summer 2017, Times: all times, Tuition: see website for tuition packages 

(888) 784-1639 Email: foothillsmathgroup@netzero.com, foothillstutoringgroup.com, foothillsmathgroup.com 

THE GOODEN SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, SPORTS, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

The Gooden Summer Program is open to all students from kindergarten through eighth 


44 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 45




grade. We offer a rich variety of classes in academic subjects, music, art, drama, STEAM, 

and sports that provide students with appealing choices for a fun and productive summer. 

Age: Kindergarten -Eighth Grade, Dates: June 19- 30 and July 10- 28, Times: 7:30 am- 

6:00 pm 

Tuition: $125-$175 per class, Registration Deadline: None - ongoing 

192 N. Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre 91024 (626) 355-2410 Email: ltortell@goodenschool.org 

goodensummerschool.org 

HIGH POINT ACADEMY SUMMER ENRICHMENT CAMP 


With almost 60 exciting class offerings this year—many offered for the fi rst time—High Point 

Summer Enrichment is gearing up for a rewarding experience for all summer participants. 

Our unique summer program offers a remarkable variety of academic, sports, hobbyfocused 

classes, and exciting game/fun sessions. All have been created to help your child 

power up for the next school year. Academic skills will be refreshed, new extra-curricular 

passions discovered, and new friends made with wholesome fun shared. 

Age: 1st-8th, Dates: June 19th - July 21, Times: 9:00 AM-3:00PM , Tuition: Depends on classes 

chosen. Average is $300 per class. Some classes are higher due to fees associated with the 

class materials, Registration Deadline: No adjustments will be made after May 19, 2017 

1720 Kinneloa Canyon Road, Pasadena 91107 (626) 798-8989 

Email: ssisson@highpointacademy.org highpointacademyorg 

INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT 

ACADEMY 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

IEA Academy provides students in Kindergarten through 8th grade with advanced enrichment 

classes that promote exploration and application of knowledge. Courses provide 

compelling content and appropriate challenges taught at a fl exible pace with small 

classes by highly qualifi ed, dedicated professionals. 

Age: Grades K-8, Dates: West: Spring: April 17-June 3; Summer I: June 12-23; Summer II: 

July 10-21; Summer III: July 24-August 4, Times: Varies; classes run throughout the day, Tuition: 

$250-$425 per class (Financial Aid Available), Registration Deadline: Spring: April 3; Summer: 

May 29 

Address: San Marino (626) 403-8900 Email: academy@educationaladvancement.org 

educationaladvancement.org/programs/iea-academy 


EXPLORE 

FULL DAY, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS 

EXPLORE matches high-potential and gifted high school students with distinguished mentors, 

hands-on research opportunities, and professional experience in their fi eld of interest. 

With the support of volunteer mentors and IEA staff, students learn about working in a variety 

of professional settings and advance their skills through the pursuit of knowledge and 

exposure to optimally challenging learning experiences. 

Age: Grades 9-11, Dates: West: Session I: Saturday, June 17- Friday, July 7, 2017; Session II: 

Saturday, July 8- Friday, July 28, 2017; Both Sessions: Saturday, June 17- Friday, July 28, 2017 

Times: 9am-5pm, Tuition: $975-$1,950 (Financial Aid Available), Registration Deadline: April 10 

Address: Varies, (626) 403-8900 Email: explore@educationaladvancement.org 

educationaladvancement.org/programs/explore 


YUNASA 

OVERNIGHT 

Designed and led by experts in the fi eld of gifted youth, Yunasa embraces gifted children 

for who they are, helping them understand and work with the unique joys and challenges 

facing gifted children. Yunasa supports the whole gifted child, encouraging growth and 

support of campers intellectually, socially, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. 

Age: 10-15, Dates: West: June 10-17; East: July 29-August 5, Times: Sleepaway Camp 

Tuition: $1,600 (Financial Aid Available), Registration Deadline: March 6 

(626) 403-8900 Email: yunasa@educationaladvancement.org 

educationaladvancement.org/programs/yunasa 

JUSTINE SHERMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. 

SUMMER FUNDAMENTALS 

HALF DAY, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, OUTDOORS 

Looking to boost your child’s reading, writing, and math skills this summer? JSA offers Summer 

FUNdamentals, a 4 week academic day camp with evidenced-based instruction in 

decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, written language, and mathematical reasoning 

and calculation. Sign up for all fi ve hours for an amazing package discount. 

Age: 5-12, Dates: July 10th – August 4th (4 weeks M-F), Times: 8am-1pm, Tuition: Super 

early bird $2,500 (100 hours instruction), Registration Deadline: Super Early Bird April 15th 


46 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 47




2017/Early Bird June 1st 2017. 

55 Auburn Ave., Ste. A Sierra Madre, 91024 (626) 355-1729 

Email: Justine@justineshermanslp.com http://justineshermanslp.com/programs. 

html#summerfundaments 

KIDSART 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS 

KidsArt offers a variety of week-long summer camps to children ages 4 and up, such as: 

Cartoon Clay Sculpture, Anime/Cartooning, Figure Drawing and Portraiture, Storybook 

(ages 4-6), Printmaking, A Palette of Art, and more! Visit our website for descriptions. Go 

online or call today for a FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS! 

Age: 4-17, Dates: June thru August, Times: Half or Full Day Options; 8:30-11:30 and 12:00-3:00 

Tuition: $240 for half day and $470 for full day, materials included, Registration Deadline: 

Sign-up and Pay by April 30th and receive $25.00 off each camp 

Studios located in Montrose, Arcadia, and Pasadena, Visit our website to contact a studio near 

you, kidsartclasses.com 

MARANATHA HIGH SCHOOL 

CHALLENGE CAMPS AT MARANATHA 

SPORTS 

If you are looking for sports camps geared towards developing athletic skills in a safe, supportive, 

and Christ-honoring environment, then Maranatha High School Challenge Camps 

are for you. Under the direction of high school coaches, your child will be taught sport-specifi 

c fundamentals and techniques to help improve his/her overall performance. 

Age: 4th- 9th Grade, Dates: varies by Camp (June 19- July 28, 2017), Times: varies by Camp 

Tuition: $125 per Camp, Registration Deadline: Open 

169 S. Saint John Ave., Pasadena 91105 (626) 817-4000, Email: challengecamp@mhs-hs.org 

maranathahighschool.org/summer 

PACIFIC OAKS CHILDREN’S SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY 

Pacifi c Oaks Children’s School summer program provides two to fi ve year olds a summertime 

curriculum designed to nurture inquisitive learners throughout the six-week and all-day 

sessions. The programs offer teacher-directed and child-initiated activities including Creative 

Movement, Recycled Art, Music & Songwriting, and Weird Science. Our infant/toddler 

program features Child Centered Learning by offering a variety of activities such as science 

and sensory based cooking, experimenting with different textures and temperatures, water 

play in wading pools and more. 

Ages: Toddler- Ages 6 months 2 years old and 2 to 5 years old, Dates: June 21- August 4 

morning program, June 21-August 22 all-day program, Times: three options, Mornings: 9:00- 

12:00, Lunch Bunch: 12:00- 2:00 (extends the morning program - optional), All-Day 8:00 

-5:30, Tuition: Toddler, Tuesday/Thursday $1080, Wednesday/Friday $1080. Saturday $540, 

2 to 5 years old six-week morning program $1900, Eight-week full-day program $4200. Now 

Accepting Applications. 

714 W. California Blvd., Pasadena (626) 529-8011 pacifi coakschildrensschool@pacifi coaks.edu 

pacifi coakschildrensschool.org 

PERFORMING ARTS WORKSHOPS 

FULL DAY, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, MUSICAL THEATER, GUITAR, FILMMAKING, STAGE F/X 

MAKEUP, MAGIC, PHOTOGRAPHY & ROCK THE MIC. 

Voted LA Parent Magazine’s Best Summer Camp! Spend your summer days in any of PAW’s 

award- winning Camps: Musical Theater, Guitar, Rock the Mic, Filmmaking, Magic, Stage 

F/X Make-up, or Photography Camp! PAW offers kids the ultimate “Arts” experience from 

rehearsal to performance. This summer come make friends and lifelong memories! 

Ages: 5-15 years old, Dates: One & Two Week sessions from - June 12 to August 18, 

Times: Doors open at 7:30 a.m. Camp Hours 8:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Extended Day offered 

until 5:00pm, Tuition: $395 for one week sessions. $675 for two week sessions and call to ask 

about PAW summer camp DISCOUNTS!, Registration Deadline: Registration now open and 

available until all camp spaces are taken. 

Camp Held at - Neighborhood Church 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena 91103 

(310) 827-8827 performingartsla@aol.com www.PerformingArtsWorkshops.com 

PROJECT SCIENTIST SUMMER ACADEMY 

FULL TIME, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, GIRLS ONLY 

If your daughter, age 4-12, would benefi t from a community of like-minded girls that enjoy 

science and celebrating their accomplishments, then Project Scientist is for her! Surrounded 

by brilliant and passionate STEM teachers, professors, and professionals, your daughter will 

be inspired and provided tools to reach her highest potential. 

Age: 4-12, Dates: June 26-Aug. 4, Times: 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Tuition: $725 per week, 

Registration Deadline: Until camp is full 

USC Campus, (704) 313-9118, sandy@projectscientist.org, 

http://www.proejctscientist.org/programs 

48 | ARROYO | 03.17



SCI- ARC 

DESIGN IMMERSION DAYS 

FULL DAY, ARTS 

Design Immersion Days is a four-week summer program that inspires curiosity about the 

world of design, introduces design knowledge and critical thinking skills, and familiarizes 

students with the expansive architecture and design culture of Los Angeles. Students learn 

skills including sketching, drafting, computer drawing, physical model making, and computer-based 

3D modeling. 

Age: High School Students, Dates: June 19 – July 15, Times: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuition: $3,350 

(includes lunch, fi eld trips, course materials, and studio kit) 

960 E Third Street, Los Angeles 90013 (213)356-5320, Email: admissions@sciarc.edu 

sciarc.edu/did 

SEQUOYAH SCHOOL 

SEQUOYAH SUMMERHOUSE 


Sequoyah Summerhouse offers a myriad of choices in an open fl oor plan, sustained goaloriented 

projects, outings around Pasadena, and nutritious snacks. Engaging classes provide 

rich food for eager, summer brains – from robotics to ceramics, skateboarding to social 

justice math, and more. We offer a Crew-in-Training program for students 12-15. 

Age: 5-12 as of (9/1/2017), Dates: June 26-August 25, Times: 7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m., Tuition: 

Day program: 1 day: $89 per day, 5+ days: $79 per day, 20+ days: $69 per day 

Unlimited Summerhouse Membership: $2,415, 3-week Classes: MWF $275, TTh $250 

1-week Intensives (30 hours): $500, Registration Deadline: Rolling 

535 S Pasadena Ave, Pasadena, 91105 (626) 795-4351 X211 Email:kwetmore@sequoyahschool.org 

https://k8.sequoyahschool.org/sequoyah-summer/ 

SOUTHWESTERN ACADEMY SUMMER ADVENTURES 

FULL DAY, OVERNIGHT, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, SPORTS, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, BOARDING 

& CO-ED 

Our Summer Adventures program combines education with fun activities. Students can 

enjoy summer while working towards graduation requirements. It’s held on the San Marino 

campus for grades 7-12 and the Beaver Creek Ranch campus for grades 9-12. We offer college 

preparatory classes and an English as a Second Language program. 

Age Range: 11–17, Dates: SAN MARINO CAMPUS, ESL AND ENRICHMENT COURSES 

Full Summer: June 12 - September 1, 1st Half Session: June 12 - July 21, 2nd Half Session: 

July 24 - September 1, Tuition: June 12 - September 1, 2017, Full Summer Session (12 weeks): 

$17,100, 1st (6 week) $10,250, 2nd (6 Week) $10,250 

BEAVER CREEK CAMPUS (Arizona), ESL AND ENRICHMENT COURSES 

Full Summer: June 19 - August 11, 1st 4-week session: June 19 - July 14, 2nd 4-week session: 

July 17 - August 11, Tuition: Full Summer Session (8 weeks) $15,750, 1st (4 Week) $6,550, 

2nd (4 Week) $6,550, Registration Deadline: Rolling 

San Marino Campus, Southwestern Academy 2800 Monterey Road San Marino 91108 

Beaver Creek Ranch Campus, Southwestern Academy 8800 East Ranch Campus Road 

Rimrock, Arizona 86335, Email: Admissions@southwesternacademy.edu 

http://southwesternacademy.edu/academics/summer.html 

SPEF SUMMER SCHOOL 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, SPORTS, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, LANGUAGE 

IMMERSION 

Each year, more than 2,000 students count on South Pasadena Educational Foundation’s 

Summer School program to brush up on basics, jump ahead on critical academic topics, 

expand their skills and ignite their imaginations. SPEF offers profi ciency and enrichment 

classes to students of all ages – from incoming kindergartners to high school seniors. 

Age: Grades K-12, Dates: June 19 – July 14 (K-8) , June 19 – July 21 (9-12) 

Times: 8:00 – 2:30 -Times vary slightly depending on grade level, Tuition: Class prices vary, 

Registration Deadline: Registration is open until classes fi ll 

Various school campuses in South Pasadena , (626) 441-5810 ext. 1163 

Email: spetersen@spef4kids.org SPEF4kids.org 

SPEF SUMMER CAMPS – 6 DIFFERENT CAMPS AVAILABLE 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS, SPORTS, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, LANGUAGE IMMERSION 

SPEF Camps offer additional, enrichment opportunities to help keep students engaged in 

learning and skill building during the summer months. Students learn through interactive, indepth, 

hands-on activities. Academic Camps provide opportunities for students to immerse 

themselves in specifi c areas of interest while Sport Camps will focus on all aspects of the 

game, and will engage all athletes from all skill levels. 

Age: Grades K-12, Dates: 1-week camps starting June 12 through August 11, Times: Times 

will vary depending on the camp, Tuition: $150 - $350, Registration Deadline: Registration is 

open until the camp fi lls 


03.17 | ARROYO | 49




Various school campuses in South Pasadena, (626) 441-5810 ext. 1163 

Email: spetersen@spef4kids.org SPEF4kids.org 

SUMMERKIDS CAMP 

FULL DAY, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, SPORTS, SWIMMING, ARCHERY, HIKING 

Summerkids, celebrating its 40th summer this year, is the only camp in the greater Pasadena 

area to operate on a real campground. Our #1 rule is to “Have Fun.” Campers choose 

hourly from activities such as archery, swimming, crafts, hiking, fort building, sports, games, 

gardening, music, science, cooking and more. 

Age: entering PK through 9th grades, Dates: June 12-September 1 for our K-6 program 

June 19-Sept. 1 for our PreK Program, June 19-August 25 for our 7-9th grade program 

Times: The camp day runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for our K-6 and 7-9th grade programs and 

from 8:30-3:30 for our PreK program. We offer extended care from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Tuition: depends on session and length of time. Range is from $380-$3335, Registration 

Deadline: Ongoing, but dependent on capacity. Most sessions usually fi ll up well before 

camp begins. 

3697 Fair Oaks Ave., Altadena 91001, (626) 577-9979 Email: info@summerkids.net 

www.summerkids.net 

WESTRIDGE SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM 2017 

FULL DAY, HALF DAY, ARTS, NATURE & SCIENCE, ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMICS, GIRLS ONLY, S.T.E.M 

Westridge is excited to offer an innovative summer program providing opportunities for girls 

to develop their creativity and passions through the development of technical and artistic 

skills. Programs are led by Westridge’s faculty and hosted on campus in Pasadena. All- and 

partial-day options are centered on coding, robotics, art, math, and 3D design. 

Age: Entering Grades 3-8, Dates: Two Sessions: June 19-30 & July 10-21, Times: Varies. All- 

Day program offerings run 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Tuition: Varies. Ranges from $260- $1300, 

Registration Deadline: Open until full 

324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena 91105 (626) 799-1053 ext. 177 

Email: summerprogram@westridge.org westridge.org/summer 

YOUNG STARS THEATRE SUMMER MUSICAL THEATRE CAMPS 

FULL DAY, ARTS 

An immersive musical theatre experience, with training from audition to performance. 

3 camps: 1) “Kids on Broadway”- one week, concluding with a showcase of 

scenes/songs from shows you love. 2) “Willy Wonka Jr.”-2 weeks, 2 weekends of 

performances, and 3) “The Music Man” - 3 week camp, 2 weekends of performances. 

Dates: Session 1: June 12-18, Session 2: June 19-July 9, Session 3: July 24-August 20, Times: 

9am-3pm M-F, Tuition: $250 a week (discounts for multi week camps), Registration Deadline: 

Until Full 

1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena 91030 (626) 269-3609 Email: yst@musicandtheatre.com youngstarstheatre.org 

|||| 

50 | ARROYO | 03.17

A GARLAND OF 

PUBLIC GARDENS 

Here is a baker’s dozen of lush 

nearby gardens where you can 

get back to nature. 

BY NOELA HUESO 

The h days are getting longer, the weather gloriously l warmer. It’s I’ 

the perfect time of year to visit the many lush gardens blooming 

in Arroyoland and its environs. Whether botanical, meditative 

or drought-resistant, they each have something to brighten your day 

— flowers to buy, plants to admire, opportunities to learn. David R. 

Brown, the executive director of Descanso Gardens, says, “Botanical 

gardens attract visitors in search of an experience close to nature. 

Part of their purpose is to connect people to plants and cultivate a 

greater appreciation for the connectedness and interdependence of 

life on earth.” Here are 13 gardens, botanical and otherwise, that do 

just that. 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY ARBORETUM AND 

BOTANIC GARDEN 

301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia 

(626) 821-3222 | arboretum.org 

Known almost as much for its resident peacocks as its cornucopia of verdant spaces, the mission 

of the 127-acre Arboretum is to “cultivate natural, horticultural and historic resources 

for learning, enjoyment and inspiration,” according to its website. It has 10 distinct gardens, 

from the Tropical Green House, which includes several thousand orchids, to the Garden for 

All Seasons, designed to inspire the home food gardener. The experimental one-acre Crescent 

Farm opened last year, showcasing water-conservation techniques. The Arboretum regularly 

holds concerts, tours, activities and events. 

Open/Hours: 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m., grounds close at 5 p.m. The Arboretum opens at 8 a.m. for 

members. 

Entrance Fee: $9; students and seniors (62+), $6; under 5, free. 

Fun Fact: The 1885 red-and-white Queen Anne Cottage on the grounds of the Arboretum 

was prominently featured in the TV series Fantasy Island. 

ARLINGTON GARDEN 

295 Arlington Dr., Pasadena 

(626) 441-4478 | arlingtongardenpasadena.com 

The three-acre Arlington has been delighting locals since 2005, when Betty and Charles 

McKenney, in a public-private collaboration, turned the land, owned by Caltrans and 

leased to the City of Pasadena, into a water-wise oasis of more than 350 trees and thousands 

of drought-tolerant and native plants, highlighting many that are rare, endangered 

and native to California — San Diego ambrosia, bush anemone, rainbow manzanita and 

big-cone spruce among them. An Italian-style allée, a pathway flanked by sycamores leading 

to a vernal pool, a grid-pattern orange grove, a seven-circuit labyrinth and meandering 

paths all add to the garden’s charm. 

Open/Hours: Daily until dusk. On-leash pets are welcome. 

Entrance Fee: None. Open to the public. 

Fun Fact: The garden’s orange grove yields hundreds of pounds of oranges, which are 

made into marmalade by E. Waldo Ward & Sons and sold locally at the Pasadena Farmers’ 

Market at Victory Park, Jones Coffee Roasters and Heirloom Bakery, among others. 

Proceeds support the garden’s care and maintenance. 

DESCANSO GARDENS 

1418 Descanso Dr., La Cañada Flintridge 

(818) 949-4200 | descansogardens.org 

The land on which the 150-acre Descanso Gardens sits once belonged to E. Manchester 

Boddy, the owner of the nowdefunct 

Los Angeles Daily News 

(no relation to the current Los 

Angeles Daily News). It was there 

he built his 22-room mansion, 

still a centerpiece of the gardens, 

in 1937. During World War II, 

when Japanese-Americans were 

being sent to internment camps, 

Boddy bought two successful 

Japanese nurseries, acquiring 

nearly 100,000 camellias and 

subsequently running a commercial 

camellia garden from the 

property. Today, Descanso Gardens 

also includes a lilac garden, 

rosarium, xeriscape, Japanese 

teahouse and a bird sanctuary. The Descanso Gardens Enchanted Railroad, a one-eighthscale 

replica of a diesel train, takes visitors around a section of the park four days a week. 

Boddy House is available for special events including weddings, conferences and filming; 

and the Stuart Haaga Gallery, free with admission, rotates exhibits throughout the year. 

Open/Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. 

Entrance Fee: $9; seniors (65+) and students with ID, $6; children 5–12, $4; members 

and children under 5, free. 

Fun Fact: Prior to Boddy selling his estate to the County of Los Angeles in 1953, Walt 

Disney considered the land as a potential site for Disneyland. 

03.17 | ARROYO | 51

–continued from page 

51 

EXPOSITION PARK ROSE GARDEN 

701 State Dr., Los Angeles 

(213) 763-0114 | laparks.org/park/exposition-rose-garden 

Though Exposition Park opened in 1913, the seven-acre sunken rose garden wasn’t built 

until 1927. In 1933, the L.A. Times described it as the “greatest rose garden in the world”; in 

1991, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today there are 20,000 rose 

bushes and 200 varieties. Not surprisingly, it’s a popular spot for weddings and photography. 

So that the roses can be pruned, the garden is closed from Jan. 1 to March 15 by the L.A. 

City Department of Recreation and Parks, which has been operating it since 1928. 

Open/Hours: Daily, 8:30 a.m. to dusk. 

Entrance Fee: None; the city charges for photography and weddings. 

Fun Fact: Before the turn of the 20th century, the garden’s precursor, Agricultural Park, 

was a locale for horse, camel, greyhound and auto racing; a saloon that housed L.A.’s longest 

bar; and an elegant brothel. 

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS & BOTANI- 

CAL GARDENS 

1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino 

(626) 405-2100 | huntington.org 

The Huntington, home to rare manuscripts, important artwork and a dozen spectacular 

gardens spread across 120 acres, is well known as a cultural jewel in the San Gabriel Valley. 

Guests can find just about everything here, from lily ponds to the Australian, Desert and 

Jungle gardens, to fine examples of Chinese and Japanese gardens, to rose and camellia 

collections, just to name a few. The Helen and Peter Bing Children’s Garden is designed for 

little ones ages 2 through 7, while the Huntington Ranch is a demonstration garden that 

holds workshops and classes focused on sustainable urban agriculture. The Huntington also 

has annual spring and fall plant sales and free second-Thursday lectures featuring gardening 

experts and authors. 

Open/Hours: Wednesday–Monday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. 

Entrance Fee: Adults $23 ($25 weekends); seniors (65+) $19 ($21 weekends); youth 

(4–11), $10; under 4, free. 

Fun Fact: Most of the sculptures found throughout the gardens are from the late 17th and 

early 18th centuries and share a common theme: love. 

JAMES IRVINE JAPANESE GARDEN 

244 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles 

(213) 628-2725 | jaccc.org/jamesirvinejapanesegarden/ 

Folks in the know visit the secluded and award-winning James Irvine Japanese Garden, a 

hidden oasis in downtown L.A.’s Little 

Tokyo, by going through the Japanese 

American Cultural & Community Center. 

Also known as Seiryu-en or “Garden 

of the Clear Stream,” it presents an assortment 

of plants, flowers and blooming 

trees, cedar bridges, stone lanterns and a 

hand-washing fountain. This serene sanctuary 

was patterned in the Zen tradition 

after the famous gardens of Kyoto, and 

is also available as a venue for an outdoor 

wedding or other special event. 

Open/Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 10 

a.m.–5 p.m.; call for weekend schedule. 

Entrance Fee: None. 

Fun Fact: The garden features a 170-foot cascading stream. 

KYOTO GARDENS 

120 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles 

(213) 629-1200 | doubletreeladowntown.com/our-hotel/kyoto-gardens 

Another hidden gem in Little Tokyo, Kyoto Gardens, a tranquil half-acre of plants, flowers, 

waterfalls and ponds, is perched on the rooftop of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. It 

is a re-creation of an ancient Japanese garden in Tokyo created for the 16th-century samurai 

Lord Kiyomasa Kato. Kyoto Gardens is available for weddings, private photography and 

filming; groups of 50 or more can enjoy an elaborate afternoon tea ($48). 

Open/Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.–10 p.m. seven days a week; call ahead to make sure no event 

is scheduled. 

Entrance Fee: None 

Fun Fact: A number of movie and TV projects have been filmed at the garden, including 

Her, Rampart, The Runaways, Law & Order: Los Angeles, The Biggest Loser and NCIS Los 

Angeles, among others. 

LOS ANGELES ZOO & BOTANICAL GARDENS 

5333 Zoo Dr., Los Angeles 

(323) 644-4200 | lazoo.org/botanicalgardens/ 

There are more than 7,000 singular plants, representing more than 800 distinct species, at 

the L.A. Zoo, which seeks to educate the public about the importance of plants and the 

vital role they play in the lives 

of their animal residents. 

The zoo boasts native, succulent 

and edible gardens, 

as well as rare plants such 

as cycads, bald cypress and 

Chilean wine palm. Plants are 

organized according to their 

indigenous origins and then 

paired with their corresponding 

geographical regions 

within the zoo. 

Open/Hours: Daily, 10 

a.m.–5 p.m. 

Entrance Fee: $20; seniors 

(62+), $17; children 2–12, $15; 

under 2, free. Ticket price 

includes admission to both 

the zoo and gardens. 

Fun Fact: The zoo is a plant 

rescue center for illegally 

imported items confiscated 

by the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture. 

PEACE AWARENESS LABYRINTH & GARDENS 

3500 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles 

(323) 737-4055 | peacelabyrinth.org 

A travertine marble labyrinth, a replica of the one found at France’s Chartres Cathedral, 

blends in with a small Asian-themed meditation garden at Peace Awareness Labyrinth 

& Gardens, established in 2002 as a nonprofit spiritual center in L.A.’s Jefferson Park 

neighborhood. Self-described as “a spiritual oasis in the city,” the garden features 16 water 

fountains, a koi pond and several intimate seating areas, along with hundreds of trees such 

as bamboo, cypress, jacaranda, tipu and tabebuia; flowers such as jasmine, azalea, rose and 

52 | ARROYO | 03.17

irds of paradise; and flowering plants such as stephanotis, oakleaf hydrangea and pittosporum, 

among many others. 

Open/Hours: Tuesday–Friday and Sunday, 12 p.m.–4 p.m.; fourth Saturday of the 

month: 12 p.m.–4 p.m. 

Entrance Fee: None. Donations are welcome. 

Fun Fact: For about 10 years beginning in the late 1930s, famed musical director and 

choreographer Busby Berkeley was the owner of the Guasti Villa, an L.A. Cultural Monument 

that serves as the gardens’ headquarters. It was later a home for unwed mothers and, 

after that, a boardinghouse for budding actresses. 

RANCHO SANTA ANA BOTANIC GARDEN 

1500 North College Ave., Claremont 

(909) 625-8767 | rsabg.org 

At 85 acres, the Rancho Santa 

Ana Botanic Garden is the 

largest botanic garden dedicated 

to the native plants of California. 

Tucked in the foothills 

of the San Gabriel Mountains, 

it serves as an outdoor classroom 

to the students studying 

botany at Claremont Graduate 

University as well as the public, 

offering a variety of classes and 

workshops to the latter. (There 

are also programs and tours designed 

specifically for children 

in grades K-12.) The garden is 

comprised of three sections: 

Indian Mesa Hill (mature 

cultivars and wild species of 

native plants), the East Alluvial 

Gardens (where the Desert 

Garden, Coastal Dune and California Channel Island collections are found) and Plant 

Communities (home to four-needle pinyon, California flannel bushes and boojum trees). 

Open/Hours: Daily, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. 

Entrance Fee: $8; seniors (65+), $6; children 3–12, $4; under 3, free. 

Fun Fact: In addition to those from California, plants found in southern Oregon, western 

Nevada and Baja California, Mexico — in botanical terms, the California Floristic Province 

— are all represented at Rancho Santa Ana. 

STORRIER STEARNS JAPANESE GARDENS 

270 Arlington Dr., Pasadena 

(626) 399-1721 | japanesegardenpasadena.com 

The two-acre Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, conceived for a private residence in the 

1930s, is the last existing garden created by Kinzuchi Fujii, who designed and built Japanese 

landscapes throughout Southern California in the early decades of the 20th century. Visitors 

at this pond-style stroll garden will find four bridges, a formal teahouse and a traditional 

cedar-log “waiting house” amid its flora, two large ponds, a 25-foot hill with a cascading 

waterfall; spreading sycamores and old oaks shading a winding dry riverbed, stone lanterns 

and granite statuary. Guests can stop and take this all in at numerous gathering points and 

vistas throughout the garden, which also hosts a number of cultural events and educational 

programs throughout the year. 

Open/Hours: Still a private residence, the garden is open to the public the last Sunday of 

each month; every Thursday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; and by reservation for private invitation-only 

events, including weddings. 

Entrance Fee: $7.50 online, $10 at the gate. 

Fun Fact: This is one of two Japanese gardens in California listed on the National Register 

of Historic Places. 

THEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION FOR WILD FLOWERS 

AND NATIVE PLANTS 

10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley 

(818) 768-1802 | theodorepayne.org 

Considered to be the father of the native-plant movement in California, Theodore Payne 

was a pioneering nurseryman, horticulturist and conservationist. His foundation was established 

in 1960 and today operates a retail nursery that has the region’s largest selection of 

California native plants, many of which are drought-tolerant and low maintenance. These 

include sun-loving perennials, chaparral shrubs, desert plants and riparian, as well as trees, 

grasses, vines and groundcover. The property also offers visitors an art gallery and a threequarter-mile 

walking trail to Wildflower Hill, providing a grand vista of the San Fernando 

Valley from the summit. Classes and field trips for both children and adults are available 

through the foundation’s Education Center and outreach programs. 

Open/Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. 

Entrance Fee: None. Friendly dogs on leash are welcome. 

Fun Fact: Members receive a 20-percent discount on the purchase of a Plant of the 

Month. The designee for March is the burgundy desert willow. 

WRIGLEY GARDENS 

391 S. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena 

(626) 449-4100 | visitpasadena.com/businesses/tournament-house/ 

Encompassing four-and-a-half acres, Wrigley Gardens surrounds the Italian Renaissance– 

style Wrigley Mansion, the headquarters of the Tournament of Roses Association, and 

showcases more than 1,500 types of roses, camellias and annuals. The Wrigley family, heirs 

to the chewing-gum empire, handed their private residence to the City of Pasadena in 1958 

on the condition that it was to become the new home of the TOR. 

Open/Hours: Free tours of the Tournament House are given each Thursday at 

2 p.m. and 3 p.m. through the end of 

August. Reservations aren’t required except for groups of 10 or more. 

Entrance Fee: None 

Fun Fact: William Warriner, named the country’s No. 1 rose breeder, developed the 

Tournament of Roses Rose, a pink variety resistant to black spots, white powder and rust, 

in honor of the TOR’s centennial. 

03.17 | ARROYO | 53

54 | ARROYO | 03.17

Dotson Rader and Tennessee Williams in 

New York outside the Elysée Hotel in 1971 

DOTSON 

AND TENNESSEE 

Dotson Rader’s play about 

close friend Tennessee 

Williams has its world 

premiere at the Pasadena 

Playhouse, with Al Pacino 

starring as the brilliant, 

tormented playwright. 

BY BRENDA REES 

PHOTO: Christopher Makos 1971 makostudio.com 

TO KICK OFF ITS NEW DEVELOPMENT 

PROGRAM, PLAYWORKS, THE 

PASADENA PLAYHOUSE IS SETTING 

THE BAR HIGH WITH ITS INAUGURAL 

PRODUCTION OF DOTSON RADER’S 

GOD LOOKED AWAY, STARRING 

OSCAR- AND TONY-WINNER AL 

PACINO. THE ACCLAIMED ACTOR 

PORTRAYS SOUTHERN PLAYWRIGHT 

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN A TURBULENT 

PERIOD OF HIS LIFE, FOLLOWING 

03.17 | ARROYO | 55

Judith Light and Al Pacino 

in God Looked Away 


YEARS OF FAME SPARKED BY THE CRITICAL 

Pacino. who, according to Rader, has uncannily captured Williams’ humor, pride and 

stubbornness as well as his unyielding defense of people living on the fringes of society. 

SUCCESS OF THE GLASS MENAGERIE IN 1944 

AND A STRING OF OTHER PLAYS NOW PART 

OF THE AMERICAN THEATRICAL LEXICON: A 

STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1947), CAT ON A 

HOT TIN ROOF (1955), SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH 

(1959) AND MORE. 

Joining Pacino on the boards is Judith Light (Transparent), a two-time Tony-winner, 

as Williams’ close friend Estelle, and Miles Gaston Villanueva (Jane the Virgin) as Baby. 

Directed by Robert Allen Ackerman, the production runs until March 19. 

Williams’ work is no stranger to The Pasadena Playhouse, which served as the backdrop 

for three of his world premieres in the 1940s: You Touched Me in 1943 (co-written 

with Donald Windham), The Purification (1944) and Stairs to the Roof in 1947. More than 

20 years later, writer and novelist Rader befriended Williams and later wrote a memoir 

about their close friendship: Tennessee, Cry of the Heart (1982). Both were gay men — never 

romantically linked — from different eras, who bonded at a time when taboos against 

homosexuality were beginning to be challenged in America. 

Rader started writing a play about Williams after the playwright’s death in 1983 but 

later shelved it. He resurrected the project about a year ago, workshopping the play with 

ARROYO MONTHLY: You’ve written fiction, nonfiction and even a memoir 

about Tennessee. Why write a play, something you’ve never done? 

DOTSON RADER: Well, he was a playwright! I started working on this six months after 

he died because I was afraid of losing him. I’m aware that memory corrodes and memory 

revises itself and memory becomes unreliable. I wanted to get it all down. I also started to 

see things being written about him that were just not true and they were sanitizing his life. 

This happens all the time. They were making him acceptable — and part of his brilliance 

was his willingness to write about things that were unacceptable, about the outcasts and the 

broken, the disconsolate, the rejected of life, the wretched — all qualities that, in ways, you 

could apply to him. 

This is the first play in the PlayWorks program. What are you looking forward 

to? 

The live audience is like a second writer on the project. We are trying to get this play 

where it needs to be. We’ve had table readings, roundtables and workshops, but when you 

put it in front of a live audience, you see things so differently. You sense when the audience 

is getting restless or bored. Things you thought would bring a laugh don’t. Things you 

thought would get a little twitter get a big laugh. You gradually learn what works. Every 

other kind of writing, you’re dealing with a magazine editor, a movie director or other editors 

and that is really an audience of one. But not with a live audience…It’s exciting. 

How has it been to see your words leap from the page to the mouths of 

actors? 

Tennessee was difficult, we had arguments, but we loved each other. It’s like Lionel 

Trilling’s line about a marriage, “So often the very thing that makes a marriage unbearable, 

PHOTOS: Jim Cox 

56 | ARROYO | 03.17

Dotson Rader 

makes it unbreakable.” We were friends for 14 years, and I can only say this about a handful 

of people: not once, ever, was I bored. He was very self-dramatic, but he was so alive. 

And Pacino brings that vividness of Tennessee to life. 

We had our first reading with Al about a year ago and I sat there listening to the actors 

read and I don’t know how the hell he does it, but Al caught the cadence of the way Tennessee 

talked. I could close my eyes and I could hear Tennessee. 

Tell us why you chose this particular point in the playwright’s life. 

The play takes place in 1981 and in the present. The play opens like Menagerie with a 

monologue by Baby, the narrator. All you’ll see on the stage are Baby’s memories of Tennessee, 

because that is all that exists now, because Tennessee is dead and everyone is gone. 

It’s over. Finished. These events take place so long ago and Baby is the survivor, like Tom 

in Menagerie. The play, his memory, is colored by his own feelings, as memory is. 

I picked this point in Tennessee’s life because that is when the final bell rang. I don’t 

want to say too much, but this was a critical point in his life, this one weekend in Chicago, 

the weekend of his last play. Chicago is where fame found him, it’s where Menagerie 

opened; he had been a bit of a failed writer until then; his first play, Battle of Angels, flopped 

terribly. Suddenly Menagerie became this incredible phenomenon. Chicago is where 

success found him — only now, success is gone. And he’s back in Chicago hoping it will 

happen again. 

A lot of what you’ll hear Tennessee say, he said in real life. Everyone is based on real 

people and I could tell you who they are, but I’m not going to. (Laughs.) You’ll see! 

Why is God looking away? 

The play will tell you that. 

Like many artists, Williams was keenly creative but he also fought many 

inner demons, especially later in his life — alcoholism, drug addiction, 

abusive personal relationships. How do you make these moments a 

serious examination of life, loss and character on stage, instead of just a 

presentation of sensational events? 

What’s in the play is in the play because it is true. These things are here because there 

is a theatrical reason for it, because it serves the drama. Look at this way: You’ve been 

married to someone for a long time and you have two hours to tell people what that person 

was like — so you edit his life, you pick out what is most representative of what it was like 

being with this person. While the play covers a weekend, that weekend becomes representational. 

The audience has to leave understanding why and where he was and why the 

play ended the way it did. The play is about the stripping away — everyone on the stage 

is stripping away, pulling off masks. As the play goes on, people reveal themselves as who 

they actually are. Things that don’t seem at all remarkable or sensationalistic to me, others 

may find discomforting. But truth is discomforting. I don’t want to be part of the coterie 

of sycophants and academics who sanitize the lives of public figures. Theater is a safe place 

where you can hear the truth — even when it is uncomfortable. (Pause) Maybe what you 

see on stage is the price he had to pay to give us the beauty he created. 

What do you want the new generation of theatergoers to understand 

about Tennessee Williams, the man? 

The play begins in the present and we step into the past, on that cusp of history just 

after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan; 1981 is the end of the ’60s and ’70s. It’s the end 

of that period of freedom, of social experimentation, of when people didn’t know that 

drugs were bad, of sex being wide open — that incredible period comparable to France 

and Weimar Germany in the 1920s. When every question was open, every possibility 

presented itself, when all restraints were gone. 

It was also the period right before the beginning of AIDS and the beginning of terror. 

We started to realize that something was happening. We were losing friends and it suddenly 

begins to dawn on us the price we have paid for personal freedom. It’s a period in 

American social and artistic history that isn’t going to happen again. Not only in terms of 

Tennessee’s career — it’s about the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another in 

American history. 

I think young people will like the play because it deals with freedom and a world without 

fear, unlike what they know now. 

Is the play hopeful? 

The play is true. 

What would Williams think about the social media culture of 2017? Would 

he tweet? 

Tennessee used a manual typewriter until he died. He didn’t like electric typewriters. If 

he were here today, he’d still be on Key West typing on his old Royal manual typewriter. 

What do you miss most about Tennessee? 

Of all the people I’ve known in my life, he had the most real presence. He was so 

completely aware of life and where people were around him. And he was sensitive to them. 

That’s what I miss the most. He had intense sympathy for the losers in life, for the marginalized, 

for the people who were beaten before they even began. 

He had great contempt for the money people. The only problems he ever had with his 

plays, and what ultimately undid him, was with the money people. “Oh, you can’t write 

that! The matinee crowd won’t go for that!!!” He knew he needed them, but he often 

thought, “If you had so much money, can’t you make the world hurt a little less?” He got 

involved in the anti-war movement and protests with me and he was always baffled by the 

problems that could be fixed with just a little bit of money. 

Tennessee, I don’t mean to speak for him, but you can see it in his plays, saw the immorality 

of money people who don’t put money into things that matter — like art, writers 

and the truth — but who spend only on themselves. He quoted Andrew Carnegie, “A man 

who dies rich, dies disgraced.” Tennessee saw his own talent and many gifts — he was a 

Christian, you see — from God as challenges to see if we can use them for good. Tennessee 

used his gifts the best way he knew how, on behalf of the people who had no voice. 

God Looked Away runs through March 19 at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino 

Ave., Pasadena. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. 

Saturdays and Sundays. Tuesday performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Feb. 14 and 28. 

Ticket prices range from $126 to $206. Call (626) 356-7529 or visit pasadenaplayhouse. 

org. |||| 

03.17 | ARROYO | 57

KITCHEN 

CONFESSIONS 

Alternative Foods 

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ WHEN YOU’RE SERVED ALTERNATIVE FACTS ABOUT FOOD. 

BY LESLIE BILDERBACK 

There are so many things I feel like writing about this month. But I must 

continuously remind myself that this is a food column. Food. Not politics. Not 

social injustice. Not environmental activism. Not healthcare reform. Food. 

And yet, if you are a loyal reader (I know at least three of you are), you have surely 

come across all of these topics in my column before. Sure, food is a critical element of life 

that must be made accessible to all. And yes, my industry is swollen with problems — 

pitiful wages, lack of decent healthcare, no medical leave, epidemic misogyny. We must 

stand up to all of this, and we do. There have been some great strides against this mess in 

the past few years. But I think the bigger point is that artists, culinary or otherwise, have 

the power to grab the attention of the masses, and with such power comes a duty. I’m not 

suggesting that I am a great artist. Just that I have a platform. So, I intend to use it. 

With that in mind, I will use this food column to point out injustice when I see it. 

And sadly, I see a lot of it. We are being inundated with propaganda from all sides, 

so it behooves us to sift out what is real, and what is fake. But that isn’t always easy, 

because the fake stuff is often more appealing. 

Velveeta, for instance, might be attractive to less-educated cheese connoisseurs. 

It is creamy and smooth and is utilized in many All-American dishes that are often 

described as “safe” and “comfortable.” And its bright orange color is certainly eyecatching. 

But it isn’t cheese. It’s “cheese food” and is so highly processed that it doesn’t 

require refrigeration, which is never good. The same is true with cheese in a can, and 

58 | ARROYO | 03.17

the stuff they extrude onto your nachos at the ballpark. But please, don’t be lured by 

its viscosity. It is evil. And while it is an unabashedly American product, it will not 

serve us well, nutritionally. It also makes us the laughingstock of the International 

Cheese Community. 

Similarly, oat bran once promised to Make Your Diet Great Again. Every 

conceivable product jumped on the bandwagon, and Americans were led blindly into 

an all-out high-fiber war. Products without the oat bran label were deemed unhealthy 

and were shunned by consumers. What they didn’t mention is that adding oat bran 

to your Cap’n Crunch did not Drain the Swamp of other nutritionally corrupt effects. 

There was still a ton of sugar and preservatives. Sadly, we didn’t learn from this, and 

we repeatedly fall for the outrageous claims, whether they be in the guise of wholegrain, 

all-natural or sugar-free. A sugar-free, whole-grain Oreo will still make you 

fat. No slogan will ever change that. 

Low-fat foods are also dangerous. Paranoid, reactionary organizations warned 

of the dangers of fat. They told us that it was bad, and that we should ban it from 

our diets. But there were consequences of such a ban. Anxiety over the dangers of 

fat led to a plethora of products containing processed fat. But they failed to warn us 

that, although these foods had reduced levels of cholesterol, they contained processed 

fat replacements which had their own problems and led to extreme weight gain and 

chronic disease. That there is evil in fat, it turns out, was an alternative fact. But 

alternative facts, no matter how ridiculous, can lead to panic and, as a result, those 

products that already felt marginalized by their fat content suffered even more. 

What we must realize is that fat is good for us. We need fat in our diet to keep our 

communities strong. Some of the most deliciously healthful foods are those with fat. 

Our country was built with the help of fat, and it is fat that makes America strong. 

Diversity in our diet is imperative for national health. 

If our leaders can’t remember where we failed in the past, perhaps they should 

take a look at the history of grocers’ shelves. |||| 

Velveeta-Free, Low-Fiber, High-Fat 

Mac ’n’ Cheese 

Macaroni and cheese is generally considered to be a comfort food, a foodie term I find exceedingly 

annoying. Translated into plainspeak, comfort food is a fattening, high-carb, nap-inducing 

food that you generally turn to when it’s time to eat your feelings. FYI —I’m currently having 

a lot of feelings. 

INGREDIENTS 

1 pound macaroni noodles (or try shells, 

bow-ties or ziti) 

4 tablespoons butter, divided 

½ yellow onion, chopped 

1 stalk celery, chopped 

½ teaspoon dried thyme 

2 tablespoons fl our 

1½ cup milk 

¾ pound Italian fontina, Gouda or 

Muenster cheese, grated 

½ pound yellow or white cheddar cheese, 

grated 

2 cups bread crumbs 

¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated 

1 tablespoon herbes de Provence, or dried 

thyme 

METHOD 

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and stir, bringing it back to the boil. Cook for 

5 to 10 minutes, until the noodles are half-cooked. Drain noodles, cover with cold water to stop the 

cooking and set aside. 

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium-high 

heat. Add onions, celery and thyme, and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and translucent. 

Add the flour and stir until all is well coated, then cook another minute until the fl our begins to brown. 

Add the milk slowly, stirring out any lumps as you go. Cook until the sauce is thick, then strain into a 

large baking dish, and discard the vegetables. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste, then add 

the cheese and stir until mostly melted. 

3. Add the macaroni, and stir until well coated. Mix the breadcrumbs with Parmesan and herbes. 

Spread the mac evenly in baking dish and top with crumbs. Dot the top with remaining butter, then bake 

until golden brown, about 20 minutes. 

Leslie Bilderback is a certifi ed master baker, chef and cookbook author. She lives in 

South Pasadena and teaches her techniques online at culinarymasterclass.com. 

03.17 | ARROYO | 59

THE LIST 

A SELECTIVE PREVIEW OF UPCOMING EVENTS 

COMPILED BY JOHN SOLLENBERGER 

Music and 

Comedy Rule 

The Rose 

Here are a few highlights 

of The Rose’s 

March schedule: 

March 3 — Comedian, bestselling author 

and actor Louie Anderson (above), 

an Emmy-winner for his role as the 

mother of Zach Galifi anakis on FX’s edgy 

black comedy series Baskets, performs. 

Tickets range from $28 to $44. 

March 4 — The Spinners present their 

sophisticated, uptempo R&B and precision 

choreography. Their ’70s hits include 

“Then Came You,” “Could It Be I’m Falling 

in Love,” “I’ll Be Around” and “One 

of a Kind.” Tickets are $44 to $74. 

March 24 — The Tubes blend rock, art, 

trash and comedy in their highly visual 

stage show. Tickets are $24 to $38. 

Doors for all shows open at 6 p.m. and 

headliners perform at 9 p.m. at The Rose, 

245 E. Green St., Pasadena. Call (888) 

645-5006 or visit roseconcerts.com. 

Cherries Blossom 

at Descanso 

March 4, 5, 11 and 

12 — Descanso 

Gardens’ annual 

Cherry Blossom Festival runs from 10 a.m. 

to 4 p.m. for two weekends this month. 

Activities include live music, origami 

workshops, cherry blossom walks, educational 

tables about cherry trees and 

related plants and Japanese-infl uenced 

food at the Camellia Lounge. Highlights 

include cherry tree sales from 10 a.m. 

to 4 p.m. March 4 and 5 only, jazzy 

Japanese folk music by Minyo Station 

at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. March 4, June 

Kuramoto performing on the koto at 

11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. March 5 and taiko 

drumming by On Ensemble at 11 a.m., 

1 and 3 p.m. March 11 and 12. Free with 

regular Descanso admission of $9, $6 for 

seniors and students and $4 for children 

5 to 12; members and children 4 and 

younger are admitted free. 

Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso 

Dr., La Cañada Flintridge. Call (818) 

949-4200 or visit descansogardens.org. 

Three New California Art 

Shows Open 

March 5 — Three new exhibitions opening 

today explore the worlds of painting, 

FAMED VIOLINIST 

ANCHORS COLBURN 

BENEFIT 

March 18 — The Colburn School’s annual benefit, “A Taste of Colburn,” honors 

world-renowned violinist Anne Akiko Meyers (above) with the Distinguished 

Alumni Award, on the school’s campus in downtown L.A. Meyers has kept a busy 

touring schedule for some three decades, performing recitals, as guest soloist for 

many of the world’s top orchestras, online and on television and radio. The event 

also recognizes Alice and Joe Coulombe as civic honorees for their philanthropic 

and community contributions. Alice Coulombe is a community volunteer, former 

chair of the Pasadena Arts Commission and a member of the City Centennial 

Committee. The event starts at 5 p.m. with live music and food service; a music 

performance by Colburn Community School students starts at 7:30 p.m. in the 

school’s Zipper Hall. Tickets cost $150 ($50 for children). 

The Colburn School is located at 200 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Visit colburnschool.edu/ 

tasteofcolburn. 

sculpture and printmaking through 

Aug. 6. Interstitial, curated by John 

David O’Brien, features sculptures by 

seven L.A.-based artists. The title refers 

to the space between the memories 

of objects’ conventional functions and 

their abrupt, unexpected presences 

as artworks in the museum. Gustave 

Baumann in California displays the 

artist’s affi nity for the country’s natural 

landscape and the intricate elements of 

PHOTO: Molina Visuals 

his unique approach to printmaking. The 

Golden Twenties: Portraits and Figure 

Paintings by Joseph Kleitsch is the fi rst 

museum exhibition to focus on the work 

of the portraitist and California Impressionist 

who depicted people that helped 

shape Southern California during the 

tumultuous 1920s. 

The Pasadena Museum of California Art 

is located at 490 E. Union St., Pasadena. 

Call (626) 568-3665 or visit pmcaonline.org. 

L.A. Chamber 

Orchestra Hosts 

Gala, New Work 

March 2 — The L.A. 

Chamber Orchestra 

(LACO) presents its Baroque Conversations 

series at 7:30 p.m. at the Colburn 

School’s Zipper Concert Hall. The concert 

features 17-year-old Dutch recorder 

virtuoso Lucie Horsch performing a 

program of Vivaldi, Handel, Purcell and 

Sammartini, conducted by Grammywinning 

conductor and early music 

specialist Stephen Stubbs. Ticket prices 

start at $58. 

Zipper Concert Hall is located at 200 S. 

Grand Ave., L.A. 

March 18 — The orchestra performs the 

West Coast premiere of a new commissioned 

work by composer Julia Adolphe, 

plus music by Handel, Mozart, Mahler 

and Brahms, at 8 p.m. at Glendale’s 

Alex Theatre, repeating at 7 p.m. March 

19 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Jeffrey Kahane 

conducts. Featured soloists are mezzosoprano 

Sasha Cooke and pianist Jon 

Kimura Parker. Ticket prices start at $27. 

The Alex Theatre is located at 216 N. 

Brand Blvd., Glendale. 

March 25 — LACO’s annual gala 

fundraiser, “All in LA,” celebrates Music 

Director Jeffrey Kahane (above), who 

steps down at the end of this season 

after a 20-year stint, and board member 

and former Executive Director Ruth 

Eliel starting at 6 p.m. at the Millennium 

Biltmore Hotel. Ticket prices start at $750. 

Proceeds benefi t the orchestra’s artistic 

and education activities. 

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel is located 

at 506 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Call (213) 622- 

7001 or visit laco.org. 

Moorish Music on 

Caltech Menu 

March 10 — Mauritanian 

star Noura 

Mint Seymali (left) 

performs a concert 

of Moorish griot music, a type of Saharan 

and West African music that speaks to 

the emerging realities of the region’s 

youth culture, at 8 p.m. in Caltech’s 

Beckman Auditorium. Tickets cost $25, 

$10 for youth high school age and 

younger. 

Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium is located 

on Michigan Avenue south of Del Mar 

60 | ARROYO | 03.17

Boulevard, Pasadena. Call (626) 395-4652 

or visit events.caltech.edu. 

Art Night 

Pasadena Returns 

March 10 — The 

twice-yearly Art Night 

Pasadena features 

free admission to 19 of the city’s most 

prominent arts and cultural institutions, 

including Armory Center for the Arts, Kidspace 

Children’s Museum, Norton Simon 

Museum, the Pasadena Public Library’s 

Central Branch, Lineage Performing Arts 

Center, the Pasadena Conservatory of 

Music, the Pasadena Museum of California 

Art and the Pasadena Museum of 

History. Activities include exhibition tours, 

live music and dance performances, 

from 6 to 10 p.m. Free shuttles connect 

the venues. 

Visit artnightpasadena.org. 

O’Neill Play 

Opens at A Noise 

Within 

March 11 — Ah, 

Wilderness! by 

Eugene O’Neill, a rare comedy by 

the Nobel-winning playwright, opens 

at A Noise Within. The coming-of-age 

story set on Independence Day, 1906, 

revolves around a deeply bonded 

family trying to navigate the youthful 

indiscretions of their wayward son. 

It offers a fond look at the past and 

a warm-hearted reimagining of the 

playwright’s own family and youth as 

he wished it might have been. Regular 

performances start at 8 p.m. today and 

continue through May 20. Ticket prices 

start at $25. 

A Noise Within is located at 3352 E. Foothill 

Blvd., Pasadena. Call (626) 356-3100 or 

visit anoisewithin.org. 

Symphony 

Presents Mozart, 

Mendelssohn 


Pasadena Symphony 

continues its season with a concert titled 

“Mozart and Mendelssohn” at Pasadena’s 

Ambassador Auditorium. Works 

include Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 

(“Turkish”), Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 

3 (“Scottish”) and Schubert’s “Overture 

in the Italian Style.” Nicholas McGegan 

conducts, and renowned violinist Rachel 

Barton Pine is the featured soloist. Performances 

start at 2 and 8 p.m. Ticket 

prices start at $35. 

Ambassador Auditorium is located at 

131 S. St. John Ave., Pasadena. Call (626) 

793-7172 or visit pasadenasymphonypops.org. 

Chinese-American Club 

Hosts Gala 

March 18 — The South Pasadena 

Chinese-American Club presents a gala 

at the Westin Pasadena, with a 6 p.m. 

reception and dinner at 7 p.m. Entertainment 

includes dancing, a magician and 

acrobats. Traditional Chinese attire is 

encouraged. Individual tickets cost $85. 

Preferred seating for 10 is $2,500, and 

premier seating for 10 is $5,000. RSVP 

to gala2017@spcc-web.org or visit the 

website. 

The Westin Pasadena is located at 101 

N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Visit spccweb.org. 

Native Plants 

Celebrated at 

Theodore Payne 


Theodore Payne 

Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native 

Plants hosts its Poppy Day Spring Plant 

Sale, featuring discounts on the region’s 

best selection of California native plants, 

seeds and Theodore Payne Foundation 

T-shirts, as well as expert advice from TPF 

staff from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild 

Flowers and Native Plants is located at 

10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley. Call (818) 

768-1802 or visit theodorepayne.org. 

Gala Bel Canto 

Honors Placido 

Domingo 

March 24 — The L.A. 

Children’s Chorus 

hosts its annual fundraiser, “Gala Bel 

Canto,” at 6 p.m. at the Millennium 

Biltmore Hotel. The LACC has a long 

history with L.A. Opera’s Placido 

Domingo, having performed with him in 

various professional productions. Jo and 

Shawn Libaw, former board members 

and presidents, will receive the LACC’s 

Rebecca Thompson Founder’s Award 


03.17 | ARROYO | 61

THE LIST 

BIKING FOR MS FROM 

ROSE BOWL 

March 25 — Bicycle riders are invited to gather at the Rose Bowl for “Bike MS: 

Coastal Challenge,” a fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Some 

1,500 cyclists are to ride to various local landmarks, including the San Gabriel 

Mountains, and return to the Rose Bowl. Cyclists may choose from 30-, 60- and 100- 

mile routes. Rest stops with food and drink options will be located along the way. 

Registration starts at 7 a.m. The registration fee is $60 and riders must raise at least 

$350 each. 

Rose Bowl Stadium is located at 1001 Rose Bowl Dr., Pasadena. Visit bikecal. 

nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?frid=28217&pg=entry to register. Email organizer Amy 

Dittmore at amy.dittmore@nmss.org for information. 


for their support over the years. The 

evening also features musical tributes to 

the honorees by some 300 singers from 

the chorus and five of its ensembles, plus a 

three-course dinner, fine wines and a live 

auction. Proceeds support LACC’s artistic, 

educational and scholarship programs. 

Tickets cost $375. 

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel is located at 

506 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Call (626) 793-4231 

or visit galabelcanto.com. 

Conservatory Launches Chamber 

Competition 

March 25 and 26 — The Pasadena Conservatory 

of Music hosts a national chamber 

music competition for students, with 

judging by an expert panel. Prizes from 

$500 to $5,000 are awarded to winning 

ensembles, and other competitors receive 

master classes with cellist Andrew Cook, 

Conservatory Artist-Teacher and Chamber 

Music Department Chair. Semifinal rounds 

run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (admission 

is free); finalists will be announced 

at 4 p.m. and perform 1 to 1:50 p.m. Sunday; 

winners will be announced at 3 p.m., 

followed by a reception for all groups. Call 

the conservatory for advance tickets for 

Sunday performances, which cost $20. 

Performances are in the Conservatory’s 

Barrett Hall. 

The Pasadena Conservatory of Music is 

located at 100 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena. Call 

(626) 683-3355 or visit compete.pasadenaconservatory.org 

for information. 

Shakespeare Classic at Pasadena 

Playhouse 

March 28 — The curtain rises at 8 p.m. on 

the Pasadena Playhouse production of 

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, continuing 

through April 23. This is Artistic Director Sheldon 

Epps’ favorite Shakespeare play, “a 

perfect mix of comedy, romance, beauty 

and mystery, and a great way to return to 

the tradition of the Bard on our stage as 

The Pasadena Playhouse enters its 100th 

year,” Epps says. Showtimes are 8 p.m. 

Tuesdays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 

and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $25 to $79. 

The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 

S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Call (626) 356- 

7529 or visit pasadenaplayhouse.org. |||| 

62 | ARROYO | 03.17

03.17 | ARROYO | 63

64 | ARROYO | 03.17

March 2017

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?