whyaduck
004_4_Plaza Pasadena Entrance, 1986
When, in the 1970s, Pasadena chose to redevelop its downtown, replacing most of three square blocks with a two-level enclosed shopping mall atop a four-level underground garage, there was some protest from citizens concerned about the fact that the mall, Plaza Pasadena, would block the north-south axis of Pasadena's 1920s "City Beautiful" movement-inspired Civic center, Garfield Avenue. The north end of the axis was closed by the Public Library, and the south end by the Civic Auditorium. The two-level mall would lie athwart the axis in the block north of the auditorium.
The developers came up with a plan which was accepted by the city, though it didn't satisfy all the citizens. The mall would feature a grand architectural gesture at the point where it cross the civic center's formal axis. It was a high-arched, glass-walled space through which the mall's second level would cross only on two thin,narrow bridges, minimizing the interruption.
In practice, the solution was less than adequate. Despite the airy nature of the space, the two walls of glass were as reflective as they were transparent, and the arched entrance to the mall became in effect the southern terminus of the axis, isolating the auditorium from the civic center's other Beaux Arts monuments. Though the monumental entrance was widely acknowledged the best feature of Plaza Pasadena, it had failed in its primary purpose of reconciling the modern mall with the classic civic center.
Less than twenty years after it was built, Plaza Pasadena was failing economically, just as it had largely failed aesthetically, and much of the project, including the monumental entrance, was demolished. Today, visually re-opened (though still closed to motor traffic), the Garfield Avenue axis of the civic center is once again terminated by the grand Beaux Arts facade of the Civic Auditorium. The open space is now the center of the mixed use project called Paseo Colorado.
But here is my snapshot of the entrance to Plaza Pasadena as it appeared in the summer of 1986, a few years after the mall opened. The view is to the south, but the street that can be seen is the reflection of Garfield Avenue running north. The Civic Auditorium a block beyond the doors is undetectable through the walls of glass.
004_4_Plaza Pasadena Entrance, 1986
When, in the 1970s, Pasadena chose to redevelop its downtown, replacing most of three square blocks with a two-level enclosed shopping mall atop a four-level underground garage, there was some protest from citizens concerned about the fact that the mall, Plaza Pasadena, would block the north-south axis of Pasadena's 1920s "City Beautiful" movement-inspired Civic center, Garfield Avenue. The north end of the axis was closed by the Public Library, and the south end by the Civic Auditorium. The two-level mall would lie athwart the axis in the block north of the auditorium.
The developers came up with a plan which was accepted by the city, though it didn't satisfy all the citizens. The mall would feature a grand architectural gesture at the point where it cross the civic center's formal axis. It was a high-arched, glass-walled space through which the mall's second level would cross only on two thin,narrow bridges, minimizing the interruption.
In practice, the solution was less than adequate. Despite the airy nature of the space, the two walls of glass were as reflective as they were transparent, and the arched entrance to the mall became in effect the southern terminus of the axis, isolating the auditorium from the civic center's other Beaux Arts monuments. Though the monumental entrance was widely acknowledged the best feature of Plaza Pasadena, it had failed in its primary purpose of reconciling the modern mall with the classic civic center.
Less than twenty years after it was built, Plaza Pasadena was failing economically, just as it had largely failed aesthetically, and much of the project, including the monumental entrance, was demolished. Today, visually re-opened (though still closed to motor traffic), the Garfield Avenue axis of the civic center is once again terminated by the grand Beaux Arts facade of the Civic Auditorium. The open space is now the center of the mixed use project called Paseo Colorado.
But here is my snapshot of the entrance to Plaza Pasadena as it appeared in the summer of 1986, a few years after the mall opened. The view is to the south, but the street that can be seen is the reflection of Garfield Avenue running north. The Civic Auditorium a block beyond the doors is undetectable through the walls of glass.