JANUARY/FEBRUARY  2007 - SPECIAL EDITION

 

City Hall Reopening - Special Edition

City Hall will Reopen this Spring

The countdown is on for the grand reopening of Pasadena City Hall! The building has been closed for a major seismic retrofit and historic restoration since summer 2004.
City offices will begin moving back between March and May 2007. With the exception of the Transportation Department and Housing Division, all city offices that previously were located at Pasadena City Hall will move back.

Community celebrations are being planned for this summer, including public tours, a free concert and more! Event dates will be announced in future issues of Pasadena In Focus, at www.cityofpasadena.net and in local newspapers.

A Little History

The City of Pasadena was incorporated in 1886. The first Pasadena City Hall was built at the northeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue. Later, city offices shared space in a mercantile store.

The existing Pasadena City Hall was built in 1927 to inspire a city with beauty, boldness and vision. It is an important part of this community’s rich architectural heritage. The firm of Bakewell and Brown in San Francisco designed Pasadena City Hall as part of a plan to construct majestic buildings in the civic center area. Bakewell and Brown turned to the style of 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, who had studied and admired the Roman architect Vitruvius, as did the California mission-building padres. Palladio represented the simple, serene, classical style of the early Renaissance, in contrast to the Gothic style of medieval times and the rococo style of the later Renaissance.

There were no seismic building codes in the 1920s, and even the greatest engineers of the day did not possess the technical knowledge available today regarding the reaction of large buildings to earthquakes. Though incredibly well built for its time, Pasadena City Hall suffered serious damage in the 1991 Sierra Madre and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, and city officials learned it would not survive another major quake without partial or total destruction and serious injury and/or loss of life.

Base Isolators

After a thorough analysis of seismic strengthening options, their relative cost and long-term protection of the building and its occupants, a state-of-the-art technology known as base isolation was chosen to safeguard Pasadena City Hall. Base isolators installed beneath the building will serve as shock absorbers during future earthquakes. The isolators will work in tandem with a moat that will encircle the building and enable it to “float” in any direction during an earthquake with its structure intact, producing gentle lateral rolling instead of the violent reactions the building experienced in the past.

Infrastructure Improvements

In addition to seismic issues, there are infrastructure realities: Pasadena City Hall was designed long before anyone could have predicted the future demands of air conditioners, computers and other modern technology. The retrofit project includes:

    • mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades
    • new fire sprinklers and other life safety systems
    • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades
    • elevator upgrades

Architectural Elements

Visitors experience a purposeful progression of exterior spaces as they enter Pasadena City Hall from Garfield Avenue, walk through the magnificent grand entrance with its barrel-vaulted ceiling and are embraced by the natural beauty of the courtyard.

For 80 years residents, architects and preservationists have stood in awe of Pasadena City Hall’s magnificence. No other building characterizes Pasadena’s pride in the same way. The architecture is significant not only to this community but to Southern California and the nation. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In a 2004 poll conducted by Pasadena Heritage, Pasadena City Hall was identified by visitors and residents as their favorite historic building in this community.

Not surprisingly, the exquisite architectural elements of the building’s interior and exterior have deteriorated and suffered damage over time. To the casual observer, the building appeared to be aging gracefully; but 80 years of wear and tear, weathering, earthquake activity and lack of consistent maintenance took a serious toll. Plaster was cracked and decorative elements needed to be cleaned, repaired and resecured. Architectural features including the lanterns atop the historic dome and the massive medallion at the front building entrance needed urgent repair.