downtown buildings

Downtown buildings showing the multiple architectural styles you'll find there.  The flag flying Tribune Building is to the right.  The large lawn is part of the City Hall plaza.

Classic Greek

Quincy's City Hall was built in the 1840s in the classic Greek Revival style.  It was built with Quincy granite by master stone workers.  You can see a close-up of one ionic column here.  The crumbling interior  is finally being renovated.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Happy Skywatch Friday!

City Hall

City Hall reflected in three windows.  Linked to Weekend Reflections.

Camelot Where You Are, #12

There are castles all over Pasadena's City Hall, but I never noticed them until I toured the place with former Public Information Officer Ann Erdman. This castle tops the lantern in the front entry breezeway. I posted a photo of it the day after the tour. Sort of.

Mister Earl took the bait. But I'm telling you, there's more where that came from.

Thank you, Mister Earl!

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Get ready to vote this weekend for your favorite entry in this week's installment of the Camelot Where you Are photo contest! We've been having a blast and we've got more photos coming next week.

Each weekly winner receives a free copy of Camelot & Vine upon publication, which I plan/hope/expect will be in October. Publication day, whatever day it turns out to be, will be the final day for entries. 

Send in your pic now! It's easy to enter and anyone can do it.  

Entry details are here.

Pretty Hall

Just because Ann Erdman is no longer Pasadena's public information officer doesn't mean she's no longer a fountain of Pasadena information.

Yesterday, Ann led a group of local bloggers on a tour of City Hall. We got an earful of history and an eyeful of one of our city's most beautiful buildings, if not the most beautiful of all. In this photo I'm looking straight up at the lantern in the main entry breezeway. And I do mean breezeway. Ann says it gets windy in there, yet though sometimes this lantern sways quite a bit, it's original to the 1927 structure and has never come down. Yet.

There's something else about the lantern. I'm not going to tell you what. But if you went down to City Hall and took a closer look, you might see it.

Be sure and vote for your favorite Camelot Where You Are photo from this week. (The poll is at the upper left of the blog.) The winner will receive a free copy of Camelot & Vine upon publication. We'll have Zen Monday tomorrow, and follow that with more contest entries!

City Hall

A shot of City Hall.

Caravan of All Stars

The Bay Area Blues Society performs in front of city hall every week.  To raise operating funds they sell this t-shirt.  I got mine!

city hall amphitheater

A small amphitheater was placed in front of City Hall, which has helped it become a focal point for political gatherings.  The mosaics include a representation of the Jack London Oak, the official city oak tree.  Concerts are also held here, including weekly performances by the Bay Area Blues Society.  Other times people from nearby office buildings often come here to eat their lunches.

I'm out of town for a week and using the wonders of auto-posting.

Skywatch Friday: City Hall

We're enjoying fair weather; some days are actually hot.  These blue skies are representative of the last several days.  Maybe this year we'll have a true summer.  Leafing out trees don't yet obscure our City Hall.  When it was completed in 1914 it was called the "wedding cake."  It was also the first highrise government building in the country and the tallest building west of the Mississippi!   For other sky views, be sure and visit Skywatch Friday.

Granite Gem

This beautiful detail is attributed to the master stone cutters responsible for designing and constructing Quincy's City Hall in the mid-1800s. The granite came from Quincy's quarries and has lasted more than 150 years. The building's exterior surface is weathering better then the interior. Money is needed to update and make necessary repairs to the inside of this outstanding historical structure.

Happy Monochrome Monday!

Book & Bloomin' Blossoms

The cherry blossoms have bloomed early at City Hall Plaza. I have shared two versions: straight shot and "palette" play added. Which do you like better? I think the reader on the bench really completes the picture.

Shadow Courtyard

I've been waiting for just the right occasion to post this photo. There hasn't been one, so I'm posting it because it's Friday.

I took the picture last December when I was at City Hall with photographer Ibarionex Perello and his Digital Boot Camp workshop. (He's got another one coming up this month; I highly recommend it.) I don't know why the courtyard was so filled with people but it looked like perhaps a couple of school field trips were visiting. They sure had a nice day for it.

Merriment

That's me in the foyer of Pasadena City Hall, reflected in an ornament on the city's official Christmas tree.

John and I have each other, our home, work we love and a host of friends and neighbors we're grateful for. Boz is healing. All is well.

Happy holidays to you from the entire staff at Pasadena Daily Photo (me)!

Look Up

The Christmas tree in the foyer of Pasadena City Hall is a big one. We're looking up up up toward the ceiling. City Hall has an open plan; anyone can visit the tree any time. If you do, be sure to visit the inner courtyard, too. It's a nice place to sit and enjoy the fountain while you eat a sandwich or read your book or give someone a present.

Itchy

I don't know why I like to travel in the fall, but I do. All year long I'm fine right where I am, then November comes around and bam! I've just gotta get out of town. And stay out! You'd think the cops were after me or something.

Put me on a plane and send me someplace. I'm ready for an adventure.

The Particulars

Who: would be so negligent as to lose their library card? Uh, that would be me.

What: This is the dome of Pasadena's City Hall reflected in a window of the Central Library.

When: During the month of September, you can renew a lost library card for free. Usually it's $10.

Where: 285 E. Walnut St, Pasadena.

Why: Because I like it. Not the library card. I mean yes, I like the library card (or I will when I get it). But the picture. I like the picture. And the library. City Hall, too.

City Hall

Our City Hall on Independence Day.  Downtown is pretty empty on a holiday.  There were no parades or fireworks this year due to severe budget constraints.  And in your town?

Sweet History

Our fair city was incorporated in 1886. That means this year is Pasadena's 125th birthday. The big birthday bash is this Saturday, June 11th, at the Pasadena Museum of History.

Last year, for the 124th, we had a cake in the shape of City Hall made by the students at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. This year the students are in the process of topping themselves, creating an edible history of Pasadena in sugar and cake.

Saturday's free event at the museum goes from noon to 7pm and features "nonstop entertainment, activities, and refreshments." Certainly those refreshments will include some of that history-making cake.

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 7

Pasadena's City Hall is the centerpiece on our table, the hood ornament on our car, our Sunday hat. We like to flaunt it, take pictures of it, drive out of our way to go by it when we have out-of-towners in the car. "That? Oh, that's City Hall." I like to say there are no bad angles there.

We like it so much, in fact, that we kicked everyone out of it for nearly three years (2004-2007) while we spent a whole lot of money on a seismic retrofit. We aim to keep the place come hell or high water (the "big one" being most locals' definition of hell).

Who were the original architects of Pasadena City Hall?

That's this week's contest question. Once again, I've linked you to the answer. You might have to read a bit to find it, but it's an interesting article. Don't let it be said that I don't promote your erudition here at PDP.

Here are the rules we play by:

1. Email the answer to the contest question to me. There's a link to my email in my profile at the upper left. You have until midnight tonight, Pasadena (Pacific) time. Answers in the comments section will be rudely ignored but probably not deleted unless they're incorrect.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. I'll put all the correct answers into a hat and tomorrow I'll find a willing neighbor/stranger/sucker to draw the winning name. I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post.

4. PRIZES!
What is this, Week 7? Gawd, how many books have I got here? Let's see...five plus one minus two, carry the twelve...Eight. I have (had) eight books I've given away six, so it's this week and next week and we're finished. Let's make it snappy!

The books I'm giving away today and next Friday in the PDP/PPM Books Contest are copies of At Home Pasadena, a beautiful, hardbound, coffee-table book for your drooling pleasure. Designed by James Barkley and written by Jill Allison Ganon and Sandy Gillis, with photos by Jennifer Cheung and Steven Nilsson, the book is loaded with eye candy with sections on gardening, working, collecting--and an out-of-this-world section on bathing--all "at home."

Play to win today and come back next Friday, because I'll have one last copy of At Home Pasadena to give away.

Big thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media for providing us with all these fabulous books!

Skywatch Friday: roof tops

The City Hall cupola peeks out from behind a modern roof line a block away.  A half moon watches all.  As you can tell, we've continued to enjoy fine weather during the day.  But the temperature drops dramatically as the sun sets.  Rain is in the forecast for the weekend.  For more Skywatch Friday offerings, click here.