"At the PMCA, we believe that the quality and excitement of the work that has been and continues to be produced in California is deserving of its own venue," said Wesley Jessup, Executive Director of the museum. "It is a rare opportunity and privilege to contribute to the planning and launch of a new museum that will set out to explore and clarify the contributions of California artists, architects, and designers in a national and international context," said Jessup.
Museum founders Robert (Bob) and Arlene Oltman are long-time Pasadena residents and art collectors. Oltman is a general partner of Space Bank Mini Storage, a company he co-founded 25 years ago. The impetus to build a museum devoted to California art grew in recent years as the Oltmans' collecting activities began to focus on artists from California. "We realized that there was not a museum in Southern California that was committed 100 percent to California art," said Bob Oltman. "The pioneering role of historic California artists, the vibrant contemporary art scene, and in recent years, the growing public interest in California art in general, led us to pursue this project."
In 1999 the Oltmans commissioned the Los Angeles architectural firm MDA Johnson Favaro Architecture and Urban Design to create the museum. Ground was broken for the building in December 2000, and the museum became open to the public in June of 2002. "With the Oltmans, we had the freedom to make a statement with a public institution that we anticipate will become a cultural centerpiece in the redevelopment of the historic Playhouse District," said Steve Johnson, the museum project manager and principal partner. PMCA, located just north of Colorado Boulevard at 490 East Union Street in Pasadena, is a 30,000 SF three-story, mixed-use facility. An open-air staircase accentuated by ever-changing natural light from an oculus above creates a dramatic entrance into the museum. The stairs lead to the second-floor lobby, 8,000 square foot gallery spaces, a bookstore, and a community room. The third floor includes a 2,000 square foot Founders?? Gallery and a vast rooftop terrace (4,000 square feet) that is accessible to the public during scheduled hours. The terrace commands a breathtaking vista of the 1927 City Hall dome and the San Gabriel Mountains to the north.
---www.pmcaonline.org
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Gardens are open daily.
---www.pasadenacal.com
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CSCA has fast become a respected culinary and hospitality school. Our expertise, along with the ever-growing influence of our graduates, is helping to set the bar for the future and beyond. Founded in 1994, the CSCA faculty includes highly respected, experienced chefs who have the ability to turn out confident and successful graduates. We are part of a small percentage of culinary schools in America to partner with internationally renowned Le Cordon Bleu - the leading authority on culinary techniques, training, and development for over a century.
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The Armory Center for the Arts is a community arts center that offers innovative approaches to creating, exploring, and presenting the visual arts to students of all ages. In addition to providing an outlet for contemporary art exhibitions and performances, the Armory offers studio art classes and a variety of educational outreach programs to schools and in the community.
---www.armoryarts.org
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The Mount Wilson telescopes transformed astronomy and astrophysics. It was with these that Shapley mapped the globular cluster system of the galaxy, Hubble discovered the expanding universe, Baade first recognized the phenomenon of stellar populations, and Adams, Joy, Sandage, and others established the empirical basis for theories of stellar structure and evolution.
Striving to push deeper into the universe, in 1928 the Carnegie and Mount Wilson astronomers persuaded the Rockefeller Foundation to fund a 200-inch telescope on Palomar Mountain. Title was given to the California Institute of Technology, which joined with Carnegie to form the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, a partnership that lasted until 1980.
Carnegie astronomers had long wanted an observing station in the Southern Hemisphere that would give them access to the Magellanic Clouds and the center of the Milky Way. The Las Campanas Observatory, located at a superb site high in the southern reaches of Chile's Atacama Desert, was established in 1969 to be home to the 100-inch and 40-inch reflecting telescopes. As light pollution encroached from the Los Angeles basin, the historical telescopes on Mount Wilson were placed in semi-retirement, and Las Campanas became Carnegie's principal observing site. The newest additions there, twin 6.5-meter reflectors, are remarkable members of the latest generation of giant telescopes.
---www.ociw.edu
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This exquisite 3,029-seat auditorium offers 2,000 seats on the main floor alone, making it perfect for general sessions.
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A 56' x 42' stage and sound equipment are available for meetings, benefits, and special events.
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The Gold Room, a 3,200-square-foot ballroom, is ideal for banquets of up to 250.
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Built in 1931, the Civic Auditorium is home to the People's Choice Awards and Pasadena Symphony. It has also hosted the Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards more than 25 times. The Civic hosts operas, musicals, and other events year-round. Group tickets are available. For details, visit www.ticketmaster.com.
---www.pasadenacal.com
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Architecture and Furnishings
Antique furnishings, oriental carpets, wood paneling and floors, curving staircases and an excellent collection of California impressionist paintings enhance the Beaux Arts elegance of the Mansion. The spacious three-story, 10,162 square-foot residence by the prominent architect Robert D. Farquhar was completed in 1906. In 1911 another renowned architect, Sylvanus Marston, designed a two-story concrete addition, which includes a study and laboratory space on the ground floor and a solarium and studio/gallery upstairs.
From Cultural Gatherings to Consulate...
Once a gathering place for Pasadena's glittering social and cultural life, the Mansion later became the first Finnish Consulate in the Western United States. In addition, the legendary film director D.W. Griffith used the beautiful house and gardens as a film location in 1912, becoming the first of many to recognize it as a perfect setting when aristocratic elegance is required. Among the Mansion's more familiar credits are Peter Sellers' satirical masterpiece, Being There (1979) and the Emmy-award-winning Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977), in which it played the "role" of the White House.
The Fenyes Mansion was designated a Pasadena Cultural Heritage Landmark in 1965 and a California Point of Historical Interest in 1993. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
---www.pasadenahistory.org
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The stadium is the proud home of UCLA Bruin Football, Fourth of July celebrations, concerts, religious services, filmings and the world's largest flea market (R.G. Canning).
---www.rosebowlstadium.com
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The restaurant exclusively features specially selected and aged USDA prime beef. In addition, there are live Maine lobsters, Alaskan king crab, fresh seafood, double-cut lamb chops, pork, veal and rotisserie.
While enjoying the stylish, contemporary craftsman motif, the discriminating diner can select from an extensive wine list (recipient of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence) or enjoy one of the many premium single-malt Scotches or martinis.
There is also a patio for dining.
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On one elevated wing of the hall stands a handmade Petrof grand piano, on the opposite wing a Taiko drum crafted by the famed drum atelier Asano. The placement of these two percussion instruments, each examples of excellent craftsmanship in the eastern and the western traditions, embody the harmony of diverse cultural expressions that is both Shumei's goal and the American experience at its best. Six stained glass windows flanking the sides of the hall lend this contemporary structure color and warmth.
Circular in design, the hall has curvilinear ancillary areas and a ceiling that sweeps upward in a billowing wave to a height of 45 feet. The hall has permanent seating for 308 with five seating areas to accommodate people with special needs. The elevated wings on either side of the hall can comfortably accommodate an additional 200 people with moveable seating. Shumei Hall, Pasadena, is equipped with an audio system and room for sound reinforcement and record
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That could be the motto of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Trailblazing has been the business of JPL since it was established by the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s. America's first satellite, Explorer 1, was created at JPL. In the decades that followed, we sent the first robotic craft to the Moon and out across the solar system, reconnoitering all of the planets except one. Pushing the outer edge of exploration, in fact, is the reason JPL exists as a NASA laboratory.
In that spirit, this is an exceptionally busy period for JPL in laying new paths. The comet-chasing spacecraft Stardust sent a capsule that successfully landed in Utah in January, carrying a cargo of dust samples it collected when it flew by comet Wild 2 last year. The Deep Impact spacecraft scored a phenomenal success last summer when it blasted a crater in the nucleus of comet Tempel 1, revealing for the first time the inner stuff of these ancient wayfarers of the solar system. The flagship explorer Cassini continues its looping orbits of Saturn, scrutinizing the ringed planet and its moons, including the haze-shrouded Titan. Like the alkaline batteries that don't give up, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers carry on in their ambles across the surface of Mars, probing rocks for signs of water in the planet's past -- far beyond the mission they were originally designed for. They were recently joined at the Red Planet by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Voyagers are exploring the edge of our solar system.
Closer to home, a contingent of Earth-orbiting satellites monitors the lands, oceans and atmosphere of our own planet. When CloudSat is launched this year, it will join a number of JPL satellites and instruments returning important information on topics ranging from atmospheric ozone to El Nino events. And yet another collection of explorers is looking far beyond the solar system to search for Earth-like planets and understand the history of distant galaxies. These include the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, as well as ground-based projects such as JPL instruments on the Keck Telescope in Hawaii. In total, JPL has 18 spacecraft and five instruments arrayed across the solar system. All these missions are part of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, designed to explore Earth and space and to send robots and humans to explore the Moon, Mars and beyond.
These ventures would not be possible without NASA's Deep Space Network, also managed by JPL. This international network of antenna complexes on several continents serves as the communication gateway between distant spacecraft and the Earth-based teams that guide them.
While carrying out these exploration missions, JPL also conducts a number of space technology demonstrations in support of national security and develops technologies for uses on Earth in fields from public safety to medicine, capitalizing on NASA's investment in space technology.
JPL is a NASA center staffed and managed for the government by a leading private university, Caltech -- and thus we are known as a federally funded research and development center. I believe that this marriage of the government and university worlds lends us a wonderful intellectual infusion to drive our exploration efforts. Caltech anchors us in the world of excellence and academic curiosity, while NASA gives us the opportunity to reach for the stars.
Venturing into the unknown is not always easy. But as Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
The stories of these mighty things we dare are told in the pages that begin here. I hope you will enjoy your visit, and that you find JPL's website to be an inspiring and valuable resource.
Dr. Charles Elachi
Director
---www.jpl.nasa.gov
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Following this success, the Museum opened its doors in 1980 in Rosemont Pavilion on scenic Arroyo Seco parkland with long-term "hands-on" exhibits. Among other organizations, exhibit design and construction were the product of community collaborations with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Art Center College of Design and UNOCAL. Volunteers helping create the new museum included a Pasadena Unified School District superintendent, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory director and an originating director of the Princeton Junior Museum, all of whom provided expertise and guidance as members of the Museum's first Board of Advisors.
In 1981, with burgeoning support, Kidspace leased a larger and more accessible site from Pasadena Unified School District in the heart of Pasadena. Later that year, Kidspace Children's Museum was incorporated as a private, nonprofit children's museum with a mission of enriching the lives of children through an interactive learning environment that is fun for children families. Kidspace remains committed to providing exhibits and programs in the arts, sciences and humanities that promote imagination, exploration and discovery.
Over the next five years, Kidspace introduced participatory exhibits and educational programs that engaged and educated children in the arts, humanities and sciences. Quarterly themes, such as Homes and Habitats, Seasons and Celebrations and Children of the World at Play, provided focus during public programming and school tours.
By the 1990s, Kidspace had established its reputation as an innovative institution in the community. A new school programs coordinator met specific needs of teachers to coordinate curriculum with visits to the museum. In addition, campers enrolled in summer workshops and "Toddlers on the Move" provided popular and effective parenting classes and developmental play. The staff, with the energetic support of community volunteers and the Circle of Friends support group, produced a range of annual events, including the Rosebud Parade (a child-sized Rose Parade), the "creatively creepy" Haunted House, Critter Expo and the Eco-Arts Festival. This period of growth was charted by Kidspace's first comprehensive strategic plan to broaden its reach into the community, fortify its volunteer base and respond to the critical needs of the community's schools, children and families.
The continuing growth of Kidspace in the 1990s catalyzed plans for the construction of a new state-of-the-art museum that will house an interactive learning environment for 300,000 annual visitors. At present, active construction and exhibit design is almost complete on the new museum at the site of the former Fannie Morrison Horticultural Center in Pasadena's Brookside Park. Kidspace's new vision for the 21st century builds on its commitment to children and families to further its mission of enriching the lives of children through the exciting, innovative new museum, scheduled to open in December 2004.
---www.kidspacemuseum.org
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