Southern California has fantastic botanical gardens and museum / libraries, but the real grand dame is the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, a tony area of Pasadena. Henry and Arabella Huntington established the garden and library. The mediterranean revival style library was designed in 1920 by architect Myron Hunt. The Huntington Art Gallery opened to the public in 1928. The gardens cover 120 acres and are themed: Japanese, Chinese, Desert, Rose, Shakespeare, Herb, Lily Ponds, Sub Tropical and more. Admission to the Huntington is a little more expensive than some of our other local gardens ($25) and membership starts at $159, but we have a work around! The Huntington does “Free Day” on the first Thursday of every month. You must reserve a ticket and these go very fast! Tickets become available on the first day of the previous month so if you want to go on the first Thursday of April (April 2), you jump on reserving it on March 1. Good luck, and happy walking. https://www.huntington.org/free-day
Neutra – 7 Things You Didn’t Know
The Glendale Historical Society “Icons Of Architecture” home tour is September 29. One of the featured homes was designed by Richard Neutra (1892-1970). Neutra is known for his Modern or Desert Modern architecture. When you think of sliding glass doors, well, think of Neutra. Neutra came to the US from Austria in 1923 and when you trace his story, you see how nature and the indoors/outdoors idea shaped his style. Here are 7 fun Neutra facts.
- There is a typeface named for him: “Neutraface” designed by Christian Schwartz.
- He admired Frank Lloyd Wright, and named his first son after him.
- He designed and supervised the first documented steel-framed house in America: Lovell House (1931).
- He was the first major architect to design a gas station: Norwalk Service Station in Bakersfield (1947).
- Neutra designed homes in some SoCal cities which might surprise: Camarillo, Bell, Bakersfield, Altadena, Northridge.
- He was once commissioned to design an all aluminum bus by the ALCOA company and White Motors Company of Cleveland. Nothing was produced.
- His homes have had a wide variety of owners, including philosopher Ayn Rand who lived in Von Sternberg House, a Neutra built in Northridge.
- Icons of Architecture on September 29, tickets here: https://glendalehistorical.org/2019-home-tour
- For more info on Neutra, go here: https://neutra.org/
