Pasadena Heritage at 30: A Civic Asset

In the mid-1970s, Claire Bogaard was serving on a committee of the Pasadena, Calif., Junior League that was studying what was being done to preserve Pasadena's cultural heritage and historic buildings. In 1977, alarmed that the city was planning to allow several historic blocks of buildings in the center of town to be demolished to make way for a shopping mall, she joined with Junior League colleague Katie Harp McLane and other city residents to found Pasadena Heritage, a private, nonprofit historic-preservation organization.

Although the group was unable to block the destruction of the buildings and the development of the mall, in the early 1980s it did successfully challenge the demolition of virtually every historic building bordering a strip of Colorado Blvd., in the heart of the city's original downtown, where slum-like conditions had become not just a local nuisance but an annual international embarrassment when the Tournament of Roses Parade passed through the district each January 1.

Over the next decade, after Bogaard and the new organization persuaded the city and its business interests that the buildings could profitably be reused, what is now known as Old Pasadena blossomed into a popular shopping and dining district that in 1995 won a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In the early '90s, the unique curvilinear Colorado Street Bridge, a city landmark completed in 1913 and threatened numerous times by freeway proposals and cosmetic deterioration, was extensively renovated after Pasadena Heritage led a 14-year preservation campaign. More recently, the group helped defeat a referendum that would have allowed the National Football League to move a team into the historic Rose Bowl football stadium and worked with city officials to ensure that a major seismic upgrade of City Hall would retain the building's historic features.

Learning the Ropes

Not all of the organization's preservation battles have ended so successfully. In a special election held in the late 1980s, it lost its campaign to preserve the historic Huntington Hotel, built in 1906. The group also failed to halt the conversion of an old theater into an apartment building and to prevent a homeowner from stripping the original light fixtures and front doors from the 1912 Greene & Greene Blacker House. After that 1985 looting, the group convinced city officials to adopt a Greene & Greene Cultural Heritage Ordinance to provide additional protection for the Greenes' buildings.

Pasadena Heritage has also taken other steps to retain endangered Craftsman-era bungalows. In 1984, it partnered with the city to move Gartz Court, Pasadena's oldest remaining bungalow court, rehabilitate its units and sell them as affordable housing. It successfully lobbied for another ordinance that enables historic neighborhoods to be declared landmark districts and helped the Bungalow Heaven neighborhood attain the first landmark designation. Many endangered bungalows in another neighborhood were preserved when the city agreed to create a special overlay zone that allows small businesses to operate in these old homes.

Political Savvy

From the beginning, much of the group's success has come through its ability to work with Pasadena officials. In the late 1970s, the group's early efforts received a boost after three pro-preservation candidates were elected to the City Council—including Claire Bogaard's husband, Bill, who is now Pasadena's mayor.

"When we started, we were looked upon as difficult obstructionists," Ms. Bogaard recalls. "Now the ethic of historic preservation is strong throughout the community, with the Colorado Street Bridge, Civic Center and other old buildings becoming part of the city's identity. It's a real sea change from the 1970s."

Executive Director Sue Mossman advises other preservation groups to become knowledgeable about the political process. "In many cases, decisions about historic preservation are political decisions," she says. "Preservationists also must realize that the press and public opinion can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You need to get the word out through the media. You also need to partner with as many sympathetic groups as you can. It helps strengthen your voice." Mossman and the more than 2,000 other members of Pasadena Heritage certainly have strengthened their voices over the past 30 years. "Our tours, lectures, workshops, endless participation in hearings and battles to save individual buildings and champion neighborhoods—all of these things together have really changed the perception of the community," Mossman says. "People now know that our history and architecture are assets, to be respected and valued."

Rebecca Kuzins

A Modern Artist's Arts and Crafts Legacy

"If I am going to eat off of something, drink out of something, or sit in something, it is going to be great design."
–Vance Kirkland

In a distinctive 1910 brick Arts and Crafts building on Pearl Street in downtown Denver, the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art preserves the legacy of Vance Kirkland, one of Colorado's most important modern artists. Established in 1996 by Hugh Grant, the son of longtime friends to whom Kirkland willed his estate, the museum showcases the painter's eclectic collection of modern and decorative arts.

Now brimming with 4,000 objects, the museum and a recently constructed adjacent facility feature more than 675 Arts and Crafts works by 150 designers and companies. American ceramics by Grueby, Teco, Van Briggle, George Ohr, Newcomb, Marblehead, Overbeck, Arequipa, Zark, Weller, Roseville, Denver Denaura and others are on view with American furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright, Limbert, Roycroft, Stickley, Eben E. Roberts for the Masonic Lodge in Oak Park, Ill., and Brooks and Lifetime by Grand Rapids. American metal is represented by the likes of Roycroft, Clewell, Robert Jarvie, Dirk van Erp, Oscar B. Bach and more.

Teaching Artist

Born in Ohio in 1904, Vance Kirkland was trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art. With an avant-garde style and use of color, his half-century painting career was highlighted by periods of realism, surrealism, abstract expressionism and abstraction. Known for literally immersing himself in his work, the 5'3" artist would often suspend himself above his massive canvases to reach the center of his paintings. He had arrived at the University of Denver in 1929 to establish its School of Art, and when he left the University in 1932 he purchased the brick Mission-style building on Pearl St. built by artist and teacher Henry Read. The visionary Kirkland started the Kirkland School of Art and ran the school there for 14 years until he returned to the University of Denver for two more decades. In 1964, he came back to the Pearl St. building—now a National Trust Associate Site—and painted there until his death in 1981.

Historic Collections

As executor of Kirkland's estate, Hugh Grant set out to share Kirkland's work and collections nationally and internationally. He established the Vance Kirkland Foundation and opened the studio as a museum in salon style, with rooms that offer a feeling of an intimate home and operate as Kirkland once used them, with much of his original furniture, rugs and dishes on display.

The original studio's exterior wall and roof tiles can be viewed from the main exhibition room of the addition, underscoring the museum's commitment to maintaining and preserving the original architectural integrity of the building. The 7,900-square-foot addition, designed in the Mission style of the old studio, with its brick archways, Frank Lloyd Wright windows and simple, elegant exhibition rooms, blends seamlessly with the 3,900-square-foot historic building.

In addition to its architectural focus, the museum has one of the most comprehensive 20th-century decorative arts collections on view in the nation. In addition to the Arts and Crafts objects, there are Art Nouveau; Glasgow Style, featuring rare works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh; Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshop); De Stijl; Bauhaus; and Art Deco, Modern and Pop Art. Examples from the development of Deutscher Werkbund (1907–1938) reflect the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement, emphasizing individualism in design and manufacture.

Along with displays of 100 Kirkland paintings, the museum offers a picture of 20th-century modern art and design as it might have been seen through the eyes of Vance Kirkland himself.

The Kirkland Museum is located at 1311 Pearl St. It is open Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday 1–5 p.m., and Mondays by appointment. A tour is offered every Wednesday–Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Admission is $6. Due to the fragile nature of collections, no children under 13 are admitted. Through December 9, the museum will present "Marecak Diptych: The Art of Edward and Donna Marecak," a collection of midcentury paintings, drawings, prints, textiles, ceramics and furniture from the Colorado-based artists. For more information, visit kirklandmuseum.org or call 303 832-8576.

McBigger

"McMansion" has become increasingly common in our vocabulary as traditional homes consistent with the local architectural style are torn down and replaced by hotel-sized, out-of-place dwellings. The term McMansion, coined for comparisons to McDonald's restaurants for their ubiquity and mass-produced style, seems even more appropriate considering statistics cited in two major newspaper articles:

From the Los Angeles Times last July, "Leveling Restrictions on McMansions," by Nicholas Riccardi: "In 1973, the median size of a new American home was 1,525 square feet; in 2006, it was 2,248 square feet." And from 2002, the Washington Post's Shannon Brownlee wrote in "Portion Distortion—You Don't Know the Half of It:" "As early as 1972, for example, McDonald's introduced its large-size fries (large being a relative term, since at 3.5 ounces the '72 "large" was smaller than a medium serving today)... But price competition had grown so fierce that the only way to keep profits up was to offer bigger and bigger portions. By 1988, McDonald's had introduced a 32-ounce 'super size' soda and 'super size' fries."

Both articles point to the fact that McBigger isn't always McBetter.

Gamble House: 100 Years of Wonder

In 1908, Charles and Henry Greene began work on a California home for David and Mary Gamble. Within 10 months, the architects and their master craftsmen and contractors, John and Peter Hall, delivered an Arts and Crafts masterwork that gave the Gamble family a splendid winter retreat and the world of architecture an icon of turn-of-the-century style. The house, crafted with 17 species of wood, leaded art glass and Greene-designed furnishings, and enjoyed by the family for 57 years, is about to turn 100. Its guardians since 1966, the City of Pasadena and the University of Southern California School of Architecture, have planned a celebration befitting a beloved centenarian.

Invitation to the Past

The long list of the year’s celebratory events and activities is being finalized. Among the highlights is an exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of History of objects, materials and photographs revealing the brothers’ lives, works and times. The Pasadena Museum of California Art will present an exhibition of historic art photographs showing Greene & Greene houses as they looked early in the century. At the Gamble House, a unique presentation curated by the Fashion Institute in Los Angeles will feature mannequins in period costumes that might have been worn by family members and their service staff. One major event, “A New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene,” at the Huntington Library from October 18, 2008 through January 4, 2009, pays tribute to the defining work of Charles (1868–1957) and Henry (1870 –1954), and their far-reaching legacy within the American Arts and Crafts movement. This exhibition, the most comprehensive display of their work to date, features 160 works they designed covering the breadth and depth of their careers. Many of the pieces come from private or institutional lenders and have never been seen by the public. They include stained glass, metal, textiles, drawings, archival photographs, wood-carving and decorative inlay designed by the Greenes and executed by the Halls.

The exhibition will travel to three additional venues after closing at the Huntington, allowing friends across the country to participate in the celebration. A major book with 11 essays will be published to accompany the exhibition, and a symposium will be presented. The Huntington’s education department plans events and interactive displays for youths and adults.

Echoing William Morris, the founding father of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain, Henry Greene once wrote: “We seek to make that which is useful, beautiful.” One hundred years later, the Gamble House is still both.

The Gamble House is located at 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena. For information about centennial celebration events, visit gamblehouse.org or call 626 793-3334. “A New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene” will run from October 18, 2008 to January 4, 2009 in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino. Visit huntington.org or call 626 405-2100.

A&C; Research Grants Available

The Arts & Crafts Research Fund, a non-profit organization formed by Bruce Johnson, founder of the annual Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference, is seeking applications from individuals researching topics of interest to collectors. The fund offers assistance with costs associated with research and the eventual publication of findings. Topics selected in the past for funding have included Arts and Crafts glass, leather, lighting and greeting cards; Gustav Stickley furniture-production records; the Arroyo Culture of Southern California; and Arts and Crafts of the Northwest. Applications are reviewed by the fund’s board of directors and announced at the conference each February. The deadline for the next series of awards is December 31, 2007. Applications may be requested from Bruce Johnson at bj1915@charter.net or at arts-craftsconference.com.