Frank Lloyd Wright, Millard House (La Miniatura), 1923. Source: City of Pasadena.
The city of Pasadena is traditionally known as a center of the American Arts and Crafts movement in the early 20th century. However, it also boasts an impressive collection of modern architecture tucked in neighborhoods throughout the city. Many local architects taught or studied at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Architecture, prompting the term “Pasadena” or “USC” style modernism to describe the post-and-beam architecture of the immediate postwar period. There are notable works by internationally-renowned architects such as Richard Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright, alongside commissions by prominent local practitioners such as Calvin Straub, Conrad Buff, and Donald Hensman, whose work had a profound impact after World War II. The tour includes stops at Frank Lloyd Wright’s La Miniatura, two residences by Buff and Hensman, and the home John Kelsey designed for his own family.
The tour is led by Kevin Johnson, principal planner for the city of Pasadena, and is organized by Christine Lazzaretto, managing principal at Historic Resources Group.
Lunch is included on this full-day bus tour.
$150 USD/person
Note: You must be registered for the conference in order to register for tours. Once you complete your conference registration you will receive an email with links to register for your tours.
About the Tour Leaders
Christine Lazzaretto is managing principal of Historic Resources Group, a historic preservation consulting firm based in Southern California. She has a Master's Degree in Heritage Conservation from the University of Southern California. Christine is the founding vice president of Docomomo/Southern California, and president emeritus of the California Preservation Foundation. Prior to joining HRG, Christine served as the preservation director for Pasadena Heritage.
Kevin Johnson has been a city planner for 22 years, the last 20 of which have been with the City of Pasadena’s Design & Historic Preservation Section. During his time in Pasadena, he has reviewed hundreds of projects involving historic resource evaluations and designations, modifications to historic buildings and design reviews for new development projects and has managed multiple targeted studies of many types of historic resources found in the city. He has also brought new technology to the city’s historic preservation program in the form of an online database of historic resources and its accompanying Historic Pasadena mobile app and managed a recent comprehensive update to the city’s historic preservation regulations. He has been the principal planner overseeing the work of the Design & Historic Preservation Section for the last four years and is also managing the Historic Places Pasadena: Completing Our Story project, the city’s first Citywide historic context statement and historic resources inventory in 30 years.