Content area
Full Text
Cal Tech may be famous in the scientific community for its research and training, but it is also revered by many in the architectural world for its handsomely arcaded Spanish Renaissance- and Mission-style campus. The romantic sensibility of the original master plan, developed by Bertram Goodhue in 1915-17, was marred, however, by garishly unsympathetic expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. No amount of lush palms and pistache trees could cover up the egregious mistakes.
In 1985, the city of Pasadena began reviewing major changes on the campus. A new master plan conceived for the school in 1989 encouraged additional buildings to reinforce the architecture and planning of the Goodhue vision but couldn't guarantee adherence to the proportions and delicacy of ornament of the originals. Then a proposal for a new biological research center came along that opened up issues of historicism. The lead donor for the center, Eli Broad, chairman of AIG SunAmerica financial services company and a renowned patron of the arts and architecture, wanted a "high design" architect. Broad, along with Cal Tech's president, David Baltimore, interviewed Richard Meier, Gwathmey Siegel, Robert A.M. Stern, and Pei Cobb Freed. Although this group is not outrageously avant-garde, only Stern could conceivably have "Mission" as his middle name. But Broad and Baltimore chose Pei Cobb Freed. "We were taken by James Freed's 'hybrid' architectural approach," explains Broad, alluding to the architect's desire to bridge the old campus to the south with future expansion to the north through the building's carefully massed blocks of stainless steel and travertine.
Pasadena's design review commission, however, wasn't sure that Freed's solution was fully in keeping with the spirit of Cal Tech's master plan, particularly since it lacked an arcade. The school appealed the case to the city council, which in turn sided with Pei Cobb Freed. Because of the firm's New York...