Plaza Las Fuentes Mixed-use Development and Doubletree Hotel

This mixed-use development in the heart of Pasadena’s historic district is designed to reinforce the adjacent City Hall as a civic landmark and focus of urban activity. The project includes 193,000 sf of office space, 80,000 sf of multi-tenant retail space, a 350-room hotel with conference facilities, two-and-a-half levels of below grade parking, two main restaurants, and three acres of public gardens with two freestanding garden restaurants. Civic axes and view corridors are carefully maintained and extended to link the new buildings and gardens to City Hall, while major uses complement the existing mix of public and commercial uses in the area. Buildings are shaped to form a series of courtyards in the tradition of Pasadena’s adopted Mediterranean heritage.

The project responds to two sets of scales. The street side straightforwardly respects the City grid and evokes older commercial buildings along a major boulevard. A continuous arcade unites the different buildings and creates a clear pedestrian zone. The garden or paseo side is carved away to create linked courtyards and frame views. Two axes cross at the central civic court:  one is an extension of the major Civic Center east/west axis and the other is a new north/south axis forming a paseo linking the office building entrance, retail courts and restaurants and extends through the hotel as a two-story promenade. The central court itself is the size of City Hall’s courtyard, and is the focus of the restaurants located adjacent. It is a companion space to City Hall’s court, and active counterpoint to the quiet formal garden it faces.

Associate Architect: Gruen Associates
Photography: Timothy Hursley