Pasadena Public Art Mural @ Pasadena Towers

A Pasadena public art mural painted at Pasadena Towers on Colorado Blvd. & Lake Ave. I worked closely with CBRE (property management) to create a community focused mural at their parking garage entrance. This location also happened to be where my local Chase bank was. Therefore, I was very familiar with the parking garage as I used their garage many times! In the past, this mural location was originally lined with planters and some historical photos of the Rose Parade. This was a major intersection of Pasadena and along the route of the annual parade. I wanted to make sure to bring this specific tribute back into the artwork.

One of the main issue was that the surrounding environment had a lot of concrete and originally felt a bit cold. The main goal with the artwork was to warm up the space with color and make it feel more inviting. The mural would also provide some visual identity for the space and become a neighborhood attraction. The canvas was a bit of challenge since it was a very long wall over 70’ ft. and about 11’ ft tall. However, the public could not really step back to view the entire mural at once. Therefore, I decided to design the mural as a story board highlighting the landmarks and culture of Pasadena. The viewers would discover the different scenes from the Pasadena community as they walked along this pedestrian corridor.

First, I had to design the mural within budget constraints so I tried to maximize impact by focusing detail on the eye level imagery. For the bottom third of the wall, I created a mountain scape horizon based on the actual San Gabriel mountains. I actually used a drone to capture a clear shot for reference. Next, I drafted up a creative brief so the client could narrow down 5 unique images to focus on. Together, we decided on the following Pasadena related images: Colorado Bridge, Rose Parade, Rose Bowl, City Hall & a Peregrine Falcon (native bird.) I didn’t want the mural to feel too saturated so we used the negative space and existing wall color as the sky. This way, the mural still tied into the rest of the space.

Because I am a local resident to Pasadena, this was a meaningful project to me to represent my hometown! I took a lot of time to research and gather references for this mural. After going back and forth with multiple designs and color schemes, we finalized the artwork and added in a few more elements into the piece. We added some roses for the rose city as well as some oranges to pay tribute to the historic orange orchards here. Lastly, we incorporated some bees into the mural near the roses since there was actually an active bee hive on the roof. Pasadena Towers actually makes their own honey and they gifted me some of it! It’s such a great story and it’s awesome to share some of this knowledge through the mural.

A lot of people don’t realize how much prep work goes into creating a mural. Once the design process was completed, I needed at least a month to scale up and break down the artwork. In addition, I also had to order a lot of the supplies and colors. A special thanks to the local Pasadena Sherwin Williams and Montana Cans for supporting us on this project. This particular mural was limited to a palette of about 25 colors with a mix of both spray paint and latex paint. We used the top quality materials to create this piece and documented all of the colors used for future maintenance.

Once all the pre-production work was completed, we scheduled the installation of the mural. I assemble a team of 3 additional local artists to assist with this project. Together, we were able to work much faster to get the project done within a limited time frame of one week. After we completed the majority of the mural, we realized how empty a small adjacent wall looked. The client decided they wanted to continue the artwork and we added in some creative signage for Pasadena Towers and a little tribute to Route 66. We also added in the street signs for Colorado Blvd and Lake Ave that could also be used for way finding.

When I returned to get photographs of the final artwork, I ran into the bird handler. Every week or so, the handler brings his birds (Harris Hawks & Peregrine Falcons) to the rooftop of Pasadena Towers for pigeon abatement! Apparently, this is a common practice on many rooftops across Los Angeles. I was fascinated by his job and he allowed me to hold one of the hawks. The addition of the bird to the mural was a little surprise & tribute to him since he was off during the week we painted the mural.

This was a really fun project and I’m honored to be able to create another mural for my hometown of Pasadena, CA. I look forward to working with the client in the future to create more impactful murals in the community! If you’re interested in working with me on a mural in the Pasadena area, feel free to contact me and you can check out some of the other mural styles that I’m capable of here.