CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL RESOURCES INVENTORY DATABASE
City of Pasadena
 
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Resource Summary
101 S MARENGO Ave
Resource Summary
Address: 101 S MARENGO Ave APN: 5722-012-012 [print]

This property needs to be reevaluated to determine if it is eligible for city listing or historic designation. *
 
RESOURCE OVERVIEW
Address: 101 S MARENGO Ave
City: Pasadena State: CA
Zip Code: County: Los Angeles
County Code: 37
Historic Name: Bank Americard Center Common Name:
APN: 5722-012-012 Zoning:
Building Sq. Ft: Site Size (Acres):
Year Built: 1974 Documented District:
District: Property Status: Surveyed
Resource Description:
Monumental in scale, the Bank Americard Center is a formal and austere rendition of late, International Style corporate architecture. Occupying a prominent 2.96-acre site bordering the Civic Center and Old Pasadena, the flat-roofed, 360,000 square foot office building is set behind a spacious open plaza. Built into a slope, the steel-framed structure rises to five stories on its west side, along S. Arroyo Parkway, and four stories on its principal elevation, facing S. Marengo Avenue. It is rectangular in plan. The bulk of the building is a colossal windowless box clad on all sides with a veneer of brilliant-white travertine, mounted in vertical and horizontal courses with matching veining. The main structure is thrust above the podium of the plaza on pilotis, wrapped in bronze-anodized aluminum; the fully glazed walls of the first-floor (lobby) level create the impression of a white box suspended in air. The voluminous mass of the building—angular, white, and imposing—creates a strong image on the street and skyline of downtown Pasadena. The plaza, paved in a rectilinear grid studded with 75 trees, a large circular fountain, and lofty flag poles, enhances the scale of the building and expresses the formalism associated with International-style commercial and institutional buildings. Subterranean parking (multi-level, 224,000 square feet) is beneath the plaza. Stylized ornamentation, originally applied on the north and south walls of the parking garage, has been obscured.
Legal Description:
RESOURCE DETAILS
Primary Architectural Style: International /Modern Style
Secondary Architectural Style:
Architect: Edward Durell Stone
Builder:
Contractor:
Context: Recent Past 
Original Owner: Bank Americard Center
Original Use:
Original Location:
Demolished: no
Notes:
Moved: no
Date Moved: n/a
Designation Date: n/a

* This is a simplified statement of the property's status. Please review the NRHP Status Code field on the search screen for official, adopted status language.