The Civic Center Financial District is a historic district composed of five buildings near the intersection of

Colorado Boulevard Colorado Boulevard (or Colorado Street in Glendale and Arcadia) is a major east–west street in Southern California. It runs from Griffith Park in Los Angeles east through Glendale, the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Arcadia, ...

and Marengo Avenue in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The Security Pacific Building and the Citizens Bank Building are located at the intersection itself and considered the centerpieces of the district, while the MacArthur, Mutual, and Crown Buildings are located on North Marengo. The buildings, which were built between 1905 and 1928, are all architecturally significant buildings used by financial institutions in the early 20th century. The Security Pacific Building, built in 1924, is an eight-story

Second Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

building. The building features an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

at its entrance and a

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

first-floor facade imitating

pink granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergrou ...

. The Citizens Bank Building, built in 1914, is a seven-story Neoclassical building. The building's design includes a terra cotta facade on its first floor,

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s at the entrance and between the first-floor windows, a

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, and a metal clock facing the intersection of Colorado and Marengo. The MacArthur Building, built in 1926, is a two-story brick building with a terra cotta front facade. The building's doorway has a two-story

Ionic column The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

on each side, and the front corners feature Doric pilasters. The Mutual Building, built from 1905 to 1909, is a two-story brick building. The first floor was faced in wood and

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

after the building's construction. The building's wooden double doors feature oval panes of glass. The Mutual Building and the Crown Building are connected by a wooden deck. The Crown Building, built in 1907, is a two-story brick building. The building's terra cotta facade was added in 1928. The second story of the building has a Beaux-Arts design with pilasters separating the windows, a

above the first floor and below the roof, and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

roof. The five buildings were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on October 29, 1982.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Pasadena, California Buildings and structures in Pasadena, California Renaissance Revival architecture in California Neoclassical architecture in California Beaux-Arts architecture in California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-NRHP-stub